Page 171 of Trapped With You

“You probably noticed your laptop and diary are missing.” I picked up a face-paint kit and a spare brush nonchalantly. “We stole those, by the way, and you’re not getting them back.”

“Fucking cunts, you had no right!” she snapped and lurched in my direction, but the binds jerked her back. “Those are my things! Give them back!”

The girls braced their hands on her body to hold her steady.

“No can do.” I clicked my tongue and gave her my most apologetic expression. “Oh, and we read every single diary entry you’ve ever written. Not to mention, saw your amateur porn. We have all the proof with us. And you know what that means, don’t you?”

Her silence was answer enough.

For a few seconds, Callie met my glare head-on, not backing down. I treated this girl like my family and all this time, she’d been talking shit and planning vile things for us behind our backs. It was a shame it came down to this.

I pushed aside every good memory I had with her. Birthday parties. Sleepovers and movie nights. Coffee and study dates. Seeing the fireworks every year at the Halloween carnival. After school cheer practices, especially the one where we accidentally broke Sister Victoria’s statue in the foyer and burst into giggles before remembering that Principal Hill was going to punish our asses for such a big fuckup.

All those moments filtered through my mind like a film and slowly, one by one, I lit them on fire like I did Kian Wilson’s car, erasing Callie Mackowski’s existence from my mind the same way I did him.

I couldn’t forgive her transgressions—hurting me, my family, my friends. Unacceptable. She’d give me my pound of flesh and then fuck out of our lives.

Picking up the brush, I dipped it in white paint. “Do you mind if I practice my makeup skills while we have this conversation, Cal?” I hit her with a shark grin. “I’m no expert, but I’m sure you’ll look beautiful by the time I’m done.”

The girls sniggered.

Callie stayed painfully silent, holding her breath as the first stroke touched her cheek.

I painted her entire face white first. “You pretended to be ourfriend for years, while secretly loathing us. I don’t get it. We were only ever kind and sincere to you. Why all of this hate? What have we done to you?”

Once I began painting blue on her eyelids, she understood where this was going and shook in her seat, raging. “You all act like you’re better than everyone else—me! All four of you bitches. Hera, you always thought you were the smartest in the room! Ella, you and Darla paraded around the school like you’re queen bees and everyone should kiss the ground you walk on! And you,” she spat in Dacia’s direction. “You ruined my chances of becoming the captain of the cheerleading team by picking these two nepo sluts as your successor, you fuckingdyke—”

Out of nowhere, Darla grabbed her designer purse and swung it so hard against Callie’s body, the latter almost toppled over. We all shrieked and tried to stop Darla, who absolutely lost her cool.

Chaos ensued in the dressing room as limbs and curses shot everywhere.

“I dare you to insult my sister again!” Darla looped her purse strap around Callie’s throat and tried to choke her. Callie croaked like a frog. “And I’ll make you regret ever talking, you classless, tasteless, insufferable red riding witch!”

“Darla, no!” We couldn’t murder the bitch no matter how tempting. “Stop!”

Dacia managed to drag her sister away from Callie, wrapping an arm around her and whispering words like ‘It’s okay,’ and ‘She’s not worth it.’ Hera let loose a winded breath and pulled out the phone Josh gave us withfull accessto Callie’s personal social media account.

Which had thousands of followers to witness her downfall.

“Listen up, you two-faced, idiotic, homophobic, lying bitch,” I spoke calmly, but with barely concealed fury. “Your jealousy and insecurities are not our fault. Our only mistake wasbefriending you and treating you with love and kindness, while you harboured one-sided resentment towards us. Just because someone has something you want doesn’t mean you have the right to insult them. Especially when those people did nothing to warrant your anger or judgemental thoughts.” I continued painting Callie’s face, adding a red nose and an exaggerated red grin. “If being in our presence—our accomplishments—intimidates you and makes you realize your own failures, then that sounds like ayouproblem. Because the truth is we’ve only ever supported and celebrated you, Callie. It’s not Hera’s fault that she is the smartest in the room. It’s not Dacia’s fault that she picked us as her successors, considering we earned our fucking place through hard work and sheer perseverance. As for Darla and me? We can carry ourselves however we goddamn please. It’s just like Darla said…You’re a classless, tasteless, insufferablebitchwith a spectrum of issues…Absolute garbage in our book. And we no longer associate with you.” I tipped her face towards the mirror with a flick of my fingers. “Do you like it? I think I did a good job at capturing your truth.”

Callie looked like a fucking clown.

She fumed, seeing her reflection—seeing her ugliness. “There you go talking like you’re once again better than everyone else, Ella.”

Callie still didn’t get it. “No. I don’t think I’m better than anyone. But you do, based on the utter crap you wrote in your diary about your ‘friends’ and peers.”

Hera launched the phone my way and I caught it. “Since you’re so fond of talking shit about everyone else, we thought it was fitting to share your words with the world. See what they think of that, eh? I reckon they’ll have the same opinion as us.”

Callie barred her teeth, agitated. “What the fuck did you do!”

Wiped out all her previous pictures on her social media account to give us a clean slate…and then posted snapshots ofher diary entries.

“Exactly as I said.” I angled the phone’s screen her way. “Showed the whole world your true colours.”

The magnitude of her situation crashed down on her. She panicked, her breaths choppy, as I read out loud the rude and disgusting entries.“Dear Diary, Lori is trailer trash and a goddamn skank. She’s gotgold diggerwritten all over her ass. The only thing she’s good at is getting on her knees to suck rich boys’ cocks. Hate whores like her. I can’t wait till someone catches her and she gets expelled. Maybe I’ll be the whistle-blower (pun-intended) and let Principal Hill know.

Callie.