Rowdy Boy

She laughs. “What are you going to do with that? Hit me?”

“Stay away,” I hiss.

“I tried that, and it didn’t work. And you know? I don’t even care anymore,” she retorts.

She’s closing in on me, so I chuck the piece of faucet at her head, but she dodges just in time.

Fuck.

My eyes widen at the sight of the knife coming straight for me.

Suddenly, the door bursts open.

Cole

I storm inside after hearing the ruckus from down the hallway. I was just about to leave the school property after Mr. D kicked me out, but Monica’s distraught voice stopped me in my tracks and made me barge straight into the bathroom.

And when I find Ariane threatening her with a knife, I lose my shit.

“Get the fuck away from her!” I yell at Ariane.

Ariane turns toward me. “You ruined everything!” she squeals, turning the knife on me instead.

But I grab her arm and twist it until she drops the knife. “Ow! Stop! You’re hurting me!”

“Cole,” Monica mutters in complete shock.

“Get back,” I warn her.

Ariane’s off the rails and completely unhinged. If she gets close, maybe Ariane will try to hurt her again, and I don’t want to risk it. I’d rather have her focus on me.

“Get off me,” Ariane snarls at me, trying to free herself from my grip.

“Don’t you fucking dare,” I growl at her, fiercely protective of Monica. “You tried to fucking knife Mo?! She’s your own goddamn cousin!”

“Let go of me!” she yells, and she rips away from me in one go, falling back to the corner of the bathroom like a snake retreating to its shelter. “She deserved all of this. She brought it onto herself,” Ariane hisses. “She tried to take you from me. She doesn’t deserve you. Don’t you see?”

Take me from her?

I was never hers, not even when we were together. She didn’t want to be mine, yet now she decided she doesn’t want anyone else to be mine either.

My face contorts. “What the hell is wrong with you? You did all this just because you’re jealous?”

“You,” she replies, tears welling up in her eyes. “You did this to me.”

“You did this to yourself,” I spit back, and I beckon Mo to step aside so Ariane can’t suddenly twist around and try to hurt her.

Monica quickly passes by Ariane and stands behind me, grabbing my waist.

“Yeah, you run back to daddy,” Ariane hisses. “You’re pathetic. Both of you. I should’ve shared that picture with the whole goddamn school when I had the chance, but I wanted to be merciful and give you a chance to stop this from getting out of hand. Guess you chose the hard way.”

My jaw drops, and rage overcomes me. “So it was you? You stole that picture off my phone?”

She cocks her head. “You should really change your stupid code. It hasn’t changed since we dated.”

She’s really lost her marbles. All this time, I thought it was Michael who stole the picture and sent it when it was Ariane pulling the strings from behind the scenes all along.

“She tried to push me to end things with you,” Mo explains, “because she wants to keep you to herself.”

“You cheated on me!” I growl. “Fuck you for making everyone think it was me. You’ll pay for this,” I say. “You’re not gonna get away with any of this.”

She makes a disgustingly snooty face. “Who do you think they’ll believe? The attention junky and the poor little frightened victim or the most popular and respected girl in school who was thrown away like some used-up doll by the school’s own boy band?”

“They’ll believe this,” Monica sneers, and she holds up her phone.

A recording of the entire conversation plays.

Ariane’s pupils dilate as she stares in disbelief.

“When … how …” she mutters.

“The moment I saw your initials, I knew it was you.” Mo scoffs, her head held high, even in the face of danger. “I don’t trust snakes, never have.”

Ariane’s face completely melts off like a goddamn fiery volcano just went off in front of her. “You pushed me to confess.”

“Yeah, and you were dumb enough to fall for it.” Monica presses the button and lowers her phone. “Your reign over this school is finished.”

Chapter 35

Cole

It took only minutes for Mr. D himself to come see what the ruckus was all about. Of course, Ariane denied every allegation we threw her way, but Monica had the proof. After we told Mr. D exactly what had happened and made him listen to the recording, he immediately had her restrained and called the cops.

It didn’t take long for them to arrive and haul them back to their police car in the full frontal view of the entire fucking school.

I guess in her words, you get what you deserve.

As for me, since Mr. D was provided with proof of Ariane’s misconduct, he agreed to put me on suspension for the fight in the hallway instead of completely kicking me out, which I accepted. Michael is still expelled for what he did to Monica in the forest, along with his two friends, so I’m glad I won’t ever have to come face-to-face with them again, or I might’ve ripped them all a new one.