**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...
You haven't written back. So I'm guessing you're pissed, or worried, or somehow getting your ass back here to tell me off. Either way, you'll just have to believe me that I'm fine. That, or keep ignoring me. Your loss, bitch.
Love you a billion, and missing you even more, considering you've decided NOT TO WRITE ANYMORE.
Hoping to hear from you soon,
Chlo.
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Lola Davenport was in trouble. But it didn't stop me from resuming my position by the speaker of my phone, leaning in to get a better grasp of what was happening in the room beside me.
"How much have you had to drink?" Lola asked, her voice thick with what I assumed to be tears. The sound brought goosebumps to my forearms.
"What does that have to do with anything?" Francis bellowed. "What matters right now is the fact that my girlfriend's going around acting like a slut."
"I haven't slept with anyone, Franc!" she whined.
"Anyone other than Bishop, right?"
So he knew. Maddy must have told him about what I said at the mall. He knew that Lola told me, that was what this was about.
"I haven't slept with anyone since we started dating, all these fucking years I've stayed loyal. Why won't you listen to me?"
"Because you're clearly full of shit," he spat. "I don't want to see you for the rest of the night."
"You're such a hypocrite, Francis!" I heard her scream. I was sure that even those a handful of rooms away would have heard it.
There was the slam of a door, and then footsteps down the hall. My bet was that Francis had left.
Arlington's power couple was much more complicated than I'd thought.
I waited for seven minutes, counting down each second waiting for Lola to leave. I couldn't risk leaving at the same time as her, or risk anyone seeing me all together. But, thanks to the mix of alcohol, my bladder only had so much longer it could hold on.
Straightening and shaking out the cramps in my toes, I took a deep breath. The argument next door had sobered me up a degree. My head didn't sway. But, my heart still pounded hard and my breathing now came in anxious pants.
I put the glass back into the cabinet where I'd found it. It was probably expensive and treasured, a collector's item in this house of magnificence, but it still looked like an ordinary glass to me. At least it had served a purpose. Now it would probably spend the rest of its life in the carefully designed display cabinet.
Once the chair had also resumed its initial condition I listened at the door for a few minutes, waiting to hear any signs of movement. When there were none, I took the risk and exited the sitting room.
