Page 133 of The Dollhouse

It was after the last class of the day that I caught up with Willow as she tried to hurry away. She was one of those people that started to pack up way before the professor let the class go; kind of rude in my opinion, but I knew why she wanted to hightail it out of there.

Willow didn’t want to talk to me, not after what she’d tried yesterday. Talking to me would only pour salt in the wound of her failure. Frankly, that was exactly why I wanted to talk to her right now, along with rubbing in the fact that Wyatt and I had plans tonight.

She didn’t notice I walked beside her, not right away. When I opened my mouth and said, “I heard you tried to come on to my boyfriend yesterday,” Willow finally realized I was near. Her feet stumbled to a halt, and I pulled her aside, out of the center of the hall to let other students walk by us.

The look she gave me could kill, but I’d grown impervious to her acidity. “Then you heard how he turned me down. Congrats, Zoey, you finally chose a dick that only wants you. I have no idea why you’re trying to take Wyatt away from me when you already have a boyfriend.”

“Oh, I have more than one,” I told her, and her jaw dropped down at the confirmation that I indeed had more than one dick all to myself. “And Wyatt knows all about them. Unlike you, I don’t lie. I don’t need to.”

She shook her head. “Are you done gloating?” Willow rolled her eyes as she added, “Trust me, it might be fun and flowers now, but sooner or later you’ll get dumped and come crawling back to Mom and Dad, and I’ll be there when you do to tell you: I told you so.”

“I don’t think that’ll happen.” It still irritated me to no end that Willow thought I couldn’t make it on my own. Even if I never would’ve met Roman and Carter, I had been making it just fine. Granted, I only had a studio apartment to my name, but still. I’d much rather have a tiny place than a mansion full of closets, each with its own skeleton.

“You were pretty confident in Bryan too,” she chimed in. She adjusted the bag on her shoulder before folding her arms over her chest. “Where is he, by the way? I don’t know if I buy the story you said.” Her words were laced with insinuations, and my blood started to pump a little harder. How badly I wanted to grab some of that yellow hair in my hand, pull her into the nearest restroom, and ream into her.

“I don’t think it matters what you believe,” I told her, cocking my head as I studied her. “I think you’re doing everything you can to not think about how everything you’re doing is failing. You couldn’t keep Wyatt, you couldn’t steal my boyfriend. Face it, Willow, whatever power you had before is gone now. You’re nothing but a washed-up bitch, and the world is finally starting to see it.”

Willow waited a moment before whispering, “I hate you.”

If we’d been close as sisters, maybe her words might’ve hurt. But we were never close, never friends. We never saw eye to eye on anything. Our parents had always held me to a higher standard, expecting more of me while babying her, and they had thought I would continue to date Bryan all because they approved of him—even though he’d been caught red-handed, or red-dicked, cheating with Willow, who, at the time, had been underaged.

But, with our history, her words of hate meant absolutely nothing to me. In fact, I only blinked at her, blinked and smiled, my heart long since closed off when it came to my family and this place. Fucking Hillcrest and its constant drama. I hated it. I hated it so much and could not wait until it was in my permanent rearview mirror, never to be visited again.

When I continued to say nothing, Willow added, “I’ll see you on Sunday. I can’t wait for the family to be back together again.” Her voice dripped sarcasm, and this time, I let her have the last word, letting her storm off.

Oh, she had no idea what Sunday would bring.

After classes were over for the day, I went home and showered. I curled my hair a bit, making its pink length wavy, and applied some body butter to make my skin even smoother. I picked out the clothes I’d wear, and all the while the day turned late, the sunlight starting to give way to twilight outside.

Roman and Carter paced the house, and they tried to have a quick fuck fest in my room after my shower, but I pushed them off. They could have at me all they wanted after it was done, after Wyatt had come and gone and we had what we needed. I didn’t want them to make me sweat just yet.

I called Lake a half-hour before Wyatt was set to arrive, hoping he would help soothe my nerves. I only enjoyed this because I knew it would piss Willow off majorly; I didn’t love doing this because I was a psychopath who had fun toying with another person’s feelings. I knew it was wrong, but I also knew sometimes it was better to ask forgiveness than permission.

Lake’s adorably dimpled face popped up on my phone screen the moment he answered, his grin instant. “Hey, Zoey,” he spoke, his voice like music to my ears. It looked like he’d just gotten off work, still wearing his hideous retail outfit even though he was in his apartment. “How was your day?” This was always how our talks began.

“Hi,” I spoke with a toothy grin, unable to help myself. Talking to Lake always got me giddy. Plus, I still missed him something fierce. “It was all right.”

“Did you talk to your sister about what she did yesterday?” he asked. I’d told him all about how Willow had ditched class to try to steal Carter from me, so he knew the juicy details. Lake knew better than to ask if Willow had apologized.

“I did. I think she’s going to try something at the dinner on Sunday, but I’ll be prepared.” I knew her games. And, anyway, it wasn’t like I was going into the dinner without my own weapon, so to speak. After tonight, I’d have a nice, long piece of evidence to show Willow, and my family, for that matter, just what kind of girl I was now.

Hint: she liked to show off. She liked to put on a show and make men get off. My parents and my sister had no idea the old Zoey was long gone.

“Good,” Lake said. There was a pause, and I could tell just by the look on his face he had more he wanted to say. “You haven’t changed your mind about tonight, have you?” Hope radiated off him, and I hated to tell him the truth.

But I had to, so I said, “No. Wyatt’s coming over soon, and then…” Then we both knew what would happen, so I didn’t say anything after that.

I sat on the edge of my bed, makeup done, hair done, clothes on. I was ready for Wyatt. Also ready to leave this fucking city for good, but one thing at a time.

“I know I’ve said this before, but just… don’t go overboard,” Lake said. “I’m with you no matter what. I know you feel like you need to do this, and I’m not going to convince you that you don’t need to stoop to your sister’s level, but just remember you are better than this. You’re better than all of them put together. You turned your back on them for a reason.”

I nodded along with him, wordlessly agreeing. And then, seemingly out of the blue, the upper part of my left arm tingled. A ghostly sensation right over the tiny scar resting there. A reminder of what happened at the Dollhouse, that I might’ve lost my life without truly getting closure.

That’s what this was about. That’s why I needed to do this. Shut the book on my family and their sins and do it on my terms, not theirs. Leave them not in a rush, but with logic behind it instead of letting hurt dictate my decisions.

“I know,” I said, using my free, phone-less hand to touch the scar on my arm. “When it’s all said and done, I’ll let him down easy.” Or, well, as easily as I could, given that I’d played with his emotions to get back at Willow. That’s why Lake was all quiet and thoughtful about this thing: he didn’t want me to hurt Wyatt because Wyatt sounded like a nice guy.

But that’s because he was. Wyattwasa nice guy, and he would be over very soon.

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