Forbidden Games (Forbidden Ties Series Book 2) (3 page)

              “Guess what?” Jill shrieked as walked next to me in the hall at school the next day. Class was over for the afternoon, and I had never seen her so excited. If I had closed my eyes, I would have assumed that she was Penny.

              “What?” I grinned.

              “I’ve decided to help you win homecoming queen!” Jill screamed.

              “Thanks,” I said softly. “But, honestly, I don’t want to compete.”

              “No,” she said, stopping me the path. Some students passed us and pointed at me, as if to say,
that’s the random girl who got nominated
. “Mairead, you
have
to try! It will be the biggest slap in Angie’s face when you win!”

              “I’ve already slapped her in the face,” I reminded her.

              “Yes, but this time it’ll be in front of the entire academy. Oh, and it’ll be less violent so you won’t get in trouble.” Penny seemed hopeful, but still, terrible doubt simmered inside of my head.

              “How are we supposed to pull this off?” I asked.

              “Every year, voters consist only the people who care about this crap, so they pick people like Angie and– no offense, your cousin, Cade.”

              “None taken. I’m just happy that you’re admitting that this is all crap.”

              “It’s complete garbage. I just believe that if we get all of the people who wouldn’t normally vote to select you and Allen, then we can make this happen.”

              “Oh, I see what this is,” I said as I playfully jabbed Jill in the side. “This is just about Allen.”

              “
And
you.”

              “Right,
and
me, who doesn’t want to win at all.”

              “Look,” Jill said as she grabbed the sides of my shoulders. “I need your help. Clearly, people know you enough to vote for you.”

              “They don’t even know that I existed.”

              “Then maybe it’s because of Cade. Whatever the reason, you
need
to stick it to Angie.”

              “Stick what to Angie?” Penny asked as she walked up to us in the hallway. She seemed less energetic than usual.

              “I didn’t tell you!” Jill exclaimed. “I’m helping Mairead win!”

              “Great.” Penny showed no enthusiasm as she opened her locker. After grabbing some books, she stormed off down the hall.

              “What’s up with her?” I asked. “It’s like you two switched personalities.”

              “Don’t worry about Penny, she’s just a little jealous.”

              Suddenly, I remembered how badly Penny wanted to be homecoming queen. I felt like I had done something wrong. Before I could wallow in my newfound pain, I looked over to see one of Angie’s friends smiling as she walked down the hallway. I recognized her as the tallest of the group. Her body was so thin that it made her head appear gigantic and bobbing. The massive amount of hair coming from her scalp added to the look.

              “Oh no!” Jill said in a wave of panic. “I just thought of something terrible.”

              “What?” I asked her while still fixated on Angie’s friend who was now sifting through her open locker.

“Wouldn’t it be awful if you won and not Allen?”

“What do you mean?”

“As in, you’d be homecoming queen alongside your own cousin.”

Suddenly, my palms became clammy. Panic raced across my entire being at her words. Jill inadvertently uncovered Angie’s s malicious plan. She wasn’t trying to humiliate me by beating me. No, Angie
wanted
me to win so that Cade and I could be seen together as a couple by the entire school. She knew who the other girl was in the video.

“Jill, I have to go,” I said as I started for Angie’s friend who was now turning the corner.

“Okay…” she sounded confused. “See you later.”

I raced through the hall until I found Angie’s friend. My hand reached out and tapped her on the shoulder. She turned around with a look of disgust when she saw me.

“I need to know where Angie is,” I said sternly.

“Why?” the girl scoffed as she smacked chewing gum between her teeth. “You wanna slap her again?”

I knew that this girl wasn’t going to give her friend up so easily. The only thing left for me to do was level with her.

“You can’t honestly
like
Angie,” I said plainly.

“Why do you say that?”

“She’s class president and soon to be homecoming queen. What’s next? Prom? Valedictorian?”

“What’s a valedict-whatever?”

              “Just focus on
prom
,” I said, avoiding the question.

              “She said that I could be prom queen.”

              “And you believe her?” The girl blinked at me a few times before opening her mouth.

              “Angie’s been acting super sketchy lately,” the girl explained. “She keeps leaving sixth period early. But I saw her a few minutes ago walking with some creepy looking dude.”

              “Where did they go?”

              “In there,” the girl pointed toward a hallway with a dead end.

              “Thank you
so
much!”

              “I’ve gotta go,” she explained. “I’ll deny it if she heard we talked, so don’t bother spilling the beans.”

              “I won’t,” I said rolling my eyes. I needed to find Angie and to stop her from this terrible plan she had been cooking up for me.

              As I neared the hallway, I opened the door to each of the rooms. The first was an empty science classroom. Then next was the Audio Visual room. I stepped inside to see monitors still buzzing.

              “Hello?” I called out, but there was no reply. There were several doors to small editing rooms in the back. All of them were open and empty, except for the room on the end, which had the door closed shut. I stepped up to it and slowly twisted the handle. It was stuck, almost as though it were bolted. However, with a little more force, the handle popped, and I entered.

              The room was dark, but I could still make out everything that was happening in front of me. The familiar face of Allen’s black haired friend from the pep rally looked at me in shock. He was wearing a dark shirt and no pants as he sat on top of a computer table. Below him was Angie, on her knees, and slurping on his cock with her mouth.

              “Fuck!” yelled the black haired guy as he jumped off of the table. His quick movements sent Angie falling backward. Grabbing his pants he covered his erect cock with them so that I couldn’t see.

              “Please don’t tell anyone!” Angie shrieked. She looked sad and desperate as she lay curled on the floor in her school uniform.

              “Shit!” the black hair kid yelled. “Why the fuck are you in here?”

              “I should be asking you guys that,” I bluntly replied. “But I think that I already know. Wow, Angie, you’ve really stooped low to get back at me, haven’t you?”

              “You know what they say,” Angie said as she stood to her feet. “It’s just as important to have friends in low places as it is to have them in high ones.”

              “I’m standing right here,” said the black haired guy who now seemed insulted by Angie’s comment.

              “Shut up, Kyle,” she warned before turning back to me. “The question is, Mairead, what are you going to do about it?”

              “To start, I’m going to the principal.”

              “No!” Kyle shouted.

              “I said,
shut up
!” Angie roared. “I understand what you’re saying, but we have to work something out.”

              “Do we?”

              “Yes,” she winced. “Unless you want everyone finding the tape with you and your cousin.”

“Who else knows?” I asked looking over at Kyle.

“Just him.”

“You didn’t tell any of your girl friends?”

“If I told them, everyone in the school would know as well. What would be the fun in that? I feel like some people are just moths looking for a flame but I want to bring them the fire.” Angie appeared to be more intelligent than I was giving her credit for. Still, she wanted something in exchange.

“What are you proposing?” I asked.

“Let’s all forget about this,” Angie said. “I’ll destroy what evidence I have and then you shut up about what you know.”

“What about him?” I turned my head toward Kyle.

“Don’t worry about this one,” Angie said looking him up and down. “I’ve got more dirt on him to last two lifetimes.”

I felt embarrassed for all of us standing in the room together. Angie’s pettiness had brought us here, but I knew that we were at a stalemate.

“Okay,” I agreed.

“Thank you!” Angie said as she breathed out a sigh of relief. It suddenly dawned on me that she could have gotten in over her head.

“What are we going to do about homecoming?” I asked.

“I’ll convince the student council to have more nominees,” she explained. “Then you and I can bow out of the competition.”

“I like that plan,” I replied honestly. Luckily, Angie was smart enough to know when to stop. “I’m out of here; you guys can finish or not, but spare me the details.”

As I walked from the room, I felt relief find me again. It was as though the healing magic of the hot tub was still with me, washing away my worry. My body felt warm and soon so did my head. Except that the feeling on my skull was sharper and singeing. Suddenly, I was falling onto the floor. I looked upward to see that Kyle had hit me over the head with a microphone stand. His arms swung up and came down on me again until I saw darkness.

              The sting in the back of my head throbbed even more as I bounced around. I was afraid to open my eyes to unveil where I was. For all that I knew I was still lying on the floor in the AV room. However, the shaking around me indicated that I was moving at a fast speed. Before opening my eyes, I tried to speak.

              “Uh…” It was all that I could muster.

              “Look who’s up,” Angie laughed. Her voice was coming from in front of me. Gathering my strength, I blinked. Kyle was driving a car in the middle of the night. Angie was sitting in the passenger’s seat, changing the radio stations.

              “What’s going on?” I asked.

              “Do you know how difficult it was to get your body out of the school?” Angie asked as she looked backward at me. Her demeanor was nonchalant. This made the situation that much more disturbing. “We had to wait
all
night in there before dragging you out. Also, you don’t look big, but you are one heavy girl.”

              “I think I threw my back out!” Kyle joked as we sped along the road. It was winding further and further up a mountain.

              “Have you been here before, new girl?” Angie asked. “These mountains are extraordinarily high. In fact, if someone were to fall off the elevation of one of the cliffs, they would splatter so badly that dental records would be needed to identify the body.”

              “What?” I groaned in confusion.

              “With your school uniform on, they won’t know which student you were,” she laughed. “Though they might figure it out once they find your typed note discussing how depressed you’ve been this year.”

              “Pull over,” I moaned.

              “Okay!” Kyle shouted. He swerved the car and nearly sent us off of the edge. My heart raced thinking that we were about to fall off. Angie cackled as we sped faster into the darkness.

              Adrenaline was kicking into my body. I looked up to see that it was after midnight. Frantically, I looked around my phone. Suddenly, I noticed that my hands were tied together with black cords.

              “We chucked it,” Angie said. “Can’t have them figuring out where you went. Plus, Kyle thought that if we threw it off the side of the road it would be all that more believable that you hitched a ride up here just to jump off the cliff.”

              “That’s insane,” I said.

              “Not as insane as being a cousin fucker!” she screamed. “That’s what the note says, anyway. It’s inside of your locker at school just waiting for your aunt and uncle to find it. You have a really easy password to guess, by the way. It was the same numbers that lined up with Cade’s name. Two, Two, Two, Three. You are really obsessed with him, aren’t you?”

              “Fuck you, Angie!” I shouted.

              “I completely understand,” she laughed. “I was obsessed with that asshole, too. I sent him so many videos of me shoving dildos into my pussy, just to get him off. Kyle has helped me make every one of them, too. Didn’t you, Kyle?”

              “I love watching you get off, babe,” Kyle answered as he leaned over and kissed Angie.

              “Kyle even helped me hack into Cade’s cloud account and automatically set it up to backup any video he took on his tablet,” he giggled. “There were so many of him just jacking off like an egotistical fucktard. The golden didn’t show up until I saw your pretty little face exclaiming that you didn’t want to be filmed. Kyle is the genius I could only dream of.”

              “I’d do anything for your sexy lips all over my cock,” Kyle sneered.

              “Even if she’s sending the videos to her ex-boyfriend?” I was terribly confused by this insane situation. Though it was frightening to think about how much more information Angie could have hacked into if she desired.

              “Cade and I could have double teamed her!” Kyle shouted back to me as she shot forward on a short straightway. “I call sloppy seconds!”

              I shuddered at his comment. Angie had found herself a deranged new boyfriend that could carry out her dubious plans. Cars whizzed by us with their headlines blaring and horns honking as we sped past.

              “You guys ran me off the road a few weeks ago, didn’t you?”

              “Good job, idiot!” Angie laughed. “You’re not so stupid after all.”

              I started to realize that I was in the strong talons of a couple of crazy birds. They were planning on killing me and hiding the evidence. Panic returned to my face. I had to get out of there and fast.

              Twisting my body, I managed to pull a few of my fingers free of the tightly coiled restrictive cables. My back ached as I moved toward the door handle, but I had no other choice. My fingers flicked at the handle to open to the door.

              “What’s she doing?” Kyle asked as he saw me turning into the door.

              “Stop moving, bitch,” Angie demanded as she turned around. “Switch on the child’s safety lock, just in case.”

              I knew that I only had moments left. Struggling, I twisted so much that I pulled a muscle. Though it hurt immensely, through the pain, I reached for the handle.

              “Got it!” Kyle responded. In the corner of my eye, I could see his hand winding toward the buttons on his armrest. Just as he went to push the button, I leaned down and pushed the door open.

              “Holy shit!” Angie screamed as cold air drafted into the car. The winds were strong, but I didn’t have another choice. I rolled my body into a ball and fell out of the door.

              The asphalt road was hard and unforgiving. It smashed my shoulder, causing me to bounce and fall onto my face. Then the gravel shoved itself like thick needles into my skin.

My entire body pulsed with pain. Luckily, the cables binding my feet broke apart during the impact. I shifted my weight in order to pull myself into a crawling position, where I made it to the side of the road.

I saw Kyle’s black car swerve to the opposite side of the road as Angie flung open her door. She was screaming loudly as she forced him to pull over. As soon as the car stopped, she bounced from it and headed for me.

“You fucking cunt!” Angie roared. “I won’t let you get away–“

Before she could finish her sentence, bright lights blasted Angie’s face. All of it felt like slow motion as a semi truck turned around the corner. First, it crunched into the side of Kyle’s car. I saw his body eject from the driver’s side as he hit into the mountain.

Then, as the breaks squealed, the truck crushed into Angie. Her face was distorted with surprise as she was knocked to the side of me. Her body tumbled a few times before finding the edge of the mountain. Shocked and horrified, I assumed that she was dead before she fell because Angie didn’t scream as she plummeted off of the cliff and into the dark canyon.