Page 57 of My Brother's Best Friend

They were just as bad as the students and spread gossip to people who didn’t even go to Redwood Academy and didn’t even know Alec and me.

Tears streamed down my face, and I held back a hiccup behind my hand. The comments got worse and worse as I scrolled, calling me an easy slut, a Redwood whore, asking me how much it’d cost for a night.

Everything.

Vera: You’d better not be all over social media.

Vera: I swear to God … I see you on Insta.

Vera: GET OFF NOW! YOU DON’T NEED THAT NEGATIVITY.

Deciding that it wasn’t worth it, I clicked on Vera’s messages and stared at them. I didn’t know what to say to my own best friend. This was my worst fucking fear. This shit was happening for a second time. After Spencer …

Spencer had fucking destroyed me. He had done the same thing, but on purpose. And while Alec hadn’t done anything, it still hurt. Whoever had hacked into his social media knew that this would put me in a world full of pain.

It wasn’t only that, but now, I was dealing with this chick messaging me constantly about Alec being hers. Not many people had my number, only my close friends and a couple of people who I’d had to do school projects with in class.

I had to find a way to figure this out. I needed to do something.

I didn’t know if I could deal with any more negativity.

And almost as if my life couldn’t get any worse, my phone buzzed in my hand, and Oliver’s name flashed on the screen.

Oliver: I got fucking detention, which means I’ll sit out at the next game.

Oliver: We’re talking when I get home.

With anger rushing through me, I hurled my phone to the other side of the room, watched it smack against the wall, then fall to the floor with a thud. I pulled my blankets over my head and sank down into the mattress, screaming into my pillow.

This wasn’t my fault, but Redwood would blame me.

Because if Oliver had detention, then Alec probably did too.

Alec and Oliver were Redwood’s two strongest hockey players. Our team would collapse without them in the next game. All chances of going to the playoffs would go straight out the door. If I thought people talking shit about me now was bad, it was about to get so much fucking worse.

“Why?” I cried out and stared up at the ceiling through teary eyes.

I didn’t even believe in a god, definitely not one who had created this shitty town, but why was this happening?! To me? I had tried to do everything right in my life, tried to stay out of the drama. But I fucking hated Redwood with a passion now.

I wanted it to burn.

Someone banged on the front door, jerking me out of my furious trance.

I glared at my bedroom door and hoped that they would go away. But it was probably Alec or Vera, who might have skipped school after I didn’t respond to her, or even Oliver, who might have lost his house key again.

The knock came again, and I trudged out of bed and toward my front door with my blankets cocooned around my body. After pushing away my tears, I blew out a deep breath, pulled open the door, and stared wide-eyed into the heartless eyes of Spencer Katz.

CHAPTER35

MADDIE

“Maddie Weber,” Spencer cooed at me, stepping into my house, uninvited.

I stepped back farther into the foyer, keeping space between us, and cursed myself for being so stupid and opening the front door without checking who it was first. This was exactly how white girls like me died in horror movies.

“What are you doing here, Spencer?” I asked, frantically racking my brain as to why he could be here.

He hadn’t dared to show up since Oliver had beaten up his ass until he was broken and bleeding all over our foyer last year.

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