Page 251 of As the Rain Falls
“Oh please, Maria!” I snap before I can stop myself from doing so. Mateo pulls me back. “Get over yourself! There was nothing there to steal!”
“Did you have to do this?” her voice cracks, a tear spilling, making her eyeshadow smudge. “Why did you have to go after him?”
“I did you a favor!” I fire back, my fists clenched at my sides. Angelina’s hand lands on my shoulder, a quiet attempt at shutting me up. But I don’t stay quiet. The words just… spill. “Hewent aftermeafter you two broke up in October. Don’t you wonder why that is? He doesn’t actually care about you!”
“You’re lying!” she grits out, covering her ears and shaking her head side to side. “I saw the pictures you sent him on the phone! He told me everything!”
“Right. The pictures.” I smile, shaking my head. “And he’s definitely telling you the truth.”
“He came to me, and you didn’t,” she fires back, fixing a stray lock of hair behind her ear. “Because you had something to hide. Acting all sweet and innocent, but I know girls like you, Cassandra. I know what they can do when they see something they can’t have.”
“Okay, enough with the dramatics,” Angelina interrupts, her eyes narrowing. “We’re talking aboutCaleb Monteirohere.”
“Let her, Angelina. Clearly, she needs this!” I snort, my anger blazing, taking root as I steady my ground.
“The audacity. Cassandra, you’re unbelievable!”
Am I?
Or am I just easy to blame?
Really, what is it about me that makes girls take the other side?
First, Mom.
Then, her.
They never see me. I’m always the one at fault, the eternal provocateur. If this is how I go down, Caleb definitely deserves a point or two for it, just like Nathaniel did.
But try to slap me again, Maria.
And see what I can do.
I’m so angry right now that I might just ruin her relationship just for the sake of it. One text, and Caleb will come crawling right back to me.
“You’re such a slut!” she finally falls apart, and her sobs come out weak. Sadness isn’t what I expected of her. I thought she’d be ready to kill me for it, like physically. “A pathetic little whore. Caleb would never look at a girl like you. He wouldn’t. I know he wouldn’t!”
Slut.
The word washes over me, making my skin feel itchy and tight at the same time. She makes it sound like I reached out and seduced him, made him fall into my bed.
Apparently, that’s what girls like me do. We make it so that they can’t help themselves. He just had to have me, and I just had to let him have it. I couldn’t be stopped from getting fucked. I couldn’t stop them from wanting to fuck me, either.
“But he did,” I answer flatly.
“I hate you!”
She keeps going, her breakdown sending a hush over the crowd. People are more hesitant to join in this time, knowing the police got involved two weeks ago.
“He is mine! Caleb is mine!”
I laugh humorlessly, but it’s still a pathetic sight for both of us. Poor, poor Maria, who’s been nothing less than pretty and cool since getting her braces off in eighth grade, reduced to tears and desperation because she’s so deeply in love with a boy who turned to someone else.
“Perfect!” I croon, crossing my arms over my chest protectively, trying to hide that I’m seconds away from crying too. “Do whatever you want with that. Just don’t be a fucking loser about it and leave me alone!”
Stop.
You’re making it worse.
