MADDIE
After first period, I marched through the science wing toward Sandra’s locker. I had to go through it to get to Biology anyway, so I might as well stop by to see if Sandra had actually come to school today. I didn’t know what the hell I was going to say to her, but I wanted to start standing up for myself.
People walked all over me at Redwood. It was time for a change.
A big change.
Shy Maddie Weber needed to step out of her fucking shell at some point. I couldn’t let Oliver baby me forever, and I wanted to prove to him that I didn’t need his protection anymore. He didn’t need to be another parent.
Besides, I officially had Alec Wolfe as mine.
I pressed my hands to my chest and tried to stop the butterflies because I wanted to be serious with Sandra. But I couldn’t stop thinking about what had happened in the shower this morning. Alec Wolfe had told me he loved me.
Me!
Once I made it halfway down the hallway, I spotted Sandra standing at her locker with a bunch of her friends, shoving in some textbooks. I approached them cautiously, nerves zipping through my body at the mere thought of talking to her because I hated her.
“Sandra?” I said, stopping feet away.
She glanced over her shoulder at me and scrunched her nose. “What?”
“Can I talk to you?”
Her friends giggled, one of them stepping forward.
“You talk to her after you slept with her ex-boyfriend?” She scoffed, earning a laugh from all the other girls besides Sandra. “Gross. Get lost, you whore.”
Instead of paying them any attention, I stared at Sandra and hoped that she’d get them to go away. She might’ve been pissed at me for being with Alec, but she was over him, right? At least, if what Alec had said was the truth.
“Go,” Sandra said.
“See,” her friend continued. “Run off somewhere—”
“I was talking to you,” Sandra said to her friend.
The girls around her snapped their heads in Sandra’s direction, then scurried away, as if Sandra would explode on them if they didn’t do as she said.
When they were gone, Sandra turned toward me. “Make it quick.”
“I wanted to ask about Alec.”
“What about him? How you stole him from me?”
“Alec said that … that you don’t like him like that,” I said, glancing around to make sure nobody was listening. When I was sure, I leaned forward just in case and lowered my voice. “That you like girls too.”
It wasn’t really my place to tell her. She hadn’t come out to me yet, and I felt so bad … but I couldn’t help it. I needed to know the truth or else my jealousy would just get worse. And after seeing how widely Alec had smiled after I kissed him in front of everyone, I didn’t want to lose him. Besides, I still didn’t trust her yet.
And—as bad as it was—if I could hang this over her head to get her to stop bullying me, then I would. She had tortured me for years, and if I was going to stand up for myself and claim Alec as mine, then I had to push back.
Sandra’s face paled. “He didn’t tell you that. You’re lying.”
“He didn’t tell anyone else. I just need to know that you don’t like him like that anymore, that you will never like him like that, no matter how much you make it seem like you do.” I glanced down at the dirty tiled floor. “Please.”
After a few moments of lethal silence, Sandra grabbed my arm hard and yanked me into an empty classroom. She slammed the door closed and shoved me against it. “I swear to God, if you tell anyone, I will kick your ass. I don’t give a fuck. Don’t say that shit out loud again.”
“So, it is true?”
Another moment passed, and Sandra released me and paced the room. “Yes,” she snapped. “It’s true, okay?”
My shoulders fell forward, and weight seemed to roll off them. It felt so good to hear it confirmed by someone other than Alec. I knew that I could trust him, but Spencer had really just destroyed my trust for everyone and everything.
“So, you didn’t send me those messages?”
“What messages?” Sandra asked, brow furrowed.
“I keep getting nasty messages from someone who likes Alec. I’m assuming it’s the same person who hacked his accounts and fucked my entire life up,” I said, opening the messages from the unknown number.
When Sandra looked over my shoulder at it, another message suddenly popped up.
She scrunched her nose. “Ew. Who the fuck is that?”
“I don’t know.”
“What are you going to do about it?” she asked. “Because it’s obviously not me.”
I arched a brow, still not trusting her. “Why do you care?”
She let out a breath. “Because Alec cares about you and he’s one of my best friends.”
I literally scoffed because if Alec was her best friend, then she didn’t have any true friends.
“Mmhmm,” I hummed suspiciously.
“Okay, fine.” Sandra shrugged. “Looks like you don’t need my help.”
When she went to walk through the door, I grabbed her wrist. “Wait. I’m sorry. I need help. I just … I don’t know who it is. I can’t really ask Poison for another favor, and Alec doesn’t want me getting involved in too much trouble, but I want … to sock this girl’s face in.”
Sandra grinned. “Finally growing a backbone, Weber.” She tossed her hair over her shoulder and headed to the exit. “If you want me to kick anyone’s ass for you”—she wiped the grin off her face and sighed like I was wasting her time—“then you can ask me.”
“Thanks, I guess.”
I didn’t know what I would get if I asked for her help, but I wanted these messages to stop.
She stopped at the door, then walked back over to me, and grabbed the phone from my hand. And before I could stop her, she blocked the unknown number and slammed it back into my hand. “You’re welcome.”