Page 10 of Dangerous Play

“Best of luck, Ivy. You’ll need it.”

This time, I didn’t stop him from walking away.

Suffering through my classes was painful. The whispered rumors managed to get through every doors, even the computer science lab, where I spent most of my hours. Everyone, read Ander, thought I was crazy for double majoring in computer science and marketing. The two were polar opposites but I wanted to be employed after university hence I had to make sure my majors enhanced my chances. Marketing was just way too little in today’s competitive world where everyone was an influencer.

It was barely the start of the semester, but we had to pick up our last year’s final project and enhance it. I stared at my fundraising website I created taking running as an inspiration and collecting money for a marathon. Building something similar to Kickstarter from scratch was supposed to be impressive, but all I saw was infinite possibilities to elevate it.

Scribbling into my open notebook, I shifted in the padded office chair, pulling my legs under me. The air turned chilly around me from the aircon blasting. I enjoyed being tuckedaway from the world, especially after my yet another failed attempt to convince Max. People noticed me talking to him twice already and whispers were starting up from all sides.

Weirdly, despite this not being my plan, I should have been excited that people took notice as it might have made it easier to try my luck with Max again. But people at Westpoint were cruel. They called me a traitor, a whore, and some went even as far to call me a cheater, when it was Ander who cheated on me with my sister.

“Why were you seen with Maximilian Aarons?” Daisy’s voice came from the distance, and I removed my AirPods, before I turned to her. She stood at the door of the lab. She was dressed in wide-legged high-waisted light blue jeans that hugged her waist like a glove, with a tiny pink bralette, and a full face of makeup. Compared to her, my blue and white striped midi dress with a cropped jean jacket made me look like her mother. “And not once, twice.”

“Excuse me?” I asked her with an arched brow. “Since when is it any of your business what I do?”

“Well, you can’t just go around talking to the enemy, Ivy!” Her voice hitched, turning high-pitched, and I knew the words she repeated to me didn’t belong to her. They were coming from Ander.

It was cruel how life made me realize the abuse and terror I was in by watching my sister repeat the same mistakes.

“You can tell your boyfriend he has nothing to worry about.”

I pressed the wordyour, making her flinch.

“It’s me. I was genuinely worried about you. I don’t want you to get your heart broken or worse… people are already hard on you.”

If she was so worried about my reputation, she wouldn’t have fucked my boyfriend on our family vacation. I knew it was allAnder, but I couldn’t help but blame her too. Hookups required two people, after all.

“Thanks for your concern, but I’m fine.”

“You aren’t. People say you are pregnant with Aarons’s child,” she repeated one of the stupid rumors that started up from me wearing my dress this morning. Clearly, I would be pregnant and showing from talking to him yesterday. I started to understand why Max ignored rumors and didn’t engage.

“They are also saying since I lost out on one captain, I am looking to replace him with another,” I mocked.

“You know, it’s not your fault. You just weren’t good enough for him.”

There it was. The overused word from Ander that he always reminded me of.

You are not hot enough.

You are not smart enough.

There was always something I wasn’t enough for him.

Every time I did something, his voice reminded me of it in the back of my head. It taunted me, holding me back.

Somewhere in the past two years, I forgot my worth.

“I’m just worried about you,” Daisy went on. “I don’t want you to make a mistake and make things more complicated for you.”

“How would you know how it is for me?” I tilted my head, letting my messy bun tilt on top of my head. “You weren’t here last year. You have no idea about anything. All you know is what Ander filled your head with.”

My sister flinched, as if my words caused her pain, but I couldn’t find it in me to care. I was deeply hurt by her actions over the summer and how she handled everything between us. She didn’t act like a sister, and I knew she wanted to show everyone she was a big girl and show for herself that she got the most popular guy on campus, but at what cost? She was willingto pay a high price just for bragging rights, and that made me sick.

“Thank you for your piece of advice, sis. But you can tell Ander, there is nothing he should be worried about. Kaia likes Dex and I was merely there for buffer,” I dismissed her with a tight smile.

The lie left my lips without having to force it out. And suddenly, I wasn’t talking to my sister anymore, I saw myself last year replying to a controlling boyfriend’s requests.

I hated the girl I was with him and how he turned me into a shell of myself.

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