Total pages in book: 157
Estimated words: 150968 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 755(@200wpm)___ 604(@250wpm)___ 503(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 150968 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 755(@200wpm)___ 604(@250wpm)___ 503(@300wpm)
I met Sasha and Jenny in our freshman year. Rich girls who love spending Daddy’s money, and haughty enough to know they can get anything they want. I guess they fit right into the social circle that surrounds me.
Another brief scan around the room and I can tell there are no outsiders in the crowd. Everyone here is from Berkshire Academy.
Berkshire Academy of Weston is the private school of the rich and corrupted. We’re all the same here and we all have one purpose in life: to continue the legacy of our parents. And most of us do it with great arrogance and a hefty superiority complex.
I push through the crowd, moving toward Blythe. She sees me and beckons me over with a drunken grin. “Have you seen Jasper?” I ask once I’m close enough for her to hear me.
“I think he’s upstairs?” She looks at Jakob, who is not focused on anything other than Blythe’s chest. He’s practically drooling. She playfully punches his shoulder, and it’s almost like he snaps out of a reverie. Jakob blinks, confused. “What?”
“You know where Jasper is,” Blythe drawls with a mischievous smirk. “I saw you with him earlier.”
Jakob nods. “Yeah, yeah. Upstairs, with the others,” he says, before going back to staring at Blythe’s chest.
“Okay thanks.”
I leave them to their own things and make my way upstairs. I know there’s only one place where Jasper can be: the TV room. If he’s not downstairs, he’s up here with his close friends. Away from the crowd.
Jasper’s house is practically a labyrinth, but I’ve been here a few times, so I find my way easily. The door is closed, but I can already hear the banging music coming from inside. I don’t hesitate to open the door and walk into the room. The huge flat-screen TV is usually the first thing that grabs my attention, but not today.
The smell of weed and alcohol is so strong, it makes my head dizzy.
I hear drunken giggles and laughter.
And then I see Jasper.
Maybe the universe was trying to warn me… and maybe I turned a blind eye to it. To all the red flags. I think, somehow, I had already known, or at least expected it. But seeing it — the humiliation and confusion that come with it, I wasn’t prepared for that.
I wasn’t prepared to see my boyfriend shoving his tongue down the throat of one of my best friends.
When Seth and Dominic see me, they try to get Jasper’s attention. But he’s too busy with Jenny to even care. There are two more guys and another girl I don’t recognize in the room, and they all pause to look at me.
Finally, Jasper pulls away from Jenny. And I stay standing where I am. By the door, watching them get entangled together. His hand is under her dress and her face is flushed. I’m not sure if it’s because she’s deliriously drunk or because of the gross make-out session that was happening right in front of my eyes.
Suddenly, I find it hard to breathe. The air around me grows heavy as Jasper’s gaze falls on me. The ground sways and my heart thumps against my rib cage: hard and bruising.
I wait for the hurt to come, for the pain of heartbreak. The pain of seeing my boyfriend cheating with my best friend.
But I don’t feel anything except digusted and humiliated.
There’s no pain.
But there’s plenty of fury.
So much pent-up anger, so much tortured frustration that I’ve kept inside me for too long.
My stomach clenches and knots with sickness — I feel like I’m going to retch all over Jasper’s shiny clean floor. But I swallow the bile and I straighten my back.
Flames of hatred lick through my veins and I feel the way my fragile heart hardens.
There’s shame crawling under my flesh, but I don’t let them see it on the surface. I bury it. I bury everything, into the dark abyss that’s there…in the furthest corner of my soul. Where all my other ugly secrets reside.
“O-oh shit, Riley,” Jenny stutters. I see the wave of uncertainty on her face, and the look of pity in her transparent expression.
Jasper doesn’t speak. He doesn’t move Jenny off his lap. He doesn’t try to apologize. He’s high and maybe tipsy, but he’s not completely drunk. He has his senses and he knows how this situation looks right now. But there’s no remorse in his dark eyes.
There’s nothing but mirth that paints his expression. Almost like all of this is a stupid joke. As if I am a joke to him.
Maybe I am…
Maybe I am a joke to all of them.
I take a step back to walk away. Jasper’s grin widens and his fingers curl around Jenny’s neck. He roughly pulls her back to him, his lips crashing against hers in a long, wet lingering kiss. Jenny doesn’t pull away. No, she closes her eyes and kisses him back.