**Officially published as Clique Bait with HarperTeen!**
Payment is usually a part of a basic transaction. You give and then you take. But, at Arlington Preparatory, people take at their leisure. They take their entertainment in the form of humiliat...
Yeah, I'm busted. William and I have been talking. It's a long story... but it was because of you. He's still on level one, Mon. That's the problem. By staying he's shown us that he's just as bad as the rest of them. If, you know, getting with Lola wasn't bad enough.
You're lucky you won't be here when everything goes down. Because it's barely hanging in place, Mon. The whole of level one is so fragile. Just a few misplaced moves and they're going tumbling. Maybe they need a little push.
Love ya,
Chlo
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I could hear my parents talking in the lounge room as I walked down the hall to the front door. There was the clink of glass and the sound of laughter as I passed the doorway, the music channel playing from the television.
William really wasn't kidding. He was outside. As I pulled open the door, I saw his silver Lamborghini idling on the curb, his profile barely visible through the tinted windows. I called back into the house to tell my parents I was leaving before making my way down the stone path and into the passenger's seat of his car.
"Hi," I said, a little breathless from the cool evening air. I hadn't really catered for much more than the action of actually getting into his car. I was overcome with a slight sense of awkwardness as my greeting hung heavily in the air.
"Hey," he said after a fraction of a moment, turning down the dial of his radio.
I shifted my weight to get comfortable. I didn't know where he planned to go, or why he seemed so... raw? Or emotional? I couldn't even tell what it was about him that made me pick it up. It was just the tightness in his posture, the strange tone of his voice.
"So you go for drives," I stated. "When you're... stressed?"
"When I have a lot on my mind," he verified with a tight-lipped smile. His lips were full, and perhaps they'd almost be feminine if they weren't countered with his structured nose and chiseled jaw.
"Should I be worried?" I asked.
"About her digging or my loyalty?"
"Both."
He gave a sardonic chuckle before turning out of my neighborhood and towards the busier end of town. "You should probably be more worried about her digging."
I let out a tangled breath. Shit. "Tell me everything."
"That's exactly what she said," he said wryly.
"What has her suspicions?" I pressed. His injection of amusement did not help the anxiety pulsing through my body.
"She just knows me too well," he said. "She knows it's weird for me to just date someone, especially someone like you. Especially when there's all the... stuff between her and I."
