“You scared the shit out of me.”
Prez gets in the middle of the two of us. “Where are we heading, kids?”
I shove him to the other side of me so I can hold Aurora’s hand again.
“So, you guys are making it official, I see. Many hearts will be breaking today once news spreads.”
“I was never interested in any other girl other than Aurora,” I reply, hoping to score some major brownie points.
“Very smooth,” she says, and I wink at her.
“Not you I was referring to, fuckwad, but good to know your ego is still intact.”
“Well, it’s definitely not me,” Aurora tells him.
Prez gets in front of her and walks backward as she walks forward. “Oh, sweet, clueless, Rory,” he says.
I’m about to warn him to watch out but I’m too late. He plows right into Mary Beth.
“You’re fucking kidding me!” she wails when she tumbles back and lands on her butt. Prez tries to help her up, but she slaps his hands away.
“Not the pyramid fantasy I had wanted to see, but this will do,” a girl says beside us. I think her name is Remy. I’ve seen her around, but she doesn’t hang with our crowd.
“Fuck off, Renee,” Mary Beth tells her after Penny and Laura help her up from the floor.
“From those handprints on your ass yesterday, I think you’re the one who’s fucking off. Heard you and Blaise did it doggy-style in the janitor’s closet before the pep rally.”
The hallway goes totally and completely silent, with the exception of the audible gasps from Penny and Laura. Mary Beth’s face turns so vibrantly scarlet, she looks like a red balloon ready to pop.
“You’re a skanky, white-trash bitch,” she seethes at Renee.
Renee gives Mary Beth a bored look. “You need to learn some new words. Isn’t bitch what you called Rory twice yesterday?”
Wait. What?
“You called my girlfriend a bitch?”
Mary Beth’s face contorts with confusion and a whole lot of incredulity. “She’syour girlfriend?”
“Who called who a bitch?” Dustin asks, joining our little hallway huddle.
Prez who is always the jokester, doesn’t look at all amused when he tells Dustin, “Apparently, MB did to Rory.”
The warning bell rings, alerting everyone to get to class. Mary Beth narrows her eyes at where Aurora and I are holding hands.
“Yes, Aurora is my girlfriend. And if I ever hear that you call her a bitch again, you are not going to like my response.”
Mary Beth prepares herself to clap back at me—more than likely something full of snarky attitude—but Dustin stops her. “I would highly suggest not opening your mouth again. If you haven’t noticed, Rory is with us now. You mess with her, you’ll have to deal with us.Allof us,” he clarifies, pointing to me, Prez, and himself.
Mary Beth rolls her eyes. “Oh, please. You and I both know that she’ll be his hit it and quit it, and he’ll dump her ass within a week. She’s not one of us. She never will be. She’s the offspring of a drugged-out slut of a mother who should have thrown her out with the garbage the day she was born.”
That silence that had existed minutes earlier in the hallway, turns into booming chants of “Fight!” as Aurora tackles Mary Beth to the ground.
Chapter 16
“This is not like you, Aurora. You are an exemplary student, straight A’s, in line to be Valedictorian,” Principal Stubbs is telling me. She’s been droning on and on for the past half hour. Most of the time was her asking me questions about what happened. Who hit whom first? What started the fight?
“You understand that we have a zero-tolerance policy at this school regarding fighting. If I allow you and Miss Beckett off with a slap on the wrist, I will be sending the wrong message to the student body. I have to treat every student equally and delve out impartial punishments.”
