“You can’t. You’re not allowed to kill people, Isabella. Your father told me the rules.” I wanted to believe it. For some reason I did believe that she wouldn’t kill me. But Kennedy? I had no freaking idea what Isabella was capable of.
“There are ways around rules, Sissy. Accidental limo explosions are one of those ways. Besides, no one’s going to miss her. For some reason it’s so much more fun now that I got to know her first, you know what I mean?”
No, you crazy bitch! “Sir Wilfred is in there! You can’t blow up your dog.”
“Hmmm. Good point. But moot. I saw you pet him. Sir Wilfred is officially tainted. Besides, he’s hardly trained. I’ll just buy another.”
“Donnelley, do something. Please.”
Isabella laughed. “Oh, darling. You’re crying again. Such a hot mess. And don’t speak to Donnelley. He can’t help you.”
“Of course he can. Donnelley, please!”
“No, he can’t,” Isabella said a little sterner. “Donnelley here is from a very religious family. And do you know what I caught him doing a week ago? Making out with your new friend Justin in a closet.” She laughed. “How fitting right? Since Donnelley is in the closet. And what on earth would his dear mother think if she found out he was batting for the wrong team?”
You horrible witch. All she knew was blackmail and hatred. I looked over at Donnelley. He was crying too. I could see it in his eyes. How sorry he was. But this wasn’t his fault. None of this was his fault.
“Tick tock,” Isabella said. “Only one minute left. What are you going to do?”
It wasn’t a choice. I couldn’t let Isabella kill my best friend. I couldn’t let her out Donnelley. I couldn’t even let her blow up her evil dog.
I picked up the map.
“Good girl. And don’t worry. I’ll take great care of Matt. Now disappear, trash goblin.”
I pulled the map to my chest. I wanted something to come to me that would help me out of this mess. Something clever. But all I could think about was that I had to run. I had to save them.
A gust of wind made goosebumps rise all over my skin. The map blew out of my hands. I tried to grab it, but my feet slipped in a puddle. I fell to my knees, the water splashing all over me.
Isabella laughed.
I looked down at myself sitting in the puddle and I hated that I saw what Isabella saw. Trash. I couldn’t think of a clever way out of this because I wasn’t a scholarship student at Empire High. I was the janitor’s niece. I never belonged here. All I’d done was broken the Caldwells and Hunters lifelong friendship, put my best friend’s life in jeopardy, and ruined the last few months of my uncle’s life. I’d been trying not to think about the last few months, but as soon as I did, it hit me like a ton of bricks. It didn’t matter that Uncle Jim had reassured me otherwise. He still could have been doing anything in the world, but he gave up everything for me. And why? I stared at my hands in the muddy puddle. I was trash.
“Oh, and Sissy?”
I didn’t turn to look at her. I didn’t want her to see the tears streaming down my face. I didn’t want her to know exactly how much she had won.
“If you ever come back to NYC, I’ll shoot you in the face.”
How had it come to this? Yes, I’d made mistakes, but I wasn’t trash. It was just like Matt had said. Even people who made mistakes were allowed to be happy. I didn’t want to have to leave without telling him that he was right. Right about that. Right about us. A sob escaped my throat.
Isabella’s laughter pierced the autumn night.
And it was like the sound of it shook me out of my trance. Isabella was a monster. But I was half Pruitt. That meant that I was half monster too. It was in me somewhere. I knew it was.
I took a deep breath and stood up. I tried to hide the fact that my body was shaking from the cold. I put one foot in front of the other, ignoring the pavement tearing at the soles of my feet. And I tried to keep my head held high even though her laughter tried it’s best to cut me down.
I’d make it look like I was leaving NYC. But Isabella wasn’t the queen. And I refused to bow down to her. As soon as I was sure Kennedy was safe, I’d be back. I would never let Isabella win. I would never let her break my spirit. I would never let her hurt me like this again. I would never let her torture Matt. Nunca.
*
Thank you for reading Empire High Elite! I have good news and bad news:
The bad news is that Book 3 doesn’t come out until January.