Better Than Revenge (Sweet Secrets #1) (23 page)

The sound of pee splashing in the toilet was loud and splattering. It was followed by the sound of the toilet paper roll squeaking as it turned, and then the toilet flushing loudly. My heart pounded harder as the person made their way to the sink, washed their hands, and then stood there for a few moments. I heard a deep yawn, the water coming on again for a moment, and then, finally, the sound of the door opening. I let out a small puff of air as whoever it was left the bathroom, flicking the light switch off on the way out.

I was too afraid that I’d get caught if I moved, so I stayed still for a good five minutes, just listening to make sure everything was quiet before I left my hiding spot. Despite the silence, I was still nervous as I stepped out of the tub, and raised the toilet seat to begin wrapping the bowl in plastic wrap. Once I was finished, I made sure that everything looked normal before I stuffed the plastic wrap back in my bag, and quickly left the bathroom. I made sure everything was in the same place before leaving the room and hurrying down the hallway.

On my way to the staircases, I was in such a hurry that I wasn’t as careful as I had been the first time. As I neared the stairwell my foot got caught on the hallway throw rug, and I crashed landed on the ground. My reflexes weren’t as quick as I hoped, and my hands caught myself just as my head hit the hardwood floor. My face stung on impact, and as I went to push myself up, my skull throbbed where it made contact with the floor, and a wave of dizziness overcame me. I didn’t have time to wallow in my pain though, I had to move even faster now after my screw up. We were too close to success to be caught now.

The sound of my fall was so loud in the silent house that all odds were against me now. There was probably no way that I was going to get out of here without being caught. To make matters worse, when I fell I had let out a startled shriek. The sound of the scream, and my face and hands hitting the ground had echoed through the hallway, and suddenly I heard voices. Ignoring the soft throbbing in my head, I instantly hopped up and clutched my bag tightly in my hands. Not caring anymore about the noise, I pounded hurriedly down the stairs just as the hall light lit up the stairway. At the bottom of the stairs I sprinted as fast as my legs would carry me. I ran to the window and grabbed my shoes, stuffing them in my bag. Lena had left a shoe so I grabbed that too and dove out of the window. I hit the ground with a muffled
oomph
, getting my hands and knees wet from the damp and slightly muddy grass.

I huffed and puffed, breathing heavily as I raced back to the car. Hopping in quickly I pulled my seat belt on and sat in anticipation, waiting for a moment until I saw Lena sprint toward the driver’s side of the car. She climbed into the front seat and forced me to duck down. We hid in the car for about ten minutes, before Lena deemed that it was safe for us to drive away. The car pulled away from the curb and Lena headed back to her house. She let out a loud holler and screeched excitedly. “We did it! Oh my god my heart is pounding.”

“Mine too,” I laughed, my fingers stroking my sore face. I’d most likely have some pretty dark bruising in the morning.

“Thanks for grabbing my shoes,” Lena sighed as she pulled up near her house.

I nodded and handed her the shoe that she had forgotten. “You’re welcome.”

Lena turned the car off and turned toward me slowly. Her expression was one of confusion. “What? Did you seriously only get one?”

I nodded, pulling my brows together at her question. How could I get both of her shoes if she had only forgotten to grab one of them?

Lena smacked a hand to her forehead and groaned. “That means that one of my shoes is still in the house.”

My mouth formed a small ‘o’ shape at the sudden realization that hit me. She hadn’t grabbed either of her shoes. I had only seen one and assumed that she had forgotten it, when in actuality, I was the one who had left a shoe behind.

“Oh my gosh, this is bad.” She rested her head on the steering wheel. “What if they find my shoe? It probably got pushed under the chair.”

My head spun. “Maybe they won’t see it?”

Lena groaned. “Here’s hoping.”

Chapter 28

The next few weeks at school were uneventful. Brianna remained flawless, strutting through the locker-lined hallways as if she was Beyoncé herself. Her hair was still as yellowy as a banana peel and she seemed happier than ever. Seeing Brianna in such a bright mood was tiring me out. All day long I tried to avoid her. It was almost as if her great mood was draining me of all my energy. I was just so ready for her to get what she deserved. No one should get away with meddling in other people’s lives.

The only revenge that had been completed was the fish. According to Ella, Brianna had her car smelling of old fish for a few days until she searched it and found the fish that Lena had hidden under the seats. She had taken her car to have the seats shampooed and that was the end of that.

I was surprised that the itching powder hadn’t affected her. I had gotten just a tiny bit on my finger and that itched for a few days afterwards. Either Brianna had a high tolerance for itching, or she just was getting off lucky and wasn’t wearing any of the items that I had dowsed in itching powder. Lena kept telling me that I needed to be more patient. She was right, I guess. Brianna wasn’t just going to fall from popularity in the span of a few days. It was going to take a month at least. Until the time came, I was just going to have to go on about my business, ignoring her happiness and trying to find my own.

Blake and I hadn’t spoken since an unfortunate bump into each other outside the boy’s locker room. I was late to class, and he was going to the water fountain. The tension between us was so obvious that even a blind man could see it. Our conversation was different than they ever had been before; it was forced, short, and above all it was extremely awkward. It was the most uninteresting conversation I had ever participated in, including the conversations I have with my dentist about flossing while she picked through my teeth. Yet, despite how awfully boring it was, I can still remember everything that was said. His gym uniform t-shirt was a bit too big for him so he was telling me about how he had to tuck it into his shorts, which were a size too small. I remember nodding along like I really cared about his gym uniform struggles, when I replied with, “I hope the water fountain has cold water now, it’s usually hot,” before I waved and disappeared to find my class, mentally slapping myself for saying something so stupid and off topic.

Despite my anger over what I had said, I was angrier about what I hadn’t said. The conversation played in my head every night on replay. I couldn’t help but wish that I had stopped his incessant rambling and had changed the subject to something that actually mattered; like how he was doing, or if his mom had made any of her infamous macaroni and cheese lately.

I also wanted to tell him that I still loved him, and that I was ready to move on and start over. Lena was glad that I hadn’t said that. She says that even if I do feel that way, we should still take more time apart to really think about our feelings and not try to rush back into anything. According to her, I should wait until he makes an effort to win me back, not the other way around. After all, he’s the one who messed up, not me, and I should “exert my power as a woman and stand strong”. Those were her exact words.

Ella and I had gotten a lot closer than we had been before. After enacting our revenge scheme, we had exchanged numbers and had been texting nonstop since. We bonded over our mutual hate for Brianna and surprisingly enough, we found plenty of other things that we had in common. Not including our taste in men; a subject that we had discussed quite a few times, each time ending with her apologizing profusely. She was sorry for lying to me, treating me rudely, and for kissing Blake in the first place, and I was sorry about hating her when she hadn’t even known that Blake was seeing someone else when she kissed him. With that out of the way, Ella and I were friends in no time. It was crazy how much she was like Lena.

Ella continued to hang around with Brianna as a double agent so that she could get an inside look on all of the events. It had been Lena’s idea to make an anonymous movie of our revenge and send it to Brianna after everything was through. The sad part was that we hadn’t thought of the idea in time to record the actual revenge.

Exactly a month and two days after our late night revenge scheme, Brianna came to school looking utterly devastated. I didn’t know if it had to do with problems at home, or with the fact that her hair was frizzy, and a burnt shade of orange. She had tried to tuck a majority of her hair into the hood on the over-sized pink sweatshirt that she was wearing, but reddish-orange hair kept slipping out and was easily seen despite the hood.

Behind her stood Ella, Anya, and a shiny haired blonde who was about four inches shorter than the other girls. Ella’s naturally red hair framed her face in tight curls that stopped at her shoulders, and her eyes twinkled as she was obviously trying to hold back laughter. Anya looked worried as she glanced up and down the hallway seeing all of the attention that Brianna was getting. Most of the people in the hallway had stopped what they were doing and were blatantly staring in the direction of the four girls. Some were laughing, while others were whispering. Then there were the select few people who were just staring in shock.

Brianna’s baby blue eyes flitted around the hallway as she headed toward her locker, while her followers did what they do best; followed her.

“Nice hair,” someone joked, causing a few more laughs to bubble up from the ever growing throng of students.

Brianna swiped her manicured nails under her hood and tucked her hair back as her cheeks began to burn a deep shade of red. With Brianna blushing so flagrantly, she looked like an innocent little kid who had gotten caught doing something wrong. I was starting to feel bad for her when next to me Lena grabbed my arm and laughed loudly. Her laugh was a bit forced so that it came out louder than it naturally would have. “I can’t believe the henna worked!” she whisper-yelled at me.

I smirked. “It was a good idea.”

Lena’s eyes focused on Brianna as she made her way down the hallway and stopped at her locker. I thought I had even caught a glimpse of blue-stained teeth, but before I could be one hundred percent sure, her mouth was back to being pressed into a tight line. “Hell yeah it was. I can’t believe it took her so long to dye her hair though.”

“Hey, better late than never, right?”

“I guess.”

We lulled off into a silence as we focused all of our attention on Brianna as she turned the corner while a majority of our peers laughed behind her. Despite feeling a bit guilty about the situation, I couldn’t help the pride that swelled up inside of me for turning blonde, bitchy, Brianna into just bitchy Brianna.

“I wish the itching powder had worked.”

“I do too,” I agreed, turning toward my locker. “Has she just not worn any of the stuff I poured it on? How is that possible?” My locker clicked open after I enter the combination expertly. I switched out a few binders and closed it back. “I even poured it in her underwear drawer. Does she not wear underwear or something?”

“I don’t know. Maybe she’s been getting lucky. It’s just a matter of time really.”

We trudged off to our class, talking about Brianna’s hair the whole way there. Most of the conversations in the hallway were about her and her bad hair day. Lena was annoyed that by ruining Brianna’s hair, we had effectively made her even more of the talk of the school than she already had been.

Class passed by at a slower pace than usual, and by the time the bell rang to dismiss us to our buses, I was almost asleep on my desk. Lena had been paying attention to the lecture as if her life depended on it. As we made our way to the buses, she blabbed on about how interesting class had been and how great of a teacher Mr. Hernandez is for making math so interesting. If our teacher didn’t look so much like an Oompa Loompa I may have entertained the idea that she had a crush on him.

As we boarded the bus, we continued to talk about which classes we enjoyed the most and the least. I stopped focusing on what Lena was saying as we walked down the aisle, past Blake, and sat a few rows behind him. His head was tilted to the side and he was leaning up against the window, staring ahead. Suddenly, my urge to talk to him was overwhelming. I was the one after all who had put a stop to our relationship and friendship. At the moment, I couldn’t think of a good enough reason to why we weren’t even able to be friends anymore. People made mistakes, and I wasn’t ready to overlook his, but I didn’t want to cut him out of my life completely.

“You aren’t even listening to me,” Lena speculated.

“Sorry,” I mumbled. “I was just thinking.”

“About Blake. I know you were.” Lena swiped her vibrant hair so that it all fell over one shoulder.

“Yeah, I think I’m going to sit with him.”

Lena raised an eyebrow, her eyes widening. “Seriously?”

I nodded.

“Well damn. Go 'head, Forrester. Get yo' man.” She snapped her fingers and winked flirtatiously.

“Don’t ever do that again,” I joked. A smile tugged at the corners of my lips. “Sassy doesn’t work for you.”

Rolling her eyes, she smirked and shoved at my side, practically forcing me out of the seat. “Go already.”

I stood quickly just as the doors to the bus closed and I hurriedly walked the few seats to where Blake was sitting. He looked up at me, a look of pure confusion on his face.

“Can I sit here?” I asked. I was slightly worried that he was going to say no, but to my surprise, he moved his bag from the seat and smiled.

I graciously accepted the seat and placed my backpack in between my feet on the floor. “So, how’s it going? I haven’t talked to you in a while.”

He raised an eyebrow, giving me a small smile. “We talked last week.”

“I mean really talked. Not about gym clothes and water temperature. Just about life.” I shrugged as I said the word “life” and hoped he would understand what I meant.

“Life, huh? Well, life’s treating me well. My mom’s pregnant.” Blake smiled at me, not the forced smiles that I had been receiving from him since we had broken up, but an actual full mouthed grin. His pale blue eyes were wide with joy, making him look like a little kid on Christmas morning.

My mouth opened a bit at the news. “She's pregnant?”

Blake nodded, still smiling hard.

The bus bounced to a stop and then began to move again as I returned his smile. “That’s so great, Blake. When did you find out?”

“She and dad told me last night. She’s three months along.”

“Is she excited? I distinctly remember your parents saying that you were their first and last kid.”

Blake chuckled, and scratched the back of his neck. “She’s super excited. Dad’s worried though. He keeps saying that we should go to baby care classes because he forgot how to change a diaper and hold a baby.”

I laughed, shaking my head. “Oh my gosh. He’ll be fine. Hopefully for his sake, the baby will be a boy though. Since he’s already had practice dealing with a son.”

Blake shrugged. “I kind of want a little sister though. When I first heard that she was pregnant, I just imagined having a little sister. I’d beat up any of the guys who even look at her.” Blake crossed his arms at the thought of his little sister’s future suitors.

“I don’t think you’d have to worry about that for a long time though,” I reassured him. “Besides, you may have a little brother in six months and you won’t even have to worry about it at all.”

“I guess so. I also want to see what I would have looked like if I had been a girl.” He smiled for a second, and then laughed, causing me to join in.

Through my chuckles, I managed, “I bet you’d have been a pretty girl!”

Blake smirked. “Think so?” I nodded and he replied with, “Thanks, Vi.”

“Yeah. I also think that if you do end up with a little sister, you’d be a pretty good older brother.” Our eyes met, and I quickly looked at the back of the seat in front of me. “You know, since you’re really good with Lilly.”

The bus came to a stop, and the doors opened. Sitting and talking with Blake had been so easy that I didn’t even realize that we had already made it to his bus stop.

“I have to come and see her. I miss you and your family.”

The sincerity in his words made my thoughts go into overdrive as I stood up into the aisle to let him pass.

“I miss you and your family too.” I smiled awkwardly at him and then made my way back to Lena, who gave me a curious look.

I shrugged my shoulders nonchalantly and leaned back in the seat, sighing. In the span of a few months I had lost my best friend and boyfriend. The only thing that made my realization easier was the fact that it hadn’t been my fault.

Still, it hurt all the same.