Page 56 of A Vicious Rumor

Kitty shrugged her shoulders. "Don't act like you don't suck like a whore, Alyssa."

Her friend stuck her tongue out, and the two girls laughed as if making jokes about being a sex worker were funny. It was whatever. I needed a ride, and a way to vent my frustrations.

Kitty had a car and a pussy, which as far as I was concerned, was going to be the next best thing since I wasn't allowed to cave Scissors' face in.

As we made our way out of Scissors' house, I looked up at the clubroom window. Lily was standing there, and I watched as her eyes followed me and Kitty until we were out of sight.

I hoped it hurt her the way she hurt me.

LILY

Paper and Scissors were talking quietly near the door. I had moved over to the window to get some fresh air. In the last twenty minutes I'd had the urge to puke probably about twenty-one times. What I was doing to Tyson was one of the most painful things I could ever put myself through.

It was obvious that he cared, though. He didn't like seeing me with Zachary. But, Zachary was right, which was a weird thing to say. Tyson couldn't just cast me aside but say that no one could have me. I wasn't some little toy that he got to lock away in a cupboard.

I was a living, breathing girl with feelings.

Feelings he'd really hurt.

I looked out the window again and the feeling of nausea returned. There was Tyson, walking over to the girl who tried to get everyone to call her "Kitty." She stood up and obviously tried to flirt with him. Except, this time, instead of shutting her down like he had last time, he leaned in to her and whispered something in her ear.

I felt tears wells up in my eyes as I watched him walk towards the parking lot with her. It was obvious what was about to happen.

The tears fell down my cheeks, no doubt creating black eyeliner streaks through the perfect makeup Zachary had someone do for me.

I heard the door close behind me and then I heard Zachary approach. I turned away from the window and tried not to let him see me crying.

"Oh come on," he said. "You think you're going to be able to pull this off all semester and you're already getting teary eyed after just one encounter?"

I shook my head and wiped my tears on my arm, smearing my makeup worse. "No, it's fine. I'm fine. I was just scared, that's all."

"He'd never dare hurt you," Zachary said. "Me though," he laughed, rubbing his jaw. "Kid's done a number to my face over the years."

"Yeah," I said trying to laugh. It was starting to become clearer to me through all of this that Zachary wasn't a bad guy, per se. It's just that he clearly had a lot of insecurities he didn't want to admit and tried his best to cover them up. I also was fairly certain he had an ulterior motive in this whole thing and that it had to do with his rather cryptic request about the vital records office.

"Look," he said, coming closer to me and wrapping me in a hug. I let him, even though it felt weird. "You're just gonna have to get used to this. If you want to win, we gotta keep this up."

"I know," I said.

"You know what it means, right?" he asked, pulling back and putting his finger beneath my chin.

"Yeah," I said. Zachary and I had already talked about how we were going to have to behave in school. Also, we talked at length about how I was going to have to behave. How I was going to have to dress and who I was allowed to hang out with and who I was not allowed to hang out with. There was a very rigid social structure that he was going to insert me into, but it wouldn't be easy.

"Good," he said, pulling back and pressing a kiss to my lips. We'd agreed to this sort of thing before, so that when we did it in public it seemed more believable, but I also think Zachary was enjoying the fact that he could kiss me anytime he wanted.

It only made me feel worse and even more conflicted about the whole thing.

I wish Ronny had a cell phone and could text. I just wanted to talk to someone about this whole thing that wasn't Zachary.

"Now, I'm going back downstairs to the party," he said, taking out his phone. "I'm letting Jessica know to come upstairs and fix your hair and makeup. When she's done, come back downstairs with that pretty smile of yours just like we talked about," he said.

I nodded but didn't say anything.

He left the room and I stood there and let all of the tears I'd been holding back flow out.

17

TYSON

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