Page 39 of Fraternizing with the Enemy
Most Likely To: Peak in High School.
Madison Oliphant.
It was more than just the label. Jade had to see that.
I wanted nothing more in that moment to disappear, to melt into my chair and become one with the blue plastic.I couldn’t bring myself to look around me, to accidentally meet anyone’s eye.
I still had the second half of the school day to get through, bearing all the stares and whispers. There was no blending into my chair. I had to face it all.
Were they already whispering about me? What were they saying? What were theythinking?
At the end of lunch, before Jade could walk too far down the hallway, I grabbed her upper arm and hauled her to the side. Her sneakers skidded on the linoleum, but she came pretty willingly with me into the girls’ room. No one stood at the sinks, but I didn’t bother to kick open all the stalls and check them, whirling on Jade.
“How could you?” I demanded, voice already shaking.
Away from the rest of the Top Tier, something about Jade’s expression shifted. Her eyes were wider as she stared at me, as if trying to show the sincerity in them. “It was Riley’s idea,” she insisted. “She wouldn’t let it go—how you didn’t and how it wasn’t fair.”
Bull crap.“Last I checked, Riley wasn’t the captain. Riley didn’t call the shots. You do.”
“She wasn’t wrong. You didn’t vote.”
“You should’ve told me you were going to actually put me on it!” I countered. “I would’ve voted then. Don’t you think it’s a bad look for the Top Tier? Turning on one of your own?”
Jade didn’t reply. I so badly wanted her to say she screwed up, that she didn’t realize how much it would hurt my feelings. But she didn’t. She barely even blinked.
“Why that label?” The question came out breathy, defeated, laced with the hurt I’d had ever since Jadefirst said it. “It could’ve been anything else. Heck, I could’ve been Most Likely To: Never Get a Boyfriend.”
“Ashton already claimed that one.”
I could’ve shaken her. “But whythat?”
“It had a good ring to it,” Jade answered, reaching over and flipping a lock of my blonde hair over my shoulder. She smoothed down the piece affectionately, causing the buzzing in my ear to sound louder. “People say it about us all the time. If you can’t handle hearing it, maybe you shouldn’t be at the top.”
The buzzing in my ears migrated into my chest again, thundering in my heart like it was about to beat out of my chest. “You… you’re saying I shouldn’t be in the Top Tier?”
“Of course not,” Jade answered immediately, lips stretching into an almost motherly smile. “That’s not what I meant. I didn’t meanyou, you. I just meant ‘you,’ like anyone in general.”
Even though I wanted to—I so desperately wanted to—I didn’t believe her.
She patted my shoulder before taking a step back. “We should get going. If I get a tardy for Mrs. Greer, I’m so convincing her to put it on your roster.”
I didn’t follow Jade out of the bathroom. I faced myself in the mirror, my breathing beginning to grow heavy. My green eyes were wide and watery, cheeks far too flushed to say it was just blush. The longer I stared, the more cracks began to form, and I was sure everyone would see them when I walked out of the bathroom. They’d be plain as day, proving that Madison Oliphant wasn’t the perfect doll she pretended to be. She wasn’t loved, funny, and happy.
She was a laughingstock, cruel, and shallow.
With one hand gripping the porcelain sink, I sank down to my heels.
Was this what Maisie felt like that day freshman year? After I taught her the wrong choreography, tanking her cheer tryout, had she thought this same thing? That her best friend turned on her? Stabbed her in the back?
Girls like you peak in high school.
The tardy bell rang out then, but still, I didn’t move. No one else came into the bathroom, and with no other distractions, the words rang out in my head instead. A damning label, spoken in Logan’s voice.
Most Likely To: Peak In High School.
Madison Oliphant.
The rest of the school day was exactly as I’d feared: horrible.
