Page 89 of Manhattan Secret
Smiling, I toss her shitty phone on her lap and fold my arms. “Laney could be five hundred and I’d still fuck her over you, you jealous little brat.”
“That’s sick. She’s old. She’s your fucking teacher, Lachie. I was trying to help you, she’s a predator.”
This chick.Really. She thought I’m going to roll out a carpet of reasons I’m with Laney. Fuck that. I won’t explain myself to anyone, least of all someone who I thought was trustworthy.
“What’s sick is how you justify yourself. In your deviant little mind, you’ve done something good for me. All the while you shit all over myfriendship. I brought you in, Riley. You were no one until I let people know to not fuck with you, until they saw you with me.I did that.”
She opens her mouth and I snarl, teeth together. “I’m fucking speaking, you’d do well to listen. This is the last time you sit at this table. The last time you come anywhere near where I am. If you see me, you head in the other direction.”
“You—you can’t do that,” strangled voice, her eyes panic as they should be because she realizes what I’m taking away from her. Her status iseverything. “I messed up, Lachie, but it’s not that bad. I didn’t tell anyone about you and her. I was only trying to get her to leave you alone.”
“Leave me alone? Like she’s corrupting me. You naïve, little fool. Delaney has more integrity and compassion in her little finger than you possess in your whole selfish body. I helped you when you were invisible, you remember? It was me, Riley.”
“I was doing it for you.”
“You did it for yourself,” I growl darkly, my nostrils flaring. “When did I ever give you any sign I wanted you?”
She grows pale, flinching from my sharp honesty.
“When? Never. I didn’t feel you up or shove my tongue in your throat, I’ve never used your body to get off. It was me who stopped that guy at the party from putting a roofie in your drink. I never wanted to fuck you, Riley. You know why? Because our friendship meant something to me.”
“I love you,” she cries, tears cresting her lashes and I feel nothing for her emotions. She’s a good actress; I’ll give her that. “I did it for you, she doesn’t get to swan into school in her shitty clothes and bag the hottest guy. She’s a creepy old NO ONE!”
“Yet, she’s mine and I’m hers. And you fucked my loyalty, so you no longer exist.”
My declaration puts pain on Riley’s face, she scrubs at the falling tears, trying to grab my hand, I knock away.
I don’t do forgiveness for someone who I can’t trust.
“Please, Lachie. Okay, I’m sorry. Do you want me to tell her sorry too? I will. I’m sorry.”
“No amount of groveling is going to make me forget I hate your guts. It’s just as well I’m leaving for Boston soon… but then, I don’t need to be here to fuck you up, keep that in mind if you look at my girl wrong, Riley.”
“What…what are you gonna do?”
She should know better than to ask.
After all she’s been there in the heart of my circle when I’ve fucked up others for crossing me. She knows my long reach and capabilities.
I get to my feet. I’m done here.
“I would have always had your back, Riley. I make a damn good friend. I keep secrets.” I stretch the word, piercing her with a stare and watch when my meaning arrives home, because she circles her throat with a hand. “You wouldn’t….”
“Wouldn’t I?”
Yeah, I would.
I’m a petty little motherfucker.
“I’d really hate to upset your mom right now; she’s doing good isn’t she? Holding down a job, dating again. I like her, Riley.”
“Lachie, please, don’t. I’ll do anything. I’m sorry, okay? It was a dumb mistake. I was jealous, you’re right. I won’t do anything again.”
“Oh, I know that.” And then. “I make a much better friend than an enemy. You blew it. You should have opened your eyes and saw Zander’s been panting for your selfish ass for years, instead you tried to meddle in my shit. And now all your secrets are about to be spilled all over town. Good luck at NYU.”
“Please don’t.”
Riley is staying right here in Manhattan for college. She won an internship at Richmond as a teaching assistant while she works for her degree. God help the kids who get her for a teacher. “I wonder what the kids in the hallway will be whispering in the fall when they see you coming, Riley?”
