Page 47 of Landon & Shay: Part One

She was the queen bee of our high school, and she wasn’t afraid to call people out as peasants. I reserved my hate for Landon, but sometimes, the way Monica treated people truly rubbed me the wrong way.

If Landon was fake, I was certain he’d learned his skills from the fakest girl of them all.

“Hey, Shay.” Monica turned in her desk to face me. She sat in front of me in World History, but she never went out of her way to talk to me. Normally, she was too busy texting nonstop to engage with the outside world. I always wondered who she was talking to, seeing how she seemed so bored by everyone in high school—everyone except Landon, of course.

“Hey.”

She eyed me up and down, from the top of my head to the bottom of my shoes.

I hated how she looked at people. She stared at them as if she was telling a joke and their mediocre life was the punchline. Then, she’d giggle quietly to herself before making eye contact once more with a menacing smirk.

“So, what’s the deal with you and Landon?” she asked with crossed arms. The gum in her mouth kept popping in the most dramatic fashion. Her lips were painted red, like always, and she smiled at me, but it didn’t really feel much like a genuine smile. It felt like a threat.

“What do you mean?”

“It seems like ever since you guys had that spin seven situation, the two of you have been…I don’t know. It looks like something’s going on there. I saw you guys hanging out by your locker a few days ago. You seemed…close.”

“Well, there’s nothing going on.” I glanced at the clock on the wall, waiting desperately for class to begin. I much preferred learning about the fall of the Roman Empire than talking to Monica about Landon.

Monica didn’t blink as she stared my way. I wondered if she ever blinked. Her eyes were always so alert and zoned in on her prey, as if she was ready to attack at any moment.

She combed her hair behind her ear. “I thought you said nothing happened in the closet.”

“Nothing did happen. Like I said, there’s nothing going on between Landon and me.”

“You don’t have to lie, Shay.” She laughed, flipping her hair over her shoulder. “I’ve moved on from him, and I’m hardly even thinking about him anymore.”

Well, if that didn’t sound like a bald-faced lie, I didn’t know what did.

She pulled out her tube of lipstick and applied more. “I just want to make sure you’re okay, because I know you’ve struggled a bit with your dad in the past.”

I raised an eyebrow. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You know…” She lowered her voice and leaned in. “With his jail time for drugs.”

A knot formed in my gut, and I couldn’t help but wonder how she knew that. Then again, she was Monica. She knew things. She knewallthings.

I cleared my throat. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“Well, because it’s Landon. Listen, it’s not my place to say”—that had never stopped her before—“but it’s no secret that he has a history of partying. Over the past few months, he’s developed a bit of a drug problem. That’s why I broke up with him. I couldn’t handle him spiraling.”

I raised an eyebrow as the knot in my stomach tightened. There were some things in life I could handle, but drugs weren’t one of them. It was a hard limit. “Oh? He hasn’t really shown any signs of that…” My words trailed off, and I shut my mouth. I didn’t see any reason to push the conversation, because at the end of the day, it didn’t matter. I didn’t want to get half-truths from Monica. I knew who she was, the vindictive creature she’d been in the past. Trusting her was like trusting politicians—it always ended in a bigger scandal than anyone wanted.

When she didn’t get her way, she acted out. She threw fits, made scenes. The last thing I wanted to do was get wrapped up in her and Landon’s world.

“Like I said before, Monica…Landon and I aren’t a thing.”And even if we were, you’d be the last to know.

“Okay, good. I just wanted to let you know. Us girls have to look out for each other.”

Yeah, Monica. You’re real Spice Girls “Girl Power” over there.

The bell rang, giving me a break from the conversation from hell.

Monica smiled brightly and with a touch of evil in it. “But I guess we’re in the clear, seeing how there’s nothing going on between the two of you.” She turned around, and before the teacher started speaking, she looked over her shoulder and whispered, “Plus, he has a small dick.”

Well, okay. Mark that down as something I hadn’t needed to know.

14

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