Silence falls in the car, as we all look at Jaz.
“That didn’t work, did it?”
“Try working on it some more, Jaz,” Rye pats her arm. “You’ll get there. But seriously Mia? You don’t know the Fitz brothers?”
“Oh, didn’t you hear?” Kristine starts. “Mia faints or looks sick whenever the Fitz brothers are the topic of conversation.”
“I don’t faint,” I mumble, looking away.
“Yeah sure.” She eyes me like she knows something I don’t. “I guess you’re not so badass after all.”
“Save it, Kristine,” Rye starts. “At least Mia doesn’t have to sleep her way up, hoping to one day end up in Shane Matthews’s bed.”
“Ah, now you look jealous, Mia.” Kristine gloats, staring at me with that haughty look all over again.
“I’m not jealous,” I murmur, scrambling to get myself together. “You can hop into whichever bed you want love; I’m not stopping you.”
“You sure?” she presses like she’s deliberately trying to get a rise out of me. “Because I’ve got something that you don’t.”
Rye and Jaz suck in an audible breath from the backseat as all eyes fall on me. It’s not the first time that Kristine has baited me, trying to get a rise of out of me, but just like all the other times, I shut her down.
“You’re right, Kristine.” I smile, grabbing the car handle so I can get out of here. “You certainly have shit that I don’t, like your thunderous bad breath, a plastic face that still needs more work if you want to look like Roxy Bishops’ broke abandoned, poorly constructed clone.”
I watch impassively as Kristine’s face grows red, her eyes almost bulging out of their sockets.
“You’re pathetic, Kristine. Everyone thinks you’re a loose-morals, street-belonging, basket case.” I drop my voice to a sympathetic whisper. “But those are just rumors. You’re a good girl.”
Rye and Jaz burst out laughing. From the corner of my eye, I see Rye’s phone in the air, no doubt recording this. By the time the first bell rings at school on Monday, everyone will know what I said. I almost feel bad but quickly realize something, I didn’t ask for this.
“I was just joking.” Kristine swallows, her eyes screaming bloody murder.
“’What?”
“About the jealousy thing,” she clears her throat, then tries to sit up straight but the blow of my words is still affecting her. “I didn’t mean it. I was just joking.”
Yeah, sure.
“Well, me too, Kristine!” I make sure to plaster a huge, fake, sugary smile on my face. “I was joking as well.”
“So, I don’t have bad breath?”
Of all the things I just said…
“Oh no sweetie, here’s some breath mints though.” I grab my purse and take the mints. “Take three. No, take four.”
Kristine hesitates for a second but takes the mints anyway.
“As if that will help,” Rye murmurs from the backseat. “You can practically smell the dead sperm from back here.”
“Rye, stop it,” I call from the front. “Kristine is our friend. She’s not loose. She’s beautiful and you’re going to apologize for that bad joke.”
“I wasn’t…”
“Rye.” I smile at her. She rolls her eyes and then looks at Kristine.
“That was a bad joke, sorry,” she grits out.
“That’s alright, sweetie,” Kristine says, now fluffing out her hair. “At least I made Joe come, unlike you.”
“You bitch!” Rye yells, then leaps over the console to grab Kristine’s neck.
“I’m out.” I shake my head and with that, I open my car handle and get out, unable to get in the middle of this one.
“Good one, Mia,” Jaz says as we stand outside the large Malibu mansion, teeming with inebriated, high, lust-filled teenagers.
“Well, I’m not getting in the middle of that and neither should you.”
“They’re not really good friends,” Jaz sighs.
“No one is really good friends in high school, Jaz.” I sigh, my fingers itching with the need to grab my phone and call home. But I don’t.
“That’s so true!” Jaz exclaims, then starts her annoying snort-laugh that I swear could outdo a pig. I guess someone has to tell her.
“Jaz, that sound is so unlady-like.” I smack my lips together, making sure the new Fenty Gloss Bomb lip gloss I’m wearing makes my lips pop. I want them to be attractive and maybe cover the fact that I’ve only ever been kissed once in my life by a guy who hates me. “You should try to laugh more like a lady, not like you just drank a keg of disgusting, cheap beer.”
I can feel her unease but the truth hurts. And it’s better for her hearing this from me because I actually care, even though they call me Mia Montague, the fucking rich bitch Ice Queen of Clintwood Academy.
But a queen is a queen, and I’ll make sure that neither one of them will forget it.
It’s one part of my life that’s still intact, still real as everything around me feels like it’s on borrowed time and I’m standing in quicksand.
“I feel like I drank a keg of disgusting beer,” she pouts, staring up at me, a hardness in her eyes that suggests she’s not as drunk as she’d like me to believe.
Well then.
“You certainly do reek like it too.” I shoot back, stepping back as Kristine and Rye get out of the car. “Rye, give Jaz here some gum or a powerful deodorant. I can’t walk in there with her smelling like a bar.”
“Not to mention Rye smells like desperation and Kristine, cheap sex.”
It’s all true but I only have tonight to let go. So, I’m not going to think of either one of them.
We head into the party and soon enough, Kristine disappears with some random guy. Rye, Jaz and I grab red solo cups with some kind of punch in it and we head for the dance floor.
I’m wearing my black rib, one shoulder ring bodysuit top and my black Riot belted shorts that hug my ass like a glove, with ripped hems. Paired with my white Vans, I look hot and I’m a dancer with sexy skills to show off. Not for them, but for me.
To let go.
To be young.
To be me, so damn carefree and I know all eyes are on me.
So, it doesn’t surprise me when a hard body plasters itself to my back. I know it’s a guy and when Rye and Jaz’s eyes widen, their cheeks flushed, I know it’s a hot guy.
I know I should shake him away. I know I should step away, but tonight, I want to be reckless. I want to let go of any inhibition because when I get home, this feeling won’t be there.
So, I grind on him, and it’s not long that I feel even more eyes on me. Sweat glistens my body. I notice the R.A.C.K, the most popular girls from my school. Roxy isn’t there but there’s Avery, Charlotte and Kendra—named that for obvious, uncreative reasons that include their body shapes, and their obvious appeal—staring at me, looking like they’re two seconds away from marching over here to rip me a new one.
I shoot Kendra a wink, then turn around in the guy’s arms and almost lose my breath when I come face to face with an incredibly hot guy with light green eyes. His hair is messy in a sexy as fuck way, his jaw looks strong and he’s got this evil glint in his eyes as he looks over my shoulder.