Mutual Hatred - Love Game (37 page)

"Except for your reputation," Chelsey put in.

"That's what you think," he sneered, "I've got more to gain that I could ever possibly lose."

"What, you think that by dedicating a song to a girl on the radio, Shelley's all yours? It's not that easy!" cried Chelsey.

"Oh, so you heard it too?"

"
Everyone
heard your little confession," Chelsey said, sounding fully frustrated. "It was so sickeningly sweet."

"Good," he grinned.

If there was anything Chelsey Smith couldn't stand more, it was seeing the boy she had pined after for
years
grinning because of a girl! A girl who didn't happen to be her. The girl who was her ex-best friend.

Oh, how life had a way of kicking you in the ass when you least expected it.

"Humph," grumbled Chelsey. She struggled to regain some composure. All she needed was a little power; then she'd be back to normal in no time. "Have it your way, then. I'm going to go tell Shelley everything."

Brandon didn't look the least bit intimidated. "Chelsey, in the past three or so minutes of this conversation, I have repeatedly told you I don't care who you tell. None of it matters, because I've finally beaten you at your own sick game."

"I think you've forgotten the rules. You win if you break her heart by Christmas," she corrected, "Not for winning her heart."

"Oh, but winning her heart
is
winning."

"Ew," Chelsey scoffed. "Well we'll see how happy you feel once Shelley knows the truth."

"Know the truth about what?" asked Shelley.

Oh, shit.

Brandon sent Shelley a pointed look. She noticed and gave him a slight nod in recognition.

"Just wanted to talk. Clear things up, you know, the usual," said Chelsey airily, filing her nails as she said so.

"Since when have you just wanted to 'talk' to me?" snorted Shelley.

"Well, I heard about what Brandon did for you on the radio last night," Chelsey said, her voice laced with contempt, "And I want to give you the facts so you don't get confused into thinking he actually
meant
that."

"Excuse me?" Shelley said icily.

"Silly goose! You don't actually think that Brandon likes you, do you?" Chelsey clapped a hand over her mouth. "Oh my gosh, you did! That's so cute!" Her face turned malicious. "Too bad he doesn't like you at all. He thinks you're a selfish bitch who's incredibly full of herself!"

"Now, Chelsey, that's not true," Brandon said quickly, but he went unnoticed.

"What the fuck are you on about, Chelsey?" demanded Shelley.

"Oh, you didn't know? Well I guess I'll tell you then. See, Brandon only pretended to like you because I was blackmailing him!" said Chelsey, as if it were obvious. "I mean, why would he go out with you when he could go out with me?"

"Good question," Shelley said in her fakest voice. "I mean, you're slutty, malicious, and stupid. Gosh, even
I
would go lesbian for you!"

Brandon laughed coldly, which probably wasn't the right thing to do. Chelsey's eyes were flashing. "Forgive me for not being holy and pious like you are, Shelley. Not all of us can keep our pants on."

"You say that like it's a bad thing," Shelley said mockingly. "How many STDs are you carrying, Chels? Like all of them? I wonder if your partners knew you had them. Gosh, didn't you sleep with Chris Kent last week?" Shelley's voice rose suddenly when she said, "Did you conveniently forget to tell him that you have herpes and chlamydia?"

"Shit!" cried a voice from behind them. Chelsey and Shelley both looked and saw the one and only Chris Kent himself, looking scared and thoroughly disgusted as he quickly scurried away from them.

"Face it, Smith," Shelley said coolly, "You're a walking STD. No one likes you and the

only reason you like to make people miserable is because you get some sick thrill out of

it. Your life SUCKS and guess what? It's all your fault!"

"You're just saying that because you know Brandon likes me and not you," Chelsey said evenly.

"Do you honestly believe that?"

"Why shouldn't I?" Chelsey observed.

"Then
you
, my whoretastic friend, have been deluding yourself," said Shelley, "Or did you really believe that Brandon likes you? Oh my gosh! You did! That's so incredibly cute!"

Chelsey narrowed her eyes. "Didn't you hear me earlier when I said I'm blackmailing Brandon into seducing you?"

Shelley's smile was eerily one of glee. "Yes, I did."

"And?" prodded Chelsey.

"And what?"

"Aren't you going to blow up? Slap Brandon or something?" Chelsey grabbed Brandon by the shirtsleeve and pushed him forward.

Shelley laughed obnoxiously loudly, throwing her head back as she did so. "Oh, no, no. The only person I'm going to slap is you."

And she did. No one saw it coming, but you couldn't say that it was totally out of the blue. Brandon quickly moved out of the way as Shelley raised her hand and slapped Chelsey so hard it resulted in such a crack that made everyone in the vicinity wince.

Chelsey had to have known it was coming.

"Yeah, actually, that felt good," Shelley said darkly as Chelsey quickly recoiled. "And I'll do it again if I have to. Slapping useless bitches suddenly makes me feel a lot more at peace with myself," Shelley said amiably. She smiled at her former best friend.

Clutching her cheek, Chelsey managed a hoarse, "You really are a bitch, you know that? I may be a bitch too, but you're just-you're…" Chelsey couldn't seem to find a word for it. "You take bitchiness to a whole new level!"

"I think you're referring to yourself, if that's the case," said Shelley.

"You know what? I was going to spare you the pain and humiliation, but what the hell! I'm going to tell you and the whole school," she paused to indicate the crowd that had formed around them, "that Brandon Miller has the smallest penis I have ever seen. And I threatened to tell the whole school if he didn't make you fall in love with him and break your heart by Christmas," Chelsey finished triumphantly. "So it's like I said. If you think he actually dedicated that stupid song because he actually
fucking
cared about you, he doesn't. And if he didn't do it because he cared about me, then it was for his pride. You don't mean anything to him at all. You're just another blonde bimbo."

"And you're just a lonely, bitter girl. Tell me Chelsey, what's it feel like to lose all the time?"

It was Chelsey's turn to smirk. "Not this time. I fucking beat Brandon. And I can see your heart is crushed, isn't it? Poor, Shelley Sinclair, died of a broken heart. Tell me, do you love him?"

"Yeah, I do."

"So isn't the news of Brandon being
blackmailed
into getting you to fall for him completely devastating?"

"Not really."

"Why not?" Chelsey demanded.

"I guess you should know, Chelsey, I've known about the blackmail this whole time. You might want to choose your lackeys more carefully next time; not all of them are," Shelley paused for dramatic effect, "loyal."

Chelsey's eyes narrowed. "Who? Who
fucking
told you? TELL ME!" she shrieked. "I'll kill that bitch!"

Shelley leaned in conspiratorially. "Can you keep a secret?"

"Of course," Chelsey lied.

"Good. So can I."

"Ugh!"

"Part of being a good
friend
is knowing how to keep a secret," said Shelley. "But I guess you wouldn't know anything about that, would you?"

"Whatever. You can all go rot in hell, for all I care," Chelsey said irritably.

"We'll see you there, then," Shelley called back.

"Oh, go fuck a goat, Chelsey," Brandon said irritably, waving the girl off. Chelsey, assuming her work there was finished, slinked off. He turned and glared at their classmates. "What the fuck are you staring at? You guys can fucking get lost too!" he barked.

"Geez," a few students muttered under their breath as they went to class.

"Do you think having a smaller you-know-what makes a person more of a jerk?" someone else whispered loudly.

Brandon rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to Shelley. "Thanks for helping me out, back there. You didn't have to. Great slap, by the way. It made everything seem very realistic."

"Anytime," Shelley said amiably. "Chelsey Smith deserves anything that comes to her. And you
did
dedicate that song for me, so I guess we're even."

"About being even…" he trailed off. "You knew about the blackmail?"

"Like I said, Chelsey doesn't have very good friends," Shelley said nonchalantly. "Besides, they used to be my friends too."

"So, um, I was wondering, if you knew about it, are you okay with 'it'?" he said cautiously.

"Am I okay with you having a small you-know-what?" smirked Shelley. "Kind of disappointing, but I'm sure we can work with it."

"That's not what I meant!"

Shelley laughed. "I know, I know. I'm not sure…should I be okay with it?"

"Is that a trick question? Like if I tell you the truth and say 'yes, you should be fucking pissed off' then you will actually get pissed off?"

Shelley shook her head vigorously. "You're lucky I knew. Besides, I find it more amusing than anything. But how will I get you back? I mean, trying to get me to fall in love with you was totally uncalled for."

"I'm never making any deals with the devil again," he murmured.

"Well, I'd say your first mistake was getting involved with Chelsey at all."

"If this is your attempt at forgiving me, you're failing miserably."

"Actually," she said, "I believe you should be the one apologizing. I just saved your ass, and I could be plenty pissed off at you. Let's get back to that shall we? Hmm…I could have you write 'Shelley Sinclair is the hottest chick alive' all over the boys' bathrooms."

Brandon scoffed.

"Oh, you're right," mused Shelley, "That's already there."

"Maybe in the girls' bathroom, then," he threw in.

"Well, I can't help being so devastatingly attractive. There's enough of me to go around, I suppose."

"Well you don't exactly discourage the notion, the way you strut around."

"I," she said arrogantly, "do not strut."

"Oh please," he said with a laugh. "You strut."

Shelley smirked.

"What?" asked Brandon.

"Have you been watching me strut? Do you like it? Oooh, you do," cooed Shelley. "Tell me, Brandon, do you loooove me?"

She had been joking around, but Brandon's expression suddenly turned serious. Shelley couldn't tell if this was a good or bad thing.

"You don't strut," he said, more serious than she'd ever heard him, "You just play hard to get. Kinda makes it hard for a guy to tell whether you like him or not."

"Are you implying you can't tell whether or not I like you?"

"Uh, basically."

"What do you like about me, anyways?"

"Uh…" he pondered, "I can't really tell you off the top of my head. There's just…something about you. It's indescribable."

He didn't realize until too late that she'd surreptitiously made him confess that he liked her. But what was done, was done. Besides, the situation wasn't so bad, was it? She wasn't mad at him; in fact, she was being pretty damn friendly.

But how 'friendly' was she willing to get?

"I thought you still hated me," said Shelley.

"I think we got over that a long time ago," he said. "Didn't we?"

"Hmm," mused Shelley, "Maybe you, but not me. Didn't I tell you I hold grudges, Mr. Luscious Lloyd?"

"What?!?"

"Yeah, I mean, I helped you out today, but it wasn't really for you, it was for me."

"So you don't really care about me at all?"

She made a face and shook her head. "Not really. You're still kind of a jerk."

"You're self-centered, you know that?" said Brandon.

"How so?" said Shelley, giving him a sideways glance.

"On the outside, everyone thinks you're nice and perfect and shit. But you're actually really a bitch too. Like with Chelsey," he forged on, "You said you only did it for yourself. I'm beginning to think you only do a lot of things for yourself. You only did it because there was something in it for you."

"Very good observation," said Shelley. "But you're pretty selfish yourself."

"
Proud
," he corrected her. "It's called having your pride. Besides, if you had been in my place, would you have wanted to let Chelsey tell the whole school?"

"If it involved making a ridiculous deal to break a girl's heart by Christmas, then no," she said. "What you did was wrong."