Empire High Betrayal(64)

“I’ll be right back,” I said and stole one of Matt’s French fries too.

“You guys really need to get your own fries,” Matt said.

“It’s way more fun to just steal yours.” I kissed his cheek and climbed off his lap. I didn’t tell him I was going to talk to Isabella, because I knew he’d try to stop me. I’d explain it to him later. Right now I just needed to get it over with as quickly as possible.

Isabella smiled at me when I sat down across from her. “I’m not supposed to talk to you, Sissy.”

“I just need to tell you something.”

“Regardless, Daddy will be mad if he knows we spoke.”

“I won’t tell him.”

She dropped her fork on her tray. “Let me make this clear then. I don’t want to talk to you. So you should probably run along back to your boy toy.”

“Matt’s not a boy toy.” Whatever that is.

“Yes he is. You’re only with him to grate on my nerves. And you’re failing. Because I know for a fact that he doesn’t even like you. He’ll come crawling back to me soon enough. Just you wait and see.”

Fuck off. “We’re getting married.”

She laughed. “No. You’re not.”

“Actually we are.”

“You’re adorably absurd,” she said. “You’ll be gone soon enough.”

The way she said it made a chill run down my spine. “Look, I didn’t come over here to argue with you. I came here to warn you about your new boyfriend…”

She laughed. “Cupcake and I aren’t exclusive. I’m only casually seeing him to annoy your friend. You see…” She leaned forward like she didn’t want someone to overhear our conversation. “I’m going to break you, Sissy. And I’m going to do it by breaking everyone around you. I’m going to make it so that I’m not the only one that wants you out of this city. Every. Single. Person that you call a friend? Or lover? They’re going to hate you soon. I made sure of it. Starting with Matt.” She looked down at the watch on her wrist. “Tick. Tick. Boom.”

I laughed because I didn’t know what else to do. Her words made my chest hurt. And my lungs feel tight.

“So is that all?” she asked. “Because I’m in the middle of lunch and you’re making me lose my appetite.”

“Isabella, I came over here to warn you that…”

She held up her hand to stop me. “Oh, darling. No. You came over here so I could warn you. And I just did. So leave, garbage person.” She flicked her wrist to dismiss me.

I took a deep breath. It didn’t matter that she was hateful. She was still a person. And technically she was my sister. “Isabella, I know for a fact that Cupcake uses drugs to take advantage of people.”

She laughed. “I know. He was the one that gave me the idea to drug Kennedy at homecoming. He’s such a catch. Actually, the more I think about it, the more I think we should go steady. Don’t you think? Just for a while of course. Because I’ll be dating Matt as soon as you get the hell out of my city.”

I clenched my jaw so tightly that it hurt. “You’re such a bitch.” I’d texted Rob yesterday to let him know the prank was off. But this conversation really made me want to go back on that decision. How could she laugh about drugging Kennedy? What was wrong with her?

She laughed again. “Daddy doesn’t like it when we curse. I’ll be telling him about that offense.”

Damn it. I was trying to warn her. And all I was accomplishing was getting myself upset. “Just be careful with Cupcake. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“That’s funny. Because I do want to hurt you. Which is exactly why I’m winning this game.”

God, this conversation was pointless. I’d warned her. And I’d had enough. I stood up, but Isabella grabbed my arm with her freezing cold fingers.

“You should probably go out in the hall,” she said. “You have about five minutes before the bell rings to announce the end of lunch. And based on how long my friends have been gone…you’ll probably need more like twenty minutes to undo the damage. Oops.”

“What damage?”

“You’re wasting precious time. The longer you dilly dally, the easier you’re making it on me.” She looked down at her watch again. “I think Matt and you will be over by the end of the day at this rate.”

Fuck. I practically ran out of the cafeteria. I didn’t even look over at my lunch table to see if anyone had noticed me leaving. But as soon as I stepped out into the hall, I prayed that no one was following me.

Shit.

There were printouts of me covering every inch of the hall. Taped to lockers. Scattered all over the hallways of Empire High.

Shit!

They were everywhere, covering practically everything in sight. Even the water fountain had pictures. All the images were a little fuzzy, but they were all of me. In my underwear at the hotel. From the night Isabella had tried to kill me. She must have gotten them from the security cameras.

And there were hundreds. Thousands. What the hell? There were pictures of me running around the hotel with the makeshift map dress. And there were a lot of me holding James’ hand in the hall as we both sprinted away from Donnelley. Actually, most of them were of me and James together. Half-naked. Holding hands. God.