Page 57 of A Vicious Rumor

I sat in the parking lot for an extra beat before dragging myself out of my Jeep. I seriously hated school, but I especially hated the first day of class. Everyone was so excited to see one another, wearing special outfits, smiling.

Gross.

Paper had offered me a ride this morning, but I'd refused. Not that I hadn't had enough of the guy over the last week, because I definitely had, but more than that, I actually intended to go back home after football practice this evening. I didn't particularly want to see my father, but I did want to know how the business was doing.

I made my way through the back door of the school near my parking spot. People generally avoided me as I walked along and then up to my locker. That is, until a rather shrill voice shouted my name and ran up to me.

"Rock!"

I turned to see the girl who for all intents and purposes was now my girlfriend. She epitomized the first day of school and everything I hated. She was basically Cher from Clueless, not that I'd seen the movie, but I knew the reference.

"Hey," I said, opening up my locker. She was wearing an outfit that had to be breaking at least a dozen school rules at the same time. It was a combination of a pleated skirt, pink fishnets, matching pink boots and a top that was partially a corset. All of it with her signature bleached hair tied up in curled pigtails.

She looked like nineties Barbie before the feminists got to her.

I let her wrap her arms around me and pull at my neck. "Aren't you happy to be back in school?" she asked, making a big scene of the whole thing. I knew it was because she wanted to show people that she'd managed to snag even me. I wondered how long it would last. I also wondered what fake drama would be created when she decided she didn't want to "date" anymore.

I really didn't care about the drama. I just wanted to make sure her and I were an item long enough to make Lily realize what she was fucking missing.

Did I feel bad for using Katherine this way?

Not really, no. She kind of asked for it.

"Do I look happy to be here?" I replied in a monotone voice.

She giggled. "No, but, you're at least happy to see me, right?" she asked in a sing-song voice, slightly elevated again so others could hear.

"I don't need to be in school to see you," I replied, closing my locker and leaning against it. Over her shoulder I saw Lily in the distance heading our way. "In fact," I added, raising my voice so that it carried over the din of the hallway, "I remember seeing you just last night and that I did enjoy."

The whole thing was a lie, of course, but I knew Kitty wouldn't miss the chance to let others think she was laying one of the Triad.

"Really?" she said in a playful voice. "I don't know if I remember that."

Lily was a few feet away from us now. I couldn't fight the urge to make her jealous. I completely lost my mind around her, even though I knew I couldn't have a future with her. I grabbed Kitty by the shoulder, twisting her and pushing her against the lockers. She gasped, dropping her books in an exceedingly dramatic fashion. I leaned in close to her, pressing my hips against hers. "Sounds like you need a reminder, then," I said. I forced myself to kiss her just as Lily walked by.

And all she did was walk by.

She didn't stop.

She didn't huff.

She acted like she didn't even see the whole thing.

Like the fact that I was kissing Kitty didn't matter to her at all.

Kitty tried to deepen the kiss, but I pulled away. Lily was already down the hallway now. What I had needed her for had passed.

"See you later," I said to Kitty as I made my way to my first class, leaving her breathing heavily against the lockers, her books scattered on the floor.

The bell rang just as I walked into the lab room. Of course I had to have science as my first class of the day. Couldn't have started off with something easy like PE. I grabbed the only empty seat in the room and surveyed my surroundings.

There were a handful of faces I recognized, some I didn't, and of course one I definitely did. Right up front was Lily. She must have been walking here when she'd passed me in the hallway earlier. She was sitting with a group of girls that I knew to be exceedingly popular. A number of them ran in Kitty’s circle, which made for an interesting dynamic.

I could only see the back of her, considering that I was sitting all the way to the back and off to the side. Even still, I hated how different she looked. Everything about her was fake and screamed money and not hers. It was like she'd become an entirely different person.

She had.

She'd become the person Scissors turned her into.

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