Ella's Twisted Senior Year(30)

But I can’t shrug her off. Something visceral inside of me awakens, and all it wants to do is rip her head off and cry out in victory.

“How dare you try to steal my boyfriend,” Kennedy says, flipping her hair over her shoulder. She’s taller than I am, and maybe even stronger thanks to cheerleading. But I grab onto the beast inside of me, the tiny little piece of self-esteem that’s been hiding way too long.

This is wrong, and probably not in the spirit of an after-school-special movie, but it’s going to feel great.

I saunter over to Ethan and slide my hands up his chest, linking them behind his neck. His eyes startle, their darkness showing something surprised and elated at the same time.

I lean up on my toes and kiss him on the cheek. “You’re right, Kennedy. I did steal your boyfriend. But don’t act like it was hard or anything,” I say, mocking her stupid flirty pout expression. “You made it so easy I didn’t even have to try.”

The look on Kennedy’s face is pure gold. Pure, uncontrolled satisfaction floods through my veins, making me feel like freaking Cleopatra in all of her glory. I’m so high on throwing a bitch move right back at the Head of Bitches herself, that I barely notice when Ethan slides his hand around my waist and pulls me against his chest in an act of solidarity.

Kennedy glares at Ethan. “Don’t ever call me insane again,” she hisses. She points at the two of us. “I called this. I’m not some kind of crazy ex-girlfriend, Ethan. I knew it would happen and I called it. Kiss your popularity goodbye. I’ll have the entire school against you by tomorrow.”

I heave a heavy, dramatic sigh. “You should probably go before we start making out.”

Anger flashes behind her eyes and then she launches toward me, her fist aiming straight for my face.

Ethan holds me back but I twist out of his grip. I’m not about to let her hit me, but I also won’t hit the princess back. God only knows what drama that would cause. As if seeing it all in slow motion, I grab her fist before it collides with my face. Stepping backward, I pull her down, using her own momentum to throw her straight to the concrete.

I jump back as she hits the ground and she lets out a flurry of curse words.

The high-pitched tapping of Mrs. Poe’s heels on the sidewalk catch my attention. She’s holding her cell phone.

“Kennedy, dear, you need to leave. Otherwise I’ll have the police escort you back home.”

Kennedy scrambles to her feet, brushing her hands on her jeans. “Did you see what she did to me?”

Mrs. Poe nods. “I saw Ella act in self-defense. Now leave please. You’re no longer welcome at my home.”

The fiasco ends as quickly as it began, but I think Ethan and I both know this won’t be the end of dealing with her.

“I’m so sorry about that,” I tell Mrs. Poe as we follow her inside. My stomach flips over as I wonder about what exactly she saw. Did she see me kiss her son? See my arms around him, taunting his ex? Oh god. This is mortifying.

“Don’t worry about it, Ella.” Mrs. Poe gives us a side-eyed grin as she sets her phone on an end table near the couch. “I’ve been waiting for someone to put that girl in her place. She never had any manners over here.”

Ethan grabs my hand and pulls me into the privacy of the stairs, walking halfway up them until we’re hidden by the walls. He’s breathing quickly, his eyes bursting with excitement.

“That was so freaking hot,” he whispers. “I will forever be happy when I picture you putting her in her place.” His hands grab my hips and he takes a step down until we’re eye-to-eye. My body is on fire where he touches me, and the knot in my stomach turns into a nervous flutter that I never want to lose. He drops his forehead to mine. “Was that just an act?”

I shrug. “Well . . . yeah.”

His shoulders fall and his grip on me loosens. I press forward, leaning into him until his back is against the wall. My fingers crawl up his chest and I grin. “But it was fun pretending,” I whisper.

“You’re killing me,” he says, his voice breathy.

“Kids, do ya’ll want pizza for dinner?” Mrs. Poe’s voice makes us rocket away from each other as if we’d both just become infectious. “Yeah,” Ethan croaks. “Yeah, we like pizza.”

My eyes crinkle as I hold back laughter. “This is going to be fun,” I tell him. Then I turn and jog up the stairs, leaving him soaking in all of that sexual tension we’d left behind.





Chapter 17





I meet Ella’s eyes across the dinner table. The look on her face—polite yet a little disturbed—makes me grin. We should have known better than to think that Mom meant real pizza when she asked if we wanted pizza for dinner.

“This is really great,” Mrs. Lockhart says, taking a bite of Mom’s homemade health food. It is round, with vegan cheese and something resembling a crust, but it’s not pizza. You can’t call this pizza, no matter how you dress it up.

“Thanks, Samantha,” Mom says, looking positively smitten with the compliment. “It’s cauliflower crust, but it tastes amazing, right?”

I sputter, holding the mouthful of fake pizza in my mouth. “Cauliflower?” I mumble with my mouth full. Ella giggles.

Mom waves a hand at me. “Just eat it. Your sister’s not complaining and neither is Ella.”