SWNOVELS In Ruins: Chapter 20
I stared at the mess of shaving cream and toilet paper on my locker at the end of the day. People snickered as they passed by. I didn’t need two guesses to know who’d done it. Sighing, I opened my door to be bombarded with packing peanuts. Laughter erupted around me as I stood up to my knees in the styrofoam mess.
“Bitch,” I hissed, kicking my foot out.
“Could be worse.”
I snapped my attention around to find Ian standing behind me.
“Ian.”
“Rosalie,” his voice was cold. “You’re really making a name for yourself around here. You can fuck the football team but not someone who gave a damn.”
“What are you talking about?” I demanded.
He scoffed. “Don’t play fucking stupid with me. We both know what you’ve been doing with the horsemen when no one is around.”
“I haven’t done shit with them,” I snapped back, swallowing down the lie. OK, so maybe I’d kissed a couple of them and had weird feelings, but that wasn’t enough to accuse me of screwing them all, or as Enzo had so eloquently put it, letting them run a train on me.
“Then why the fuck did I get cornered by Evans, De Luca, and Scott?”
“Maybe because you’re an asshole?”
Ian punched the locker next to my head, his face contorted in anger. I flinched as he leaned into me.
“Wrong, Rosalie,” he hissed at me. “You told your boys about what I said.”
I shook my head, fear coursing through me. Ian had changed. No longer was he the playful friend I’d once had. In his place was an angry, jealous monster. He might even be more hell-bent on making me miserable than the guys were.
“Don’t fucking lie to me.” He’d backed me against the locker beside my own. “Do you know what they said to me as they beat me?”
I shook my head, my mouth dry.
“That you belong to them, and if I said a word about you to anyone, they’d kill me.”
I shivered beneath his words. “You drugged me. You’re lucky that’s all that happened to you.”
“So don’t stand there and tell me you aren’t fucking them. I want what’s mine, Rosalie. I mean it. And if I don’t get it, I’ll have to take drastic measures. Starting with Jamie.”
He pushed away from me, giving me a look that said all I needed to know. He was serious.
“Tell them about this and find out what happens.”
He turned and stalked away, leaving me standing there, shaking.
Ian hadn’t gone away. He’d only morphed into a bigger problem.
“LOOK WHO IT IS,” Juliet simpered in the locker room. I eyed her apprehensively as she sashayed over to me. “If it isn’t the little homewrecker herself.”
“I haven’t done anything.”
Juliet snorted as she stopped in front of me. “You were with Fox last night.”
I shook my head, not in the mood to deal with her shit even more now since I had Ian to worry about.
“I wasn’t with Fox last night. I was with Enzo, and Fox and the rest of the guys showed up at his place. And if you want to know what went down, they played video games and pool while I helped Ethan with his homework.”
Juliet narrowed her eyes at me. “Fox said he gave you a ride home.”
I rolled my eyes. “Fox is my neighbor. It only made sense. If it helps, he’s an asshole.”
Juliet took a dangerous step toward me, closing the small space between us. “If I hear you even came close to touching what’s mine, I will wreck you.”
“I’m sure you will. But right now, I have bigger things to worry about, so take your insecurity elsewhere.” I pushed past her, my heart wild in my chest from the confrontation.
Luckily, she didn’t try to stop me. Even at the end of class, she didn’t look twice at me, opting to dress quickly and leave with her friends. That didn’t mean they didn’t whisper and shoot me dirty looks, but hey, as long as I wasn’t being pushed around, they could do whatever they wanted.
“Sunshine!” Enzo called out, jogging down the hall toward me. People scurried out of his way. “Hey.”
“What?”
“What time are you thinking about stopping by tonight?”
“Um, don’t you decide that?”
He grinned. “Not tonight. It’s up to you.”
I cocked an eyebrow at him. “I thought you guys were in charge—”
“Oh, baby girl, we are, but it’s nice to give you a little room to move your cute little elbows in. We want you to enjoy this as much as we do.”
“That’s not the impression I got,” I muttered.
He grinned wider at me.
“And what exactly is this?” I studied his face for a moment, but he didn’t give anything away. “I mean, it started off a few weeks ago as you guys acting like you were going to make me miserable—”
“And we’re not,” he cut in.
I nodded, biting my bottom lip.
“Mm, baby. Don’t do that,” Enzo warned, his eyes darkening.
I released my lip immediately.
“You’re not, or at least, it’s gotten better. But with what happened b-between me a-and you and Cole last night—”
“Did you like it?” His eyes swept over me. “You didn’t kiss me back, but I didn’t get the vibe you hated it.”
I swallowed and stared up at his looming form.
“It’s OK to like it, baby. We liked it or we wouldn’t have done it.”
“I’m just confused.”
“I know.” He sighed, running his fingers through his dark hair. “Fucking Fox.”
“What does he have to do with it?”
“Everything.” Enzo stepped closer. “This is about more than a video, Sunshine. It’s about you. Me. Everyone. The video is just the bargaining chip to get what we want.”
“But what do you want?”
“You know what we want. We told you.”
Me. They wanted me.
He nodded, knowing damn well I knew what they wanted. But why? Enzo answered my unspoken question.
“Because we can, baby. Because we can.”