Page 102 of Landon & Shay: Part One

“What? I don’t see why we skirt around the subject. Isn’t that why Mima moved out? Or why you kicked her out? For speaking the truth. If we are going to scold people for acting out, maybe we should start with Dad’s behavior.”

That pushed him over the edge. His clenched fists tightened, and he shot up from his seat. “You have a lot of nerve, little girl,” he barked, flashes of anger in his eyes. He took a step toward me, and Mom leaped up to stand, stepping in front of him to block his advances.

She placed her hands on his shoulders. “Stop, Kurt,” she ordered.

He grimaced and his eyes pierced into me for a second before he took a step back. “Go to your room,” he ordered. “And don’t fucking think about leaving it until we say so.”

I hated him. I hated how he pushed Mima away. I hated Mom for allowing it. I hated that our house felt nothing like a home anymore. It felt more like a prison cell, and I wanted to break free.

I did as they said. I went to my room, and I lay in my bed, with no regrets of being there for Landon. He’d needed somebody last night, and I was glad I had been there for him when he needed me the most.

* * *

When Monday came,the first and only thing on my mind was Landon. My second thought was Monica, who I found creeping through my locker.

“What are you doing?” I barked.

She took a step back and slammed the locker shut. “Oops, wrong locker,” she hissed, giving me a tight grin.

“Why do I feel like that’s a lie? What were you doing going through my stuff?”

“Chill, Shay. It’s not like you have anything of interest in that thing.” She pulled out a tube of lipstick and started applying it. “I saw you were hanging out with Landon for his birthday. That’s cute. What did you two do? Play Checkers? Chutes and Ladders?”

“That’s none of your business.”

She tilted her head and studied me. “Did he show you his scars?”

“Like I said…that’s none of your business.”

“Ohh,” she cooed, tapping her manicured nail against her lips. “He did, and let me guess, you slept with him, too. Poor, broken Landon needed a good lay for his birthday, and easy Shay was right there to give it to him.”

“What’s your problem with me, Monica? What have I ever done to you?”

“That’s easy—you took something that was mine, and I want it back.”

“Landon isn’t yours.”

She huffed. “He’s more mine than he’ll ever be yours. I get it, Shay. You want to believe Landon isn’t the same shithead he was last year, want to think he has a new lease on life, but face the facts. He’s a monster, just like his uncle, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he ended up six feet under, too.”

“You’re disgusting,” I told her.

“Yeah.” She flipped her hair again. “I guess I am, but at least I’m not pretending to be something I’m not like Landon is. It’s all an act, Chick, and soon enough, the game you two are playing will come crashing to an end. Enjoy him while you can. Soon enough he’ll come back to me. He always does.”

I hated that she called me Chick, as if she had a right to use the nickname Landon had created for me. I hated that she felt as if she had a right to something that was so clearly mine and Landon’s. I hated that she pushed it off her tongue like venom to sting me.

I hated her.

Even though I had my opinions about Landon, I knew I’d never truly hated him, not to my core. I knew there was something genuine there, something somewhat flirtatious, but the truth behind the hate was pretty loose. A strong dislike, perhaps.

But Monica?

Oh my gosh, I hated her. I hated her in a real, deep-rooted way, more so than I’d ever hated anyone before—other than my own father. Monica wasn’t just cruel; she was pure evil. She did things to hurt people simply for her enjoyment. She went after people just because she could. She destroyed lives because she was bored. I hated the smugness of her personality, too, and how she seemed so confident she could get away with just about anything because of who she was and the money and status she came from. It bothered me to my core that she was so confident in her ability to wreck lives, in her ability to break people.

But she wasn’t going to get away with threatening me or trying to scare me.

For the longest time, I’d stayed out of her way and hadn’t pushed back because I knew how she was. I knew the ugliness that lived beneath her manicured nails and fake eyelashes. I knew the beast in her soul and how it attacked.

Now, I wasn’t afraid to unleash her beast, because it turned out I had a monster inside me, too, at least I did when it came to the things I cared about the most, and Landon was now one of those things.

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