Page 136 of Fraternizing with the Enemy
“What else is there?” Jade propped her hand on her hip. “You agreed to flirt with her until she fell for you. What else is there to know?”
Silence answered from Logan’s end. In it, I could hear the hum of his car. “Let me tell her,” he repeated.
Jade grinned. “Well, sweet Logan, it’s actually too late?—”
Cutting her off, I lifted my hand up and, with all the force I could muster, slammed Jade’s phone into the tiled bathroom floor. The shattering sound mixed with Jade and Riley’s gasps, and for good measure, I stomped the tip of my heel into the middle of the screen, effectively killing the device.
“You,” Jade gasped, gaping. “You—you little?—”
I surged forward, grabbing her dainty shoulders in a harsh grip and slamming her into the hard bathroom wall.If I had pushed her two inches to the left, her back would’ve shattered the mirror. Jade’s eyes bugged wide at the sudden violence, her ringlets bouncing.
“What did you do?” I demanded, voice low and barely contained. “What did you threaten him with?”
“Oh my gosh, Madison!” Riley smacked at my shoulders with her weak grip. “Let go, youpsycho!”
Jade, though, fought to remain calm. “Oh, please. Why do you think I?—”
“Because I know you, Jade Dyer. You’re manipulative, and cruel, and can’t live without twisting things in your favor.” I dug my nails into her skin. “In the beginning, you encouraged me to date him.”
“I didn’t have enough proof. Not then. I needed more.”
“Proof?”
“To bury you.”
She spoke so simplistically. It blew my mind. “You set me up—forwhat?”
Jade didn’t even blink. Didn’t flinch at my grip, or my words as I hurled them like glass shards. Her expression stayed cold, lifeless, a mask that made me want to scream. “I was supposed to be captain,” she said, flat and final.
For a second, the words didn’t compute. I couldn’t see how two and two connected, until it finally hit me. I couldn’t fight the urge to laugh as it bubbled up this time, breathy and disbelieving. “Captain,” I muttered, struggling to speak evenly. “Notco-captain. All this—” An incredulous chuckle cut through my words. “All this over astupid label?”
Jade didn’t blink.
In fact, itwasall over a stupid label. The Most Likely To label—Peak in High School. The cheer captain label. Both of us, so deeply unsettled with the tag we’d been given that we decided to fight it.
Only instead of trying to be better, Jade had spiraled. Instead of accepting her label, making the most of it, sheschemed on my downfall. All those times she accused me of plotting against her had been a projection of what she’d been doing to me.
“This was your plan thiswhole time.” I lightened up a bit on my grip, leaning back. “To catch me with Logan and expose it. So—what? You had me followed to get the proof you needed?” My eyes cut to Riley. “Aren’t you a good little stalker?”
Riley just smiled. “Thanks.”
“You could’ve been good,” Jade said. “You could’ve rejected him and stepped down as co-captain. I gave you a choice.”
“I am not your puppet!” I let go of her and took a step back. Riley jerked away as I neared her, as if afraid I’d target her next. “My arms do not have strings you can just tug for your amusement.”
Jade frowned. “What happened to following me ’til the end?”
“What happened toyou? Why do you have to go so far with everything? Why can’t you just—juststop?”
“I have to be on top. No matter who has to fall.”
“Even me? Your best friend since the fifth grade?”
There was no emotion in her eyes. No guilt, no remorse, no regret. “Even you.”
I could see in the unflinching set of Jade’s mouth, the hollow stare that once held secrets and sleepovers and inside jokes only we knew, that she meant it. All of it was gone, replaced by this stranger in front of me who wore my best friend’s face. A shiver rattled through me. Whatever tether had bound us together all these years had been cut clean through—and Jade was the one holding the scissors.
I glanced over at Riley, who had her phone out—I was surprised she hadn’t pulled it earlier.
