If I’d have known, I would have worn my hair in braided pigtails with a blue checkered dress and ruby red slippers, really gone for the Dorothy look.
I smile faintly, amused by how random I must look walking through the halls with a basket full of baking supplies. I’m just passing the bathrooms on my way to homeroom when Mallory steps in front of me.
A frown flickers across her face as she glances at my basket. “What is happening here?”
“On my way to Oz. I’m hoping to find Anae a heart. Might be beyond even the wizard’s capabilities, but I’ll report back,” I tell her.
Shooting me a dry, narrow-eyed look, she says, “That’s ironic coming from you.”
“Is it?” I frown. “I don’t think it’s ironic. Maybe you’re thinking of a different word.”
Taking a step back and gesturing dramatically to the entrance of the girl’s bathroom, she says, “Anae would like to speak with you.”
My eyebrows rise and I shoot Mallory a doubtful look. “In the bathroom?”
“For privacy,” she says primly.
“No thanks.”
I take a step forward, but she moves in front of me again. “Believe me, you’ll want to see this.”
There’s a smug confidence in her tone that gives me pause. I glance down the hall, tempted to brush it off and head to class, but it sounds like Anae is up to something. I guess I can spare a minute to pop in and see what she wants.
The queen bee is waiting in front of the sinks wearing a white silk button-down with a tweed skirt and pointy-toed mules. Her secondary minion flanks her while Mallory escorts me. Anae smirks when I walk in, tapping something on her phone screen and then gazing at me like the cat that got the cream.
“What do you want?” I ask her.
“To ruin your day,” she says with feigned sweetness. Her brow furrows a bit when she sees the basket I’m carrying, then she seems to recognize it, and she gasps softly. “That little tart. She was making that for you?”
I don’t want to get Hannah in trouble. It’s clear it was for me if she saw Hannah assembling it this morning and me carrying it now, but I don’t bother verifying. “Can you get on with ruining my day? I’ve got class.”
Her eyes are still narrowed with dislike, but she makes a visible effort to shake it off and get back to whatever had her excited. “I guess low-class whores have to stick together.” As she says this, her gaze lingers on my neck.
I don’t know why until I glance in the mirror and realize, to my utter horror, Dare left bruises on my neck from his bites and rough kisses last night.
I lose a shade of color, but Anae doesn’t miss a step. Her heels click as she walks over to stand beside me—odd, in and of itself—then she tilts her phone screen so I can see it.
My heart drops into my stomach when the video she posted on her social media account a minute ago starts playing. It’s her and Dare in bed together. He’s shirtless. She’s wearing a skimpy white top that looks striking against her sunkissed skin. They look gorgeous in what appears to be her bedroom, lying together under the covers. They’re both sitting up in bed. It looks like they woke up together and are casually messing around on their phones as they while away the morning. His hair is mussed from sleep and he looks so handsome. He’s on his phone, but looks over to find her posing at the camera.
Text pops up on the screen that reads, “When you’re in bed with your boyfriend and he tells you about the fugly skank who sent him nudes.”
My heart bottoms out of my body completely. She smirks in the video and he reaches over, his big hand covering the camera. The video then transitions to the photo I sent Dare the other night of me in the panties he bought me with a caption above it reading, “Pathetic.”
My heart—and every other organ in my body—seems to halt. My soul rips free and flies away. I can’t breathe, and only dimly register the white text she added below reading, “Nice try, Aubrey. The boy is mine.”
She added the hashtags #weshareeverything and #couplegoals.
All I can hear is the beating of my heart thrumming in my ears.
She didn’treallyshare that picture of me on her social media… right? She’s not that evil.
How did she even get it?
Did he give it to her?
The video definitely makes it look like…
I can’t breathe.