"This is just a game, Madison. You have to learn to play it better." She looked defeated at my words. It wasn’t what she was looking for from me, but I couldn’t be there for her.

She took a moment, letting the words hang. "Don't come crawling back to me when you realize you've lost this little game we're playing."

There she was.

I laughed into the forest as I turned to jog where I knew the guys would be burying the body. There was my wild redheaded muse. The person who pretended she was a yoga-practicing, bubbly, preppy girl who hung out with girls like Cagen. She was not that person. She never would be.

Chapter Six

Junior Year – Fall

No one hated me more than I hated myself. I’d been walking around this godforsaken planet for the last twenty years feeling like an absolute fucking lie. At the end of the day, the person who went to bed at night was different from the person who woke up in the morning.

I wore a shield for everyone every single day because I hated the person I was on the outside. Last year, there was one person who knew I was a fake and not the bubbly person I portrayed to everyone. I was not a bimbo who only partied and fucked guys on the weekend.

Well, no. That person emerged not out of low self-confidence, but to uphold a carefully crafted image. The desire to be liked, to be part of a group of girlfriends, and to be loved drove those actions. Being underestimated was the goal, as beneath the surface lay a cold and conniving nature.

Until my old roommate's boyfriend, Walsh Solis, I had lived well in the lie I’d portrayed all these years. It wasn’t until thelittle fucker came into my life and I had to see him for almost a full year while he dated my roommate that I knew I was screwed.

I was never a cheater. My grandmother told me there’s a way to manipulate your way to the top. If you cheated yourself there, it wasn’t really making it in her eyes, but with Walsh, I was willing to bend those rules.

Last year at the stupid-ass bonfire I couldn’t stay to help Cagen. It was the one selfish decision I’d made in years. The crackling of the fire mixed with the warmth emitting from the bonfire the boys were crowded around sent me into an emotional spiral. I’d had to leave my roommate, who was uncontrollable in her pursuit in trying to somehow fix Walsh.

I had an inkling that something was wrong, and when Walsh told me she disappeared, I knew she was dead. I blamed myself for leaving her there, and I blamed Walsh for spending an entire year fucking with my head. He’d called me his, then fucked my roommate all night in the next room loud enough for me to hear. I didn’t know what his deal was, but I also knew he’d been messing with my head. I was over it. In those moments, I knew he couldn’t protect me from my own demons, from the trauma caused by my parents.

I’d told Cagen not to stay at that house, yet somehow blamed myself for not staying there with her. She thought she could cure him from whatever darkness lived inside of him, but he was unfixable.

So, in some twisted way, I found myself responsible for her missing, and I hated it. I would hurt him in a way that he’d hurt me. If he wanted a crazy-ass bitch, then I would be one.

I paced around the little apartment waiting for my new roommate to come by. Although my initial plan was to live alone, the moment I saw her advertisement on the school’s website looking for a roommate, I knew this would be perfect.

The front door chimed, alerting me it opened.

I cracked my neck, looking at my outfit, knowing I was about to put on my innocent act for the world.

"Come on, Madison," I whispered, pressing my T-shirt down.

"Is anyone here?" a deep voice called out.

"Coming," I replied, taking one last look in the mirror. If there was one thing I knew, it was that Walsh Solis would try to take me down when he found out I was his sister's roommate.

I grabbed the handle of the front door and opened it to?—

"Hi, I’m Walsh, Ember’s brother—" This wasn’t on my bingo card for what was going to happen. I expected I’d have to convince Ember to take me to her brother’s fraternity house a few times before I actually laid eyes on him.

That’s not to say I wasn’t happy, though. The quicker he saw me with his sister, the more he knew this was because of him—because of his actions last year with Cagen.

He paused, and there wasn’t an ounce of surprise sketched into his face when he saw me. I peeked over his shoulder to see if Ember was coming up the stairs.

"Where is she?" I asked.

"Fuck," he hissed under his breath before pushing past me and into the living room.

"I thought for a moment I was in the wrong apartment. You couldn’t have been so reckless as to answer an ad for my fucking sister, Madison." Walsh grabbed my wrist.

"My name is Maddy," I said coolly, playing into the fact I didn’tknowhim. I shook his hand, and the moment our skin touched, the electricity I remembered feeling last year was right there. He wanted someone who could play the same game as him. Well, here I was.

I didn’t expect him to be here moving her in. Although, I somewhat hoped he would be. He wouldn’t have recognized the building I was in since I decided on an apartment on the other side of Isles.