God, this conversation was pointless. I’d warned her. And I’d had enough. I stood up, but Isabella grabbed my arm with her freezing cold fingers.
“You should probably go out in the hall,” she said. “You have about five minutes before the bell rings to announce the end of lunch. And based on how long my friends have been gone…you’ll probably need more like twenty minutes to undo the damage. Oops.”
“What damage?”
“You’re wasting precious time. The longer you dilly dally, the easier you’re making it on me.” She looked down at her watch again. “I think Matt and you will be over by the end of the day at this rate.”
Fuck. I practically ran out of the cafeteria. I didn’t even look over at my lunch table to see if anyone had noticed me leaving. But as soon as I stepped out into the hall, I prayed that no one was following me.
Shit.
There were printouts of me covering every inch of the hall. Taped to lockers. Scattered all over the hallways of Empire High.
Shit!
They were everywhere, covering practically everything in sight. Even the water fountain had pictures. All the images were a little fuzzy, but they were all of me. In my underwear at the hotel. From the night Isabella had tried to kill me. She must have gotten them from the security cameras.
And there were hundreds. Thousands. What the hell? There were pictures of me running around the hotel with the makeshift map dress. And there were a lot of me holding James’ hand in the hall as we both sprinted away from Donnelley. Actually, most of them were of me and James together. Half-naked. Holding hands. God.
But it wasn’t just the nudity that was upsetting. It was the words written on every single one of them. They were advertisements for my prostitution services. My phone number was on each one. Some even had those little tearable tabs at the bottom so you could easily take it and give me a call later.
I grabbed one of those and tore it from the wall. I grabbed another and another. I heard laughter and turned around.
Cupcake was standing there with a stack of more printouts in his hands.
Matt was going to freak out when he saw these. I could feel tears blinding my eyes as I tore down another picture. And another. I tried to grab some of the printouts off the floor but there were too many.
“Cupcake, what the hell?!” I yelled.
He laughed and threw his hands up into the air, sending hundreds more flyers fluttering down onto the ground. “What? I didn’t do anything. You’re selling your services, Brooklyn. Pretty sure you’re the only one that looks guilty here.”
I looked down at one of the printouts in my hand. For a good night, contact Brooklyn Sanders. She’s been entertaining all the boys of Empire High and comes highly recommended for a very affordable price. I looked up and Cupcake was gone.
What the actual fuck?!
Oh God. I do look guilty. It didn’t matter that the pictures were all of me in my underwear. Isabella had made it look like I was trying to sell my body. No one was going to believe me over her. I ripped off another picture from a locker as the tears burned my eyes. I tore down handfuls of them. But there were too many.
The bell rang, signaling the end of lunch.
Screw me.
Chapter 26
Monday
The first thing I heard was the laughter as I tried to pull more pictures off the lockers. I grabbed more printouts, but it was no use. There were too many of them.
“She’s such a whore,” Isabella said from somewhere behind me. “I can’t believe she’s sleeping with James and Matt. And now she wants to take on even more clients?” She laughed. “Oh my, it even says she’s affordable. I bet her going rate is a dollar.”
All her minions laughed.
I tried to ignore them as I got down on my hands and knees to pick up some of the printouts from the floor.
“Slut,” someone said.
“I knew she was a prostitute.”
“One of the cheap ones too.” More laughter spread through the hall.
“She’s even on her knees right now.”
My tears burned my eyes as I crawled around on the Empire High floor.
“Baby?” Matt’s voice in the hall made my tears run even faster down my cheeks.
I tried to pull more of the pictures into a pile on the floor. Not that it mattered. He’d seen them. He’d seen me in my underwear holding James’ hand. And even though I’d told him about what happened that night, seeing it was a million times worse. “I’m sorry,” I choked.
“Come with me,” Matt said. He grabbed my hand to pull me to my feet.
“I’m so sorry…”
He pulled me toward the closest bathroom. I tried to ignore the rude words being thrown our way. Matt seemed to be handling it better than I was. I thought he’d be pissed, but he was so calm.
“Look, she’s holding someone else’s hand now,” some guy said.
Matt ignored him, sidestepping to pull us closer to the bathroom.
But then the guy added, “I wonder how much her escorting services go for?”
And it was like Matt snapped. He let go of my hand so fast that I didn’t know how he had time to wrap it around the guy’s neck. “Say another word about my girl and you won’t be able to recognize yourself in the mirror.” Matt shoved the guy backward, slamming him against a locker.
I swallowed hard. I guess he wasn’t as calm as I thought.
“Show’s over!” Mason said from somewhere behind us.
I turned to see him hit his fist against a locker a few times to get everyone’s attention.
“I said show’s over!” he yelled. “Everyone get to class.”
Matt pulled me into the closest bathroom and locked the door behind us.
I could still hear the laughter in the hall. I thought Matt would be pissed. I thought he would have screamed at Isabella and started to pull the pictures down too. But he had been eerily composed until that guy had basically called me a prostitute. He seemed calm again now as he pulled me into his arms.
“Are you okay?” he asked. “Can you breathe?”
His words just made me cry harder. He was angry. But he was more concerned about whether or not I was having a panic attack.