31

Something inside me snapped as I watched her self-righteous ass flounce out the door. The nerve of her, talking about what I’d done to her after she’d spearheaded a worldwide smear campaign against me, for crying out loud. She’d tried to ruin my life, and possibly TJ’s and Charlie’s lives too. Who the hell did she think she was?

I took off like a racehorse out of the gate, bolting down the stairs so fast that they shook. Pure adrenaline pumped my legs and I shot out of the door seconds behind Kendall.

“Kendall!”

She didn’t turn around. “Fuck off, Marisa.”

That did it. I launched myself at her back with kung fu skills I never knew I had, and we landed in the snow with a thud and a yelp.

“Get off me!” Kendall screeched, wriggling onto her back like a wild animal beneath my weight. I shoved her shoulders into the ground, not caring that the snow seeped through the knees of my jeans as I pinned her.

“Where did you get those pictures of Jordan and me?” I yelled in her face.

“Get off me, you bitch!”

She flailed an arm free and smacked me in the face, catching fingerfuls of hair and knocking my knit cap cockeyed in the process. I grabbed her wrist and rammed it back to the ground. Two red streaks appeared on her cheek when she scratched her own face trying to fight it.

“Tell me where you got them! And then tell me you’re taking that site down or I swear to God, you’re going to regret it!”

“Stop!” The sound of pounding footfalls met my ears seconds before hands swooped down and pulled me off Kendall like a bird snatching a fish out of water.

“Let go of me!” I shouted at TJ, bucking and flinging myself in every direction, but he wrapped his arms around me and held fast. “Did you have something to do with Charlie being framed?” I demanded as Kendall scrambled to her feet. “Did you?”

“You are insane!” She smacked at the snow on her clothes and tried to flip her matted hair away from her face, but it stuck to her cheeks in wet, dirty clumps.

“If you had anything to do with it, I swear to God I’ll find out. I’ll ruin you, Kendall, I swear it.” I made one more attempt to lunge at her, but TJ’s arms stayed locked around my shoulders.

“Go ahead and try, Marisa.” She clawed at the snow by her feet, then hurled a snowball at my face. “You’re already fucking ruined.”

Then she turned and stomped toward her car, leaving the remains of our friendship to melt away with the snow.

• • •

TJ didn’t let go of me until Kendall had revved her engine and sped away.

“What the hell were you thinking?” He dropped my arms. I hadn’t stopped squirming and promptly fell on my butt. For a moment, we stared at each other, breathing hard. He leaned down and picked up my hat, which had fallen off sometime after Kendall’d whacked me, and held out his other hand to help me up.

“I’m sorry,” I said, reaching for his hand and brushing myself off. “I couldn’t help it. I can’t believe how selfish she is.”

“We still don’t know how much of what we talked about is true. Thank God you didn’t say more. I don’t want her to know I’m looking for answers about what happened to me.”

“Not that I’d throw you under the bus, but what difference does it make now?”

TJ frowned. “I already broke up with her and hooked up with her friend. If it turns out she’s innocent, why add insult to injury?”

I snatched my hat back and jammed it on my head, dirt, wetness, and all. “We didn’t hook up. We kissed. And unless you blabbed, she doesn’t even know about that part. I’m done protecting her, and you should be too.”

He hooked his thumbs into his belt loops and hunched his shoulders. Whether it was the cold or a gesture of apology, I couldn’t tell.

“You of all people should understand wanting to give someone the benefit of the doubt.”

So we were back to Jordan again. I rolled my eyes. “Do I have to remind you that you and Jordan are on that website right next to me?”

“Of course not.” He scratched his head and dug the heel of his work boot into the snow. “What offer was she talking about?”

“I don’t know,” I said as I rolled my sleeves back to keep the moisture off my skin. “I was more interested in beating the crap out of her than finding out.”

To my surprise, TJ smiled. And then chuckled. “I’ll deny saying this later, but that was kind of hot.”

I couldn’t not smile back. Except when I did, his eyes dropped to the ground and the grin dropped off his face. So much for that.

“Yeah, well, it doesn’t feel so hot right now,” I said. “I’d better get home and wash these clothes.”

I started toward my car, but TJ called after me. “Marisa?”

I turned around.

“I’ll keep you posted if Eli finds anything, okay?”

“Sounds good.” I resumed crunching through the snow, but only took a few steps before I turned again. “TJ?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m assuming your invitation to the winter formal is recalled?”

He rocked on his heels. “It’s not that I don’t want to go with you, Marisa, but I don’t think—”

I cut him off. “Don’t worry about it. I just realized I never gave you an answer. For the record, it would’ve been yes.”

I didn’t wait for a response before finishing the trek to my car. I had bigger fish to fry at the moment. I understood that TJ still felt some twisted tether of loyalty to Kendall, but I’d had enough. It was one thing to mess with me, but if she thought she could mess with my friends and get away with it, she had another thing coming.

I took out my phone and went to text Kendall, but found she’d beaten me to it. When I looked at her message, I finally knew what “offer” she’d been talking about:

Stay away from TJ and I’ll explain everything.

I snorted. That sounded more like a threat than an offer, and I wasn’t impressed. I hit reply. The message was short and not so sweet:

Take down the website or I’m taking you down.