First Love Only Love (The Life 2)

There’s no way the hottest, most elusive guy in school, the one set to inherit millions in a few years if the whispers are true, would want to be with someone like her. How long before he grows tired of her whining and toss her away? I mean, it’s bound to happen.

She doesn’t know anything, has spent her life locked away in her room, not even free to walk around campus as she might’ve liked because I wouldn’t allow it. Even her father had become mine; I was winning, dammit.

But now, for some reason, seeing Gia in that jewelry more than anything drives home the fact that life as I know it might be over. I stand to lose everything if I don’t do something. I’ve tried to think of every way to get to Gia, but she’s never alone; Gabriel or his annoying sisters are always nearby. I can’t step foot on school grounds thanks to their meddling grandmother, so there’s nothing I can do but wait.

I sat there in the dark confines of the car, watching the party from a distance hating Gia more as time went by but refusing to accept defeat. Mom should be home soon. She’d know what to do. I can’t accept that it’s all over, that we’ve lost in the end. Maybe if I play up to Felix, if I remind him that I’m the daughter he loves, I can turn things around.

He’s alone now and seems to be having some kind of mental break. Now would be the perfect time to solidify my place in his life. I’m his adopted child; after all, it’s not like he can get rid of me that easily, even if he and mom don’t work out. Besides, I’ve always been able to get him on my side. In all these years, he’s never sided with Gia over me.

That’s it. I’ll play the innocent fatherless child who had nothing and was once again being left out in the cold by harsh, uncaring people. Mom had used that one once when the other women weren’t too fond of me hanging around their daughters when we first moved in.

They’d barely tolerated me back then, but it was never enough. I’d still felt like an outsider until years later when we were about twelve and I, who had learned from the best, used my own mind and skills to finally win them over to my side. All it had taken was me making up stories about Gia and how horrible she was, accusing her, in fact, of all the things that I had been doing to her at the time.

Those snooty bitches had bought it hook line and sinker, especially when I told them all the lies she’d told about them. All I’d had to do that time was use the things my beloved sister had shared in innocent confidence and twist them to my advantage, and mom had taken care of the rest then too. Those women didn’t want their preteen daughter’s reputations tarnished after all.

If there was a boy they liked, the innocent story Gia shared became one of debauchery. And when that hadn’t worked to sway them, photoshop had come in handy to make some of the most compromising images known to man. Gia barely knew how to use the damn computer back then, but it was easy enough to convince them that it had been her handiwork.

It was easy to convince them since she’s the one they’d shared their innocent photos with. And I was just being a caring outsider when I took those same photos to them with the sob story mom and I had concocted. Even Felix had believed all the lies, and he was the one who knew her best. I fooled him once; I can fool him again.

Damn, he knows that I bullied Gia at school. But maybe there’s a way around that. I’ve gotten away with it before, just by playing it off as a joke. I felt renewed hope which was soon dashed when I remembered that there was a video of what happened that last day. There must be some way.

I’m not sure why, but something about seeing Gia here like this, looking so confident as she hangs onto Gabriel’s arm, has triggered me. I feel a stronger sense of dread than I had before coming here. It’s as if this night proves that she’d won after all. That she was no longer under my thumb to do with as I please.

Now with mom getting into one scrape after another and Felix acting out of character, I feel lost and alone, weak even. My heartache was such at the moment that I couldn’t even drum up my usual anger and hate for the girl that should be the one sitting out here like an outcast. Those emotions were buried under the profound worry that was hitting me all at once.