Page 21 of Cruel Devotion

Too damn bad. I’m not going to be a perfectionist like you.

Davina caught my attention, arching one brow as if calling me out on being a dick toward Haley.

I smiled, though, not in any mood to let anyone see that Haley had any effect on me. She’d never win an argument with me. Or the teacher, it seemed.

“The offer stands,” she said wryly, dismissing me to go back to my seat.

As if I’d take her up on that offer. It had been hell to work with Haley in the first place, and I didn’t want a take two of putting up with her nerdy highhandedness and insistence that we do the assignment how she thought it should be done.

I walked back to my seat, well aware that the entire class had witnessed that little show-down. Worst of all, though, was the sight of Preston smiling widely. He’d been in the audience, seeing first-hand how poorly Haley and I got along.

The smug bastard put his hands behind his head and reclined, likely pleased with the display of how bristly Haley was and how impossible this dare was that he’d proposed to me. He sat there happy and amused.

Fuck you, West.I glared at him as I returned to my seat.

His laughter came just as I sat, and no matter how much I tried to not pay attention to him, he was too close to ignore. Then he made it worse, getting up out of his seat to take the vacant one next to me. No books or papers came with him. A laptop wasn’t part of his things, either. I doubted the prick even brought anything to class, too used to having his influential parents excuse any bad grades he incurred from doing jack shit.

Some people just have all the luck in this world.

It wasn’t luck, though. Just privilege. One thing I never had much of.

“I called it,” he said, leaning over to taunt me while the class worked in small groups on the assignment while partners were called up one by one to collect their papers.

“Called what?” I muttered. Rubbing the heels of my palms against my face, I sighed and wished I could go back to bed. Or get some painkillers and water. Something. I had overslept this morning, too hungover and upset about what happened last night to resemble a human.

But my mom texted, then called me, over and over. Acting like I was ten, not twenty-one, she logged onto the tracking for my phone and saw that I was still in my dorm room instead of walking across campus. So, she called to bitch at me for still being in bed.

Some people had strict parents. Mine were something worse. They tracked me. They nagged me. They demanded answers for my whereabouts when I was somewhere they assumed I shouldn’t be, and they expected explanations for every one of my grades since they had online access to hawk on that too. It didn’t matter that I was an adult. Per their excuses, since they bought my used phone years ago and paid for the plan, they could access anything they wanted. I didn’t have a job, expected to just focus on my classes and graduate, so I couldn’t buy my own phone and be independent like that. The loopholes I’d tried before didn’t work. Once, I left my phone at home so she couldn’t see where I was going. Another time, I had Finn carry my phone around so it wasn’t stationary, but she foiled that by calling him and I wasn’t there to answer.

This morning, when she called and nagged and demanded to know why I wasn’t on my way to class yet, I was tempted to throw the fucking phone against the wall. Of course, I knew my education mattered to get a job. And yeah, I was aware I couldn’t blow this because they didn’t have the money for me to go to college otherwise, without keeping that scholarship intact until the end. I had grown up knowing I had to be an excellent athlete since, like my dad put it, I was “too dumb to count on good grades to make it far.” All because I wasn’t as fast or in love with learning like my classmates, they figured I was all brawn and no brain.

“I called it,” Preston said as my head throbbed. “Youarea loser.”

I blew out a deep breath, counting to ten. I had to stay in his good graces since he could make or break my scholarship being completed.

“You’re going to lose that dare.”

“No, I’m not.”

He laughed. “You already are losing it. You think you’re going to manage to get her to the dance? She can’t stand you.”

Thanks, asshole. Thanks for stating the obvious.

When Haley acted like she was smarter than me, though, I couldn’t stand her, either.

“There’s not a chance in hell she’ll look at you, much less let you fuck her,” he said.

Which was why he chose that for that dare. He knew how difficult this would be for me to pull off. His hobby of manipulating others had never been more annoying than it was right now. This wealthy, spoiled punk got his kicks out of making everyone else suffer, and I regretted going to that party at all.

“That doesn’t mean you can’t force her.” He drummed his fingers on the desk, as though we were making idle chit chat. “You could?—”

“Just shut up,” I grumbled. I wasn’t in the mood to hear this asshole encourage me to rape her. I never had to work for sex. Girls flocked to me.

But never Haley.

This prick knew exactly what he was doing, daring me to conquer her at that dance. I didn’t plan to go this year, sick of that scene. But now I’d need to revise my approach.

Ihadto go.

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