evie
While I’d be the first to admit this uncomfortable predicament with Dash wasn’t ideal, I was glad to see we’d been able to get along somewhat for the time being.
It wasn’t easy being locked away with someone I’d considered my nemesis for the better part of my life. However, he’d been surprisingly polite over the last couple of hours, complimentary even a few times.
It didn’t make up for the last decade by a longshot, but I couldn’t deny it had made the last few hours unexpectedly painless.
The beer sitting in the ice bucket on the dresser calls to me, but knowing my tolerance and the effect his tight shirt had on me over drinks, it’s best I avoid that rabbit hole. Not that I think he has any interest. Despite his complimentary words about the paintings my mom had hung proudly in my father’s studio and how he’d listened to me ramble on about my courses for the better part of an hour, I knew better than to think it was anything more than him trying to make the best of a miserable situation, same as me. Besides, the last thing I want is to give him more ammo for future use. Although the last few hours had been more fun than I thought they’d be, I didn’t have any illusions this temporary truce would last.
They never did with Dash.
He’s an egotistical dick and I’d always treated him as such. I don’t actually want him and we were never meant to be friends, let alone anything more.
Even drunk me knew that.
My phone buzzing pulled my attention away from the bathroom door, I reach for my phone and immediately, my smile slips away.
“That rotten son of a bitch!” I gasp, covering my mouth with my palm as my face heats with humiliation as my phone chimes incessantly with new notifications. “Oh, my God! Oh, fuck. Oh, fuck, fuck, fuck!”
Plastered all over my newsfeed were images of me, intimate images, that Mike had taken when we were together. He swore he’d deleted them from his phone the morning after he’d taken them, but by the looks of my screen, monogamy wasn’t the only thing he’d lied about.
This is bad. No, this is beyond bad. This is a fucking nightmare.
This is like the first fifteen minutes of Snapped where you find out what it was that finally sent the woman over the edge.
My friends, my professors, my family… everyone I knew kept in touch with me on social media since I’d left for school. Everyone could see everything.
In my panic, I throw my phone, stifling a scream into the pillow beside me before I sit straight back up, eyes burning with fresh tears. I reach for the phone, trying my best to ignore the chiming as I pull his name up from my recent calls.
I’m normally a pretty composed person, but I know there’s no way I can keep my voice low right now. The last thing I need is for Dash to hear me mid-breakdown and mention it to Mason tomorrow.
I yank on my heavy coat in a fury, my shoes backwards but my resolve intact as I fly toward the door. Stuffing myself into the small, public bathroom at the end of the hallway, I lock myself into a stall as I mash my thumb against Mike’s face hard enough that I’m sure I’ve almost cracked my screen and pull the phone to my ear.
It rings twice before the smug bastard answers.
“Hey baby,” he sings into the receiver, making me wish I could Freddy Krueger myself through the phone and choke him out.
“What the ever-loving fuck, Michael?” I ground out, my face burning.
“Aww… sweetheart,” he chuckles. “I miss you, too.”
Oh, my God, I hate him.
I’m so furious, I feel like my face is going to explode.
Can your face explode from anger?
I’m about to find out.
“Mike, seriously,” I manage, resting my head against the side of the stall. “Why did you post those pictures? What the hell is the matter with you?”
“You know, you’ve never been very good at taking constructive criticism, Evie,” he starts, the calmness of his voice making me murderous. “I tried to fucking warn you.”
“Warn me? Warn me about what?” I demand in a harsh whisper. “That you’re a psychotic, petty asshole? I feel like I would have remembered that conversation!”
“I told you one day, that pretty little mouth of yours would get you into a heap of shit your ass couldn’t handle. Do you remember that?”
His words leave my mind reeling, furious mortification further heating my cheeks.
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
“What I’m talking about,” he says, his own anger finally making an appearance in his voice as the humor fades. “Is when you left your dorm room, running your fucking mouth, Evie. You don’t think everyone in that building heard you talking your shit? Hmm? Airing out our dirty laundry like a fucking psycho?”
“You created the laundry when you fucked my best friend!” I insist, my fury having me smack my hand against the stall. “Maybe if you hadn’t done that, I wouldn’t have felt like I needed to publicly insult your dick!”
“Well, I hope your little show was worth it, sweetheart,” he spits back. “Because this is what fucking happens when you run your mouth. You get what you fucking give, Evie.”
“Mike, I’d just found you fucking my best friend in my fucking dorm room!” I rail. “I was upset! That doesn’t give you the right to post pictures of my fucking tits and vagina all over the fucking internet!”
“Well, I’m sorry, babe,” he says, his composure returning much faster than mine will. “Technically, those pictures are my creative property and they were taken with your consent. I’ll take them down once I feel like you’ve learned your lesson.”
“Your creative prop…? What?” I whimper, hating the sound of his laughter over the line. “Mike, please. You have to take them down! I understand that I embarrassed you, but in two weeks, no one is even going to remember any of that shit. For Christ’s sake, you’re already fucking someone else. I don’t even know why you care! What you’re doing could ruin my fucking life…”
“Is my little Evie scared?” he croons, cutting me off as his voice dances in amusement. “Do you feel like you’ve learned your lesson?”
“Learned my lesson?” I ask, the small chuckle leaving my lips holding no humor. “Mike, you cheated on me. What are you not understanding about that?” I continue, my shoulders slumped in defeat. “I mean, seriously. What the hell did I do to you? If you didn’t want to be with me anymore, you could have just said that, Mike. I know I’m not easy to deal with…”
“Ha!” he cuts me off. “That’s an understatement.”
“That! Right there! Why are you acting like that towards me?” I demand. “You cheated on me, not the other way around. I lashed out because of your actions. Why do you think I deserve being treated like this?”
“Because you’re a bitch, Evie. That’s why,” he starts, the humor gone in his voice, too. “Because you think you’re better than me.”
“No, I don’t,” I whisper, wiping my tears away. “Mike, I loved you.”
“First of all, you didn’t love me, you love your fucking career,” he spits. “Second, it is true. You never want to hang out with my friends, you act like what you’re doing is so much more important than anything I’ll ever do,” he continues. “I just got sick of it.”
“So, you cheat on me with my best friend and post naked pictures of me online? How is that even close to the same thing?” I ask, my mind reeling. “Okay, fine. I’m a selfish bitch sometimes,” I admit. “Whatever. I would never cheat on you with one of your friends and I damned sure wouldn’t try to ruin your fucking career!”
“Lindsay wasn’t intentional,” he admits, an earnest sigh leaving his chest. “I came to your room to end everything and you were gone, but she was there so I figured why the hell not? It wouldn’t hurt to knock that little ego of yours down a peg, ya know? I’m sure the next guy will thank me.”
“Oh, my God,” I shake my head, still in shock at the course my life had taken over the course of the last thirty-six hours. “Mike, you have serious problems.”
“One less now,” he replies, releasing a long, low breath, making my chest clench again. “Anyway, I’ll take them down. My point has been made, enough people have seen what kind of girl you really are,” he says, the smirk in his voice obvious. “I’ll also have my shit out of your room by the time you get back.”
“So, that’s it?” I sniff. “That’s all you have to say to me?”
The line is quiet for a bit until finally, he releases another sigh and I don’t have to see him to know he’s wearing some cocky ass, douchebag smirk.
Fucker.
“You had to see this coming,” he says low. “Maybe not all of it, but you had to know this wasn’t working, Eve.”
“Yeah, but I didn’t want things to end this way, Mike,” I admit low. “They didn’t have to.”
“I don’t know what you want me to say.”
“Nothing,” I shake my head, batting at the toilet paper roll beside me and drying my tears. “Thanks for taking them down. Please delete them this time.”
“I will,” he offers. “Promise.”
“Yeah, I’m sure,” I roll my eyes as the line goes dead.
Without lifting my forehead from the stall, I stare down at my screen, cursing technology as slowly, the images begin to disappear one by one. I fill with slight relief, the nagging voice in the back of my head telling me some of the damage done can’t be erased, but grateful the chances of one of my professors, or worse, my mom or Mason, seeing the pictures is at least lessened now.
After ten minutes of sobbing in the public bathroom like a lunatic, I pull my exhausted frame from its place and shuffle back toward our room.
When I push the door open, I’m glad to find Dash is still in the shower. Locking the door, I take a final deep breath, drop my coat and head straight for the alcohol.
Fuck it.