“I didn’t really feel abandoned, you know.”
She grinned and gathered her blanket in her hands. She pressed it against her face, but the laughter peeled through it. “Miranda sure thought she was Queen of the town when Logan dated her.”
I grinned at the memory. Miranda and Logan dated for two months. It was long enough for her to feel secure and parade her new notch on the social ladder to make the rest of her friends get mad. Cassandra and Amelia had grown tired of Miranda’s ego after a week and they started to make snide comments to her not long after that. Emily remained quiet, but there was always a smirk on her face when their queen swished down the school’s hallway. Since Miranda dropped Peter Glasburg, he rebounded by dating Cassandra, which was another reason the snide comments doubled after another week.
Adam and Mark kept quiet, but they physically rallied behind Peter. The three guys of the Academy Elite were always with each other.
How did I know all this? Because Miranda considered herself my new best friend. As she put it one day, I was dating Mason. She was dating Logan. It would make sense if we were friends. It hadn’t made sense to me. I tried to keep my solitude going, but Miranda would flank me in the hallways, at my car, in the lunchroom.
She gushed about our future double dates. I kept quiet. Logan only laughed when I would tell him her plans. He had no intention of taking Miranda on a date, but he admitted one time that he enjoyed the sex. However, after two weeks and no dates had been planned, Miranda started to question me. The ego dropped a bit and her insecurity rose.
After the third week, it was past due when she expected to be invited inside the Kade mansion, and Logan’s nonchalant treatment turned Miranda into a sputtering girl with a crush. She talked about him, dreamt about him, asked others questions about him, and wrote a few essays for school about him.
Her notch as the school’s queen and leader of the Academy Elite was gone.
Cassandra took the reins with Peter at her side. Miranda was initially tolerated because of Logan’s attachment to her, but when he dumped her, she had become a shadow of herself. Logan dumped her by going to a party without her. He saw she was there and slept with a cheerleader from his school.
The next night, he slept with another cheerleader.
Sunday night was a dance girl from the Academy.
There was no doubt about it. Logan and Miranda were done. That meant that Miranda was done. She’d been made into a fool. The planned out execution had been ruthless, but it was effective. The Academy Elite no longer cared about me. Their new focus was on Miranda. Everyone was wondering if she was considered Academy Elite anymore?
Becky whispered when the movie started, “I heard that Miranda’s trying to get Peter back, but he’s not having it.”
I paused the movie and sat up. “What’d Cassandra do?”
She lifted both shoulders. “No clue. Adam won’t tell me, but I heard there was a fight between them. I think it was at a Public party. Mason and Logan didn’t tell you?”
I rolled my eyes. “If they don’t give a shit, they won’t pay attention. Trust me; they don’t give a shit about that sort of thing.”
Becky hid a grin behind her hands. “I heard that Miranda’s mad because Mason’s still dating you and she’s not dating Logan anymore.”
I snorted. “One of these days, she’ll figure out the truth.”
“What’s that?”
I grew still and masked the disgust in my voice. I kept a blank slate over my face too. “Nothing. She and Logan were never serious.”
“Yeah.” Becky nodded, knowing so much. “I could see that. Logan doesn’t want to settle down. Everyone can see that.”
I sighed quietly to myself. Since both Kades had girlfriends at the same time, their reputation had changed through town. They were now viewed as dateable and girls started to wonder if they could catch one of the Kades. I knew I’d had enough of my fill watching girls throw themselves at Mason when we’d go out. It didn’t stop at parties, but when we’d go out to eat or get ice cream or grab a movie or…I shook my head when we had his car cleaned. There’d been two girls who left underwear in his backseat and their phone numbers pinned with them.
Most had stayed away before because Mason wanted it that way. He picked, they didn’t, but they no longer cared about that. They continued to not care the longer we were together.
“Sam?”
“Mmm?” I was ripped from my thoughts and saw Becky peering at me with an odd expression on her face.
“You want to start the movie?”
“Oh, yeah. Sure.” I quickly pressed play and curled underneath my blanket when the opening credits rolled across the screen. It wasn’t long before I felt my eyelids starting to close. They were so heavy. The blanket was so warm. The theatre was dark and…
When I started to wake up, I was aware of two voices over my head.
“…like this since we started the movie.”
A deeper voice commented, “I’ll take care of her. You can go.”
“I want to stay.”
The male voice snapped, “Fucking go.”
My eyes were so heavy, but I opened them to squint up. “Mason?”
He bent down and slid his arms under me. I felt myself being lifted in the air and he cradled me against his chest. “Hey, babe. Go to sleep.”
“Sam? Can I stay?”
I groaned and burrowed closer to him. I didn’t want to deal with anyone. My whole body was heavy and warm and my eyelids started to droop again. Something nagged me at the back of my mind. I was supposed to do something—and then I felt a kiss on my forehead. Mason whispered, “Go to sleep.”