Ex-Factor (Diamond Girls) (7 page)

“Here.” Erin shoved a bag of crinkly potato chips in my direction. “I’m not gonna eat them, so go for it.”

My appetite had all but disappeared after Eli’s sneaky text, but I couldn’t exactly share that with her. Guilt-ridden over my lie, I quietly tore open the individual-sized bag and munched on a few chips under Erin’s happy, yet watchful eye.

“So,” Claire said before taking a quick sip of her soda. “Have you heard the latest news about Callie?”

Her question was geared more toward Erin and Tayla since I didn’t really know anyone outside a small handful of people, but I listened intently anyway. I was curious to hear what everyone was saying about the catty girl who’d given me crap the day before.

Erin dabbed her napkin across her mouth before wadding it up and chucking it onto the table. “Uh-uh.”

Tayla shook her head. “Spill.”

Claire’s gaze darted about for a minute, my guess to make sure no one else overheard, then placed her hands on the aging wooden table and leaned forward. “Well,” she said animatedly. “According to Alyssa Walters—” She paused for a brief moment and regarded me. “Alyssa is the school gossip. The girl knows everything. Anyway,” she shook her head, “as I was saying, according to Alyssa, Callie was caught servicing Tommy Doleman in the girl’s bathroom after the game last Friday.” She sat back in her seat and made a crude gesture involving her tongue, her cheek, and her hand.

My mouth dropped open in shock, and I glanced across the quad to where Callie sat with her bleached-out minions whose names I’d yet to learn. “In a bathroom? Really? That’s just—”

“Disgusting?” Erin broke in. “Unsanitary? Thoroughly revolting?”

“Who caught them?” I asked, unable to tear my eyes from the subject of our gossip. She sat on top of a table, legs straddling either side of Tommy, treating him to what looked to be a thorough massage. The white tiny tee she wore stretched thin across her well-endowed chest, an ample amount of cleavage showing each time she bent forward.

She laughed and giggled whenever Tommy turned around to look at her, but the happiness she exuded didn’t reach her eyes. In fact, each time Tommy looked away, Callie’s gaze would dart off to the right.

I followed her line of sight, my eyes widening in surprise when they settled on one Eli Walker.

“No clue who caught them,” Claire said. “Alyssa didn’t say. Had to have been a student, though. If a staff member had walked in on her with her face in his crotch, neither of them would be in school today. They’d be suspended.”

I chomped down on another chip, licking the residual salt off my fingers as I continued to watch Callie. Her snotty attitude had pretty much sealed her fate with me; I didn’t like her. And now, after hearing Claire’s gossip, I didn’t respect her. I wasn’t a prude by any means, and judging her sexual exploitations when I wasn’t a virgin myself wasn’t exactly what I would call fair. But there was a time and a place for everything, and, as far as I was concerned, blowing your flavor of the week in the school bathroom after a football game was the ultimate in tacky.

“Callie Porter is a jealous slut, and I can’t say I’m surprised.”

Stunned to hear such cutting words out of Erin’s mouth, I tore my gaze from Callie and stared open-mouthed at my new friend, brow raised.

Her normal, happy expression had vanished, replaced by a mixture of disgust and worry. She flipped her cell phone end over end in her palms and frowned. “Callie’s still into Eli. I know it. She’s trying to make him jealous by dating one of his friends. It’s not going to work.”

“Callie dated Eli?” I feigned shock, even though I felt none. I could totally see Eli going for someone like Callie. Popular, pretty, and willing to give it up, she was a “sure thing” and most definitely a conquest he could boast about. Erin, on the other hand, though popular, seemed to be none of those other things, which made me wonder what Eli’s motives were.

Erin stood up from the table with a sigh and marched stiffly toward the garbage can that sat across the quad. Tayla took the opportunity and leaned in close. “Callie and Eli had a thing after homecoming last year. Well, I don’t know if you could even call it a thing. They hooked up a couple of times after the accident and—”

Tayla’s words broke off, her emerald eyes narrowing as she looked over my shoulder.

I turned to find Callie towering over me, her plastic clones hugging her sides like bookends, as per usual. “Didn’t your mother ever tell you it’s not polite to stare?”

I jerked my head back in shock, her vicious reference to my mom a painful stab to my heart. Eyes narrowed, I glared up at her in silence, arms crossed, jaw tight.

No doubt realizing I had no plan to engage her, she bent forward, placed her hands on her knees and spoke to me in a high-pitched voice as though I were a child. “Dumb and mute, I see. Guess I’ll just have to spell things out for you again. I. Don’t. Like. You.” She said the words both slowly and forcefully, exaggerating her mouth movements as she enunciated each word. “Keep your eyes to yourself. Off Eli. And out of my fucking business. Got. It?”

Skin flushed, fists clenched, I stood from my seat, body shaking and filled with anger. Never. I’d never had anyone speak to me that way before, much less get up in my face while doing so. What the hell had she meant when she told me to keep my eyes off Eli? Eli was about as far off my radar as a guy could get. Sick of her crap, I gnashed my teeth, fully prepared to let the girl have it when Erin and Eli waltzed back over to the table, fingers laced together.

Erin’s smile faded, quickly turning to a frown as she eyed the tense scene in front of her. Eli, on the other hand, seemed to enjoy the harem of past, present—and what I assumed he hoped would be—future women surrounding him, and swiped a thumb across his crooked grin. “Is there a problem here?” He glanced at Callie, brow raised, then to me. “Nev? You okay?”

The scowl that adorned Callie’s face morphed into a fake, sickly smile, and she turned her attention from me to Eli, swatting him on the upper arm. “Nev’s fine. No problem here. I was just congratulating her on making the Diamond team.” She flashed Eli a plastic grin, then regarded me once more, this time speaking to me as though she were my best friend. “The girls and I are so excited to have you on our team.” She clapped her hands together, the tips of her acrylic nails clacking in an irritating rhythm. “See you at the gym.” With that, she turned on her heel and breezed across the quad leaving me, once again, speechless.

“Nev?” Erin stepped forward, face drawn into a mask of concern, and clamped down on my arm. “What just happened between you and Callie?”

Lips mashed together, I glanced down at her hand, which was still entwined with Eli’s. He was talking to some random guy I didn’t know. I shook my head. “Nothing. It was just… nothing. I have to use the restroom.” I peered over my shoulder toward Claire and Tayla, who both thankfully remained silent, before focusing on Erin once more. “I’m sorry. Excuse me.”

Head down, arms and legs shaky, I hauled ass through the busy quad toward the nearest restroom, trying and subsequently failing to keep my emotions in check. Heat flushed beneath my cheeks and hot, traitor tears welled in my eyes, threatening to give me away. I’d come across my fair share of jerks and mean girls before, but never one I’d wanted to physically strike.

I couldn’t stand Callie, but I was more upset by the fact that I’d let her get under my skin and affect me so negatively. Life was short, and the last thing I wanted was to get caught up in a bunch of squabbling, jealous girl drama. For as much as I disliked Callie Porter—and trust me, I wanted to pummel her—she was merely a symptom, a byproduct of a larger, more pressing issue, or should I say person, that needed to be dealt with: Eli Walker.

I didn’t see him until it was too late. Head down in an effort to hide my emotions, I rammed into the last person on the planet I ever wanted to see me upset, Bodie Scott.

“Whoa!”

Off-balance, I pitched sideways and nearly hit the pavement before a pair of strong hands righted me. My arms tingled where his hands met my flesh and my overheated skin flushed even more. Why? Why, after the crap I’d just been through, did I have to run into him?

His smell was overpowering—all male and thoroughly bewitching. My gut instinct was to curl up against his chest, to hide from the world inside his strong, powerful arms. But then I remembered his hate-laced stares and nasty comments and crammed those pitiful gut instincts into a box deep inside of me and locked it away. I would find no comfort in Bodie Scott’s arms and to wish otherwise was an exercise in futility.

“Oh, God,” I said. “I’m sorry, I…” Tongue-tied, still angry, and now thoroughly embarrassed, I stammered, barely able to speak, let alone form a coherent sentence. The tears I’d held at bay now fell freely down my cheeks, shaming me even further.

Deep, coal black eyes drew closer together as he frowned, and he tilted his head sideways as he quietly studied me. “Are you okay, Doll Face?”

His delicious, masculine voice floated over me like a warm caress, making me weak in the knees and sick to my stomach at the same time. I hated my body’s reaction to him. I hated that he’d seen me cry. And more than anything else, I hated the look of pity he was giving me right now.

I pulled away, wishing I was anywhere else, and quickly wiped away my tears. “I’m fine. I…” Desperate to get away, I mumbled a quick “sorry,” darted into the girls’ bathroom, and locked myself into a stall.

A fresh round of tears came, and this time, I didn’t try to hold them back.

***

X-Factor Cheer was located at the northernmost edge of Indigo Falls, in an industrial area amidst a sea of empty warehouses and an enormous grocery distribution center.

Mouth dry, heart pounding against my ribcage, I pulled into the large lot and coasted toward the parking spaces directly in front of the building. There was a primo spot right in front of the gym’s front door, and I knew I’d feel a whole lot better leaving my ‘64 Mustang parked in a well-lit, highly visible area, as opposed to a spot farther out in the lot. The car was the last thing my father had given me before he died, and I loved it something fierce.

Foot on the brakes and arms cranking the wheel hard—my vintage baby didn’t have power steering—I started pulling into the space only to slam the brake pedal to the floor moments later when a bright red VW Beetle sailed into the slot, cutting me off.

Fuming, I slammed my hands against the steering wheel and growled. “You have got to be effing kidding me! That person did not just cut me off!”

“Nev!” Livvie protested. “I swear you’ve got the vocabulary of a sailor, and the temper to match.”

I eyed her with outright shock. “Are you kidding me? Speedy Gonzalez cuts me off, steals my parking space, and almost hits my car in the process, and you’re concerned about my colorful choice of words?”

Livvie opened her mouth to respond but snapped it shut when a loud tap sounded on my driver’s side window.

A wall of chemically treated blond hair, faux tanned skin, and spandex had formed a barricade outside my door. Callie stood with one hand on her hip, the other twirling a set of keys around her pointer finger. A satisfied smile lit up her heavily made-up face. Her silent clones flanked her at either side, and three sets of eyes bore down on me as though I was a piece of toilet paper that had somehow gotten stuck to their shoe and needed to be removed.

I braced myself for their coming attack and quietly rolled my window down. How I managed to reign in my temper, I’ll never know, but I responded with a quiet and, for the most part, calm sounding, “Yes?”

Callie bent forward and placed a hand on the car door. “Look. I’m going to give you a break because you’re new.” She thrust her left arm outward and pointed toward my stolen parking space. “That spot is mine.” She cast me a fake smile as she ran her hand along the windowsill. “Always has been. Always will be. Got it?”

I opened my mouth to speak and was abruptly cut off with a loud “uh, uh, uh” and a curt finger wave. “Newbs don’t get to have an opinion. They just get to park at the back of the lot.” With a sneer and a quick tap on the hood of my car, she glided away, minions plastered to her side, leaving me stunned and speechless.

Jaw on my lap, I looked to Livvie, who sat tight-lipped and frowning, before checking my mirrors and backing into a spot across the lot. “Um, did that seriously just happen? Tell me I imagined the whole thing.”

Livvie pursed her lips and shook her head. “Callie’s… ugh! Callie is trouble, and her little minions, Cassie and Caity, are no better. Just do what I do. Avoid them at all costs.”

I peered across the lot, eyes narrowed. “Callie, Cassie, and Caity? Really? Do all their names start with C?”

Livvie giggled as we stepped out of the car. “Yep. Satan’s Trifecta is alive and well in Indigo Falls. Better watch out, or you might get burned.”

I pressed the lock button on my key fob as we walked toward the front of the building, my mind at ease knowing my car was, at the very least, armed against intruders. “So, what’s Callie’s deal?” I asked as Livvie pulled open the gym’s glass front door. “Why is she so…”

My words trailed off, my thought process immediately shut down by the jarring combination of loud music wafting through the facility and outright dread.

A contract had been signed. Money had been exchanged. I was now an official member of the X-Factor cheer family, and as such, I was expected to let go of my baggage, let go of my hurt, and tumble.

My breath came in short, quick pants, and it felt like someone had parked an airplane on my chest. I wanted to run and hide. Crawl under the covers in my strange new room and cry myself into oblivion. I was torn. Half of me couldn’t wait to get on the mat. The other half felt lost without my mom, and guilty for even contemplating the idea of doing something that might make me smile. I didn’t deserve to be happy. Not after what happened to my dad.

Shame burned beneath the surface of my skin, and it felt like someone had dropped a two-ton boulder on me. I couldn’t breathe. I shouldn’t have been out that night. Should never have turned off my cell phone. If I hadn’t, I would have received the call from the hospital.