Page 40 of My Rules for Revenge (Twisted YA Mysteries #1)

JACOB

I understood why Heather did what she did, but I still felt it was really crazy. She smashed my two-thousand-dollar gaming PC into bits and pieces. She also lit my backpack on fire.

I didn’t fully comprehend the gravity of what she did until Principal Newman took me into his office and questioned me about what happened.

He told me she would be properly punished and that he could force her to pay reparations for my PC.

Despite every molecular fiber in my being saying otherwise, I told him, “No,” that she didn’t have to pay for it.

I knew I was being batshit insane, but I wanted yet another reason to show Heather that I wanted her forgiveness.

I wanted to show her I was willing to sacrifice one of the most important things in my life to be a different person.

If she was so angry with me that she destroyed that thing with no regrets, then clearly, I did something to her that deserved that.

Afterwards, I went over to Manny’s house to watch an online Worldly Wizard Quest tournament.

We chilled in his basement and sat on his old futon while we ate bags of salted potato chips and drank diet soda.

Manny had rows and rows of “Pop-Up” figures that he collected all over the place.

Carlos always tried to touch them, and Manny always slapped his pesky hands away.

It should’ve been like any other night. A great night with friends.

That wasn’t the case anymore; things had changed.

“Guys, this is a very intense match!” Manny exclaimed.

“Nah, really?! It’s Raze Clan versus Pickle Squad. They hate each other more than I hate Heather,” Carlos commented.

“Really, Carlos?” I asked.

“Yeah, bro. So, what did Newman tell you? He asked me what happened, and I told him that she turned into a raging and destructive lunatic,” Carlos affirmed.

“I just told him what I saw,” I replied.

“Heather’s paying for your PC, right? That crazy-ass bitch wrecked it. You spent three months building that thing and twenty thousand dollars,” Carlos commented.

“I spent three hours building it and two thousand dollars,” I clarified.

“Yeah, same thing.”

“It’s not the same thing, Carlos.”

“Bro, are you okay? You seem annoyed or something. You good?” Carlos asked.

“I’m fine.”

“Dude, you’re not fine.”

“I am fine.”

“No, you are not.”

“Dude, I’m going to clobber you,” I threatened.

“I’m trying to talk to you, man. We’re friends, remember?”

I stayed quiet while Manny stared at me.

“What’s up, Manny? Why are you looking at me like that?” I asked.

He looked away, then looked at Carlos.

“What, Manny?” Carlos asked.

“We should tell him,” Manny suggested.

“Manny, chill the hell out. Not right now!” Carlos exclaimed.

“Tell me what?” Jacob asked.

“We were responsible for what happened in the auditorium,” Manny admitted.

“Manny, shut your mouth right now.”

“Yeah, I figured as much. I was wondering when you guys were gonna come clean,” I commented.

“We only did it for you, bro,” Carlos added.

“Yeah, I realize that, and look at what happened. I should charge the two of you for my busted PC,” I said.

“Jacob, I really and truly apologize. I was trying to help Carlos. He forced me to do it.”

“Dude, seriously? You’re just a real worm,” Carlos asserted.

“He deserves to know. He’s involved,” Manny added.

“I do deserve to know. I want to know why you framed Eddy and why you leaked Indira Guerra’s nudes. She doesn’t go to this school anymore, and I want to know what the hell those texts were about. I want to know a lot of things, and I want to know—now!” I demanded.

“Why did I frame Eddy? I’ll tell you why—he’s been a part of this thing, too. Fuck that guy. I had no problem shifting the blame from you to him. You should be thanking me. I have no idea why you’re mad. You’re acting like a feminist weirdo.”

As soon as he said that, I grew so angry I felt electric goosebumps all over my body.

I shot up, grabbed his shirt, and shoved him to the wall.

He retaliated by lunging towards me and latching onto my hair.

We both yelled as we wrestled. Before a serious fight broke out, Manny wedged himself between us and pulled us back.

“Stop it. This is my house, you prehistoric wildebeests. You guys need to calm down right now!” Manny ordered.

“Dude, what the hell is your problem? Are you having a mental breakdown?” Carlos asked.

“You shouldn’t have done what you did, Carlos. You shouldn’t have. I told you I was done, remember?” I asked.

“Hey, hey, hey. We’re all friends here. C’mon, guys. This is crazy—we never fight like this,” Manny pointed out.

“Yeah? Well, maybe we should,” I suggested.

“What the hell is up with you, dude?” Carlos asked.

“Heather didn’t deserve to have her nudes blasted online again. That girl Indira didn’t deserve it either, and Eddy is a good person. He doesn’t deserve to have his reputation tarnished like that over some bullshit lie,” I explained.

“Eddy is a good person? I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” Carlos pointed out.

“What are you talking about?” I asked.

Carlos went over to Manny’s computer and turned off the tournament livestream. He logged onto the social media app and went to a user named angel66 .

“Meet our collaborator,” Carlos said proudly.

“Who is that?” I asked.

“You’ll see. I don’t want to ruin the surprise,” Carlos added.

“She contacted him after Frankie’s party. She wanted to contact you, but you had deleted all of your social media accounts,” Manny explained.

“Yeah, for obvious reasons,” I replied.

“Well, I told her not to worry because I would help her with her plans. She recognized me from when I used to work at the movie theater. That’s the time that Heather threw popcorn at me,” Carlos explained.

“Her plans? What plans? Why didn’t you guys mention this to me?” I asked.

“You were shaken up after you got jumped, so Manny told me we shouldn’t involve you in this one. You wouldn’t have gone through with it anyway,” Carlos added.

“From what we understand, she wanted revenge against Eddy. We’re not sure why, but we had a mutual goal, and so we came up with a plan to expose him,” Manny explained.

“Yeah, you’re definitely right. I wouldn’t have wanted to go through with this insanity. I would’ve stopped your dumbasses,” I affirmed.

“So, do you wanna know who she is?” Carlos asked.

“Dude, just tell me. This isn’t a game!” I said in frustration.

“After what happened in the auditorium, I told her how everything had worked out, and then she saw it online, so she sent us a voice message,” Carlos explained.

“Play it!” I exclaimed.