Page 45 of My Rules for Revenge (Twisted YA Mysteries #1)

HEATHER

There were so many things I didn’t understand. I needed to clear things up, so I decided to hear it straight from the source.

It was a two-hour drive that I planned to make during the weekend with Vivian.

We were uncharacteristically quiet almost the whole way over there. Vivian tried to talk with me on occasion, but my mind was drifting through the clouds in the sky. I thought about all the possible outcomes of the encounter and mentally prepared myself for each and every one.

Once we arrived, we were both sweaty and exhausted. We put the air conditioning on full blast in the car, as we both decided to take a nap through the night.

We parked in a visitor spot. Indira’s house was only a couple of houses away and in view. I couldn’t sleep because I was too anxious and worried that I would miss her. I needed to wait until she left her house. I didn’t dare knock on her door. I had no desire to explain myself to her parents.

It was now early Saturday morning. I knew we looked like creepy, murderous stalkers, but I watched the house like a hawk.

Just as my eyes began to drift downward and close, I saw a figure leaving Indira’s house—it was her—she had cut her hair short.

She appeared sleepy and annoyed with heavy bags under her eyes.

She had a small backpack slung over her shoulder.

I waited until she was a considerable distance away from her house before pursuing.

I glanced at Vivian, who was still asleep, and then quietly exited the car. I slowly walked down the sidewalk and approached her as closely as possible without alerting her. Just as she was about to turn a corner, I called out to her.

“Indira!” I said in a relatively loud voice.

She stopped and stood still for several moments. When she turned around, her eyes bulged, and she was taken aback, almost tripping over herself.

“It’s me, Heather.”

“Oh my god.”

“I know this is weird and out of the blue, but… Hi, it’s been a while.”

“Heather… How did you find me? Why did you find me? Well, I suppose I know why you found me,” Indira smirked.

“You know, I never would’ve guessed that you could be pretty damn diabolical.”

“You forced me to. I don’t care. You can do whatever you want to me. You can punch me, kick me, pull my hair, snap my legs, break my arms… I don’t care anymore,” Indira scoffed.

She clenched her fists, and her body began to shake slightly.

“Indira, wait. I’m not angry,” I assured her.

“Bullshit, you’re always angry,” Indira said in disbelief.

I put up my hands to indicate I was trying to be peaceful.

“I listened to the voice message you sent Carlos. I just have a few questions,” I clarified.

“What do you want?” Indira rolled her eyes.

“Why did you try to frame Eddy, and why were you willing to expose yourself like that?”

She sighed and looked down at the ground.

“I still think Eddy is a good person, but only when he wants to be,” Indira remarked.

“What are you talking about? Eddy is a good person. Why did you lie and say he pressured you into sending those pictures? That’s not something he would do,” I reassured her.

“I didn’t lie—it was the truth. I didn’t frame him—I exposed him. Those texts are real. I’m sorry, Heather. I did what I did because I wanted to hurt you. I knew you two had something. He moved on from me to you fairly quickly,” Indira pointed out.

“So, that’s why you did it. You were jealous of us.”

“No, Heather.”

Indira fished her phone out of her backpack and opened her text messages.

She showed me the last conversation she had with a contact named “Boy.” Sure enough, they were the same texts shown in the auditorium.

She even showed me the phone number—it was Eddy’s.

I couldn’t believe it. The texts were not fake.

I wanted to shoot out a stream of waterworks that had welled up in my eyes, but I did my best to keep it in.

“I don’t understand. Why would he do that? That doesn’t sound like him at all,” I replied, rather shocked by what I had just seen.

“He’s a horny, evil bastard. Why else? He’s not the first person in the history of the world to lie about something to get what he wants. I thought he liked me—I really did. I thought we had a connection. It’s the only reason I sent him those after he kept insisting.

“Then they got leaked because of his douchebag friends on the basketball team, and suddenly everyone saw them. They teased me about it in class and in the halls. They called me delicious because my ass looked great in jeans, not to mention they would do anything to smell my you-know-what.

“One guy even yelled out to me that I looked submissive and breedable. I mean, seriously, who the hell says that to people? Those weeks felt like years. It was one of the most horrible experiences of my life,” Indira explained with sadness in her eyes.

To say I was stunned was an understatement.

“My god, Indira. I had no idea you were going through that. I’m so sorry. I don’t know what to say. I can’t believe Eddy did that to you.” I shook my head.

“The thing is, you never gave me a chance to tell you what was going on. I was in a dark place, and I still am. I was at a point where I tried to force Eddy to choose me over his friends, and of course, he didn’t.

The teasing and the harassment got to me, and I no longer wanted to deal with it.

That day, I needed a friend. I needed you. You betrayed me.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked with a shocked look on my face.

“Heather, you know what I’m talking about.”

I thought back to the day the book club room had been vandalized.

I had buried that memory deep down within me.

I felt that my actions were justified, but at the same time, I knew I was guilty.

I just didn’t want to admit it. I never wanted to remember what happened that day, but there we were—it had finally caught up to me.

I remember walking towards the book club room on that day. It was very early in the morning—the sun had barely risen. Then I saw it. It happened again. The door was wide open, and my heart sank to the floor.

I stopped and slowly treaded the last few steps to the room. My lock was missing, along with several books. Someone had broken inside and had spray-painted various detailed penises, testicles, and Nazi symbols all over the walls and bookshelves—the ones I had bought and built myself.

That wasn’t the worst of it. I quickly remembered my lockbox with all the donation money I had worked so hard for.

I went to the secret spot where I hid it and saw that it was busted open.

All the money was gone. It had taken me several months to accumulate that much money through those corny-ass fundraising events and soccer mom bake sales.

I was so furious that I seriously thought I was about to burst into flames.

I shot up, tilted a bookshelf from the bottom, and allowed it to crash onto the floor with a thunderous boom.

The wooden panels snapped off as all the books tumbled out.

I picked up the lockbox and smashed it against the floor so hard that the metal dented.

I was a firestorm ravaging everything in its path.

When I slightly calmed down, I texted Indira to bring her ass over as soon as possible.

I had recently made her co-president of the book club and had assigned her the job of making sure the room was secured and locked every single day after school.

She had only been co-president for one week before this happened.

She knew the room had been vandalized many times before and should've known better.

I seriously wanted to tear her head off, stuff a pipe bomb inside her mouth, and catapult it across the sky.

I sat on top of a desk to wait. When she finally arrived and saw the destruction, she froze. She stammered over her words, unable to speak as I locked my eyes into hers.

“Have you been locking this room?”I asked with a look of disgust.

“I—I—I… What happened in here?” Indira asked reluctantly.

“Have you been locking this room, Indira?” I asked again with irritation creeping up my spine.

“Heather, who did all this? Oh my god.”

“Answer the fucking question before I explode, please.”

Indira gulped and looked away.

“Heather, I’m so sorry. I’m so, so sorry,” Indira said apologetically.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I remarked with a very serious look on my face.

“I locked it on Monday and Tuesday of this week, I swear to you.”

“You have to lock this room every single day, Indira. You know what happens if you don’t.”

“I do know. You’re right.”

“It just happened,” I pointed out.

“Heather, I’m so sorry. I’ll make this right. I’ll do whatever you need me to do.”

“They stole all the donation money, and they stole most of my books. The other ones are ripped up and shredded. There’s graffiti of dicks, balls, and Nazis on the walls.

I mean, the one thing I needed you to do was lock this room.

I made you co-president of this club as a favor, and it hasn’t been a week, and you let this happen. ”

“Heather, I’ll try to fix this. I promise you,” Indira pleaded.

“It’s too late, you freaking idiot. What were you doing that was so important that you couldn’t take five freaking minutes after school to make sure it was locked?”

“I…I was distracted,” Indira confessed.

“Distracted? Distracted by what? Give me a break. You literally had one job,” I said angrily.

“Why don’t we tell Principal Newman? He’ll have to do something about this,” Indira suggested.

“He doesn’t care, you imbecile. That’s the whole reason I bought the lock to begin with. I’ve complained about fixing the door since my freshman year. He does not care. How are you this dense? I told you that I needed this done.”

“I don’t know what to say,” Indira said with embarrassment and regret in her demeanor.

“Well, isn’t that just perfect? You don’t know what to say,” I mocked. My head was about to explode.