Page 6 of Giving In

“Em, I missed you too but you’re so heavy. Please, I don’t have the strength of your cheer friends.”

Emily unhooks her legs and falls back on the floor before stepping in front of me and shaking her head in disbelief. “How dare you say they’re my friends. They just throw me in the air and catch me. No more. No less.”

I laugh at her serious statement, I missed her so much. I hug her tightly and go on my toes so my head can level with hers. This is pretty much the technique with everyone except children. Em is notthattall, she’s about 5’5 and she’s built of muscles and curves in the perfect places. I truly look like a child next to her, with my tiny body and almost non-existent boobs.

Her light brown hair and Chanel scent tickle my nose and I take a step back to look into her big hazel eyes. She holds me at arm’s length, her hands on my shoulders, and inspects me.

“You look so tanned. I’m jealous.” She looks at her pale arms in front of herself with a scowl.

“I tan easy. Mixed girl advantage, you know it.” I shrug and smile in arrogance.

“And you look like you’ve lost weight.”

How is she so observant?

“I just lose weight when I’m not at home.”

“Oh my God, did you get taller?” The cheekiness in her voice and the smile that tugs at her lips make me laugh heartily. Jokes about my height never get old, eh?

I push her arms off my shoulders. “Yup, now you’re making things up.”

She smiles at me and messes my deep brown hair with one hand. “You just keep hoping, kiddo. Let’s get to class.” She turns around and we walk side by side into the building.

“So, I heard you signed up to do a triathlon…”

Emily barks a laugh. “Yeah, you should have seen my mom’s face when she opened my confirmation letter at home. This woman needs to leave my mail alone.”

I join her laughing and we make our way to our lockers.

Emily is leaning with her back against her locker while I’m dropping some books when she decides to change our conversation topic from the cheerleaders she’s not looking forward to seeing again to…

“Holy mother of all guacamole. That’s it. You thought Jake was hot before? No, my friend, it happened. He’s clearly had a full glow up this summer. Aaaand, of course, Rose got hotter too. Who knew that was possible? Not me. I didn’t.”

I chuckle at her inanity. “I didn’t think Jake was hot before,” I lie as I turn around to look for her favorite people to fangirl over.

“Alright missy,” she says with an eye roll. “You keep telling yourself that. Oh no, wait, that’s true, you’re all about Chris, our beloved bookworm.”

Jakeishot. Only a blind person would think otherwise. He’s always been and, although some people are in my way right now and I can’t see him, I’m sure he is just as hot as he’s always been, if not more.

The problem is that he is so aware of it that it would probablykillme to admit it. It’s not just his arrogance. I’ve always had a bad feeling about him. His golden boy act feelsoff.I’m not the only one who feels it, it turns my fellow prep girls on the way it looks like he’s hiding something. Like his nice side is fake. I can understand the need to find out more, the need to know the secrets behind the façade. It might be all a lie though; he might pretend there’s a bad boy behind it all for the sole purpose of making himself interesting to girls. To me, Chris’s intelligence and more average looks are much more attractive than Jake’s hotness and egotism. Too bad I’m getting neither of them.

The two girls in my eyesight move out of the way and my gaze lands on Chris and his group of friends; him, Luke Baker and the twins – Jake and Rose White – are all gathered around Chris’s locker, laughing at whatever stupid joke one of them has just told. Jake is looking at the people in the halls like he is searching for someone and seems slightly worried. Looking at him again, I am getting a strong reminder as to why so many girls fall at his feet and why the name on their lips is always ‘Jake’.

Jakeand his deep blue ocean eyes, his jet-black hair. Emily is right, what we all thought impossible happened: he had a glow up this summer. His jawline is harder and that makes him look tougher, it contrasts with his long lashes that soften his strong face. His arms are more muscular and his shoulders broader. They make his white shirt from our uniform look perfect on him. I’m probably not the only girl who has dreamed of having his strong arms hold me tight.

Rose whispers something in his ear and he suddenly looks the other way in a scare then back at her before shoving her in the shoulder, between playful and annoyed. Luke and Rose laugh at him while Chris just shakes his head.Christopher Murray is so tall compared to all of them and that feeling in my stomach comes back, tugging at my insides like every time I see him.

Jake and Rose are standing right next to each other, emphasizing their resemblance. They are so similar for fraternal twins, it’s almost scary. She’s got the same blue eyes as him and her long wavy hair that drops almost all the way to her waist is just as black. She’s the kind of girl that’s just too beautiful for her own good. She’s model beautiful. I’m talking 5’10 with legs for days and a face that makes everyone who crosses her path fall in love with her. She slightly looks like Kendall Jenner if Kendall had naturally long lashes, plumped lips, and blue eyes. Here I am with TV reality references. If Rose was from LA, she would be part of Gigi Hadid’s group of friends. For sure. Probably without even trying.

That’s the thing with the Whites: they don’t try, they just are. The hottest, the smartest, the wittiest. They rule over everyone without really wanting to. Rose is not even a case of ‘boys love her, girls hate her but want to be her’. Everyone is just in love with her. God knows why, because just like any naturally incredibly beautiful girl, behind the façade, she’s just all kinds of fucked up.

Stoneview prep might be easier on people like me than other prep schools, but it still has to keep up with the other bitchy schools and for that, our rumor mill is probably the most active in the country. Chris and his friends are the water keeping that mill running. That’s how I know Jake and Rose are not in the human realm when it comes to respect for their peers.

According to the rumors, last year someone walked in on Rose and Jason Simmons at a party, fucking in the bathroom. All would have been fine except Jason, who is also the Mayor’s son, has been engaged to Bethany Lam pretty much all their lives.

Rose and Jake are simply unstable. You just have to look at the state of their dating lives and you know there’s something wrong with them. Some kind of total lack of empathy or something. Physically they’re perfect, they have a beautiful golden, tanned skin tone all year long like they’re from Italy or some other Mediterranean country. There is no way to know though, because part of the reason everyone finds them so mysterious is that Jake and Rose are orphans. And, boy, do they use this excuse right, left and center. They both joined our middle school when they were in eighth grade and we were Freshmen, after the Murray’s, Chris’ family, took them in. They quickly proved that you can get away with anything when you use the right excuse.

As Jake’s gaze is scanning the halls for whomever he is looking for, our eyes meet.

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