The Revenge by Tijan

“What are you doing?” That was me, in her face. I was more confused, though. I thought we’d been okay before.

“Sorry.” She moved aside, but she still seemed agitated. “I don’t know why I did that.”

Matt raised an eyebrow. “Conditioned response?” He flashed a cocky grin. “Makes me feel good that you instantly fear us.” He smoothed a hand down his chest. “We’re doing something right.”

I stifled a grin.

Hoda glared at Matt. “So not funny.” She looked at me. “And I am sorry. I was just, uh—” She realized she was still holding her phone, and she looked at it. Her face got beet red. Her hand jerked; she started to put it in her pocket.

Matt swooped in, plucking it out of her hand. “What’s this?” He began reading her screen, then stopped abruptly.

Everything changed.

His slightly joking demeanor vanished and the air grew charged.

The hairs on the back of my neck stood up, right as he lifted his deadly serious and stormy eyes, locking on Hoda. “You want to explain this shit?”

She ducked her head, heaving a long dramatic breath. “Damn.”

“Yeah,” Matt clipped out. “Damn.” He went back to the phone, clicking through it.

“Hey!” She tried for it. “That’s private property.”

He held it out of her reach, backtracking. “Not when you’re texting with our enemy.” He looked at me, gesturing to Hoda with his head. “She’s still hanging out with Camille Story.”

Camille Story, the blogger nemesis on whom we still needed to exact revenge, because she’d done all sorts of bad stuff against us.

“Good!”

He frowned at me.

Hoda twitched, doing a double take at my gush. “What?”

“Yeah.” Matt’s eyebrows pinched together, and he threw Hoda a scowl. “What?”

“No. That works out.” I took the phone from him.

“Hey—hey!”

I moved away from Hoda, shrugging her off, and Matt stepped in, blocking her.

Hoda was still talking to Camille.

Hoda was still in a good relationship with her.

I read over their exchanges. It was normal messages between friends. Venting. Excited exclamations. Some OMGs and Oh God!s. They talked about guys. Whoa. Wait. They were talking about Liam. I threw Hoda a frown. “You have a thing for Liam?”

Liam was the jock nerd in our class.

He wasn’t really a nerd, but he was a jock, and we’re all big computer people, so the phrase stuck.

Her face was bright red now.

She was up against the wall, but Matt was still blocking her from leaving. She made a grab for her phone. Matt simply didn’t let her move. She moved one way, he was right there in front of her. She went another way, he moved that way, too. He was enjoying that a bit too much, and Hoda threw him a dark look before falling back against the wall in defeat. “Yes. I mean, yeah. And he and I are going to move in together. It was his suggestion.”

“His suggestion?” Matt’s eyebrows arched high. “Did you hypnotize him one night or something?”

She flushed again, but by this point it was getting hard to tell. “No! Not that it’s any of your business, but I can’t stand Camille. That’s me holding up my end of our promise.” She turned to point at me. “You said you’d close out all the spying on me if I got you in her room. I tried, I really did, but she’s so pretentious. I can’t stand living with her. She’s horrible. I’m allowed five times to use the bathroom and I can only use it for fifteen minutes in the morning, to get ready for the day. I have to sneak a shower after she leaves the apartment, and I swear she’s got cameras inside the place, because she always gives me this look like she knows I showered. But she can’t call me on it because then I’d question how she knew, because I wipe down every single time!”

She rolled her eyes, her hands going into her hair and fisting both sides before letting them drop back down. “So, yeah. That’s me being fake, and I reacted because it was just instinct. No!” She slapped a hand to Matt’s chest. “That does not mean I instantly fear you. I, just, I don’t know. Wait!” She stopped, realization and horror coming to her face. Her mouth dropped before she caught herself. “Oh my God. Your mom. You’re here. What are you doing here?” She was scanning my face, studying me more intently. “You look good. You look like yourself again.”

Matt snorted.

She threw him another scowl. “You’re really annoying. Has anyone told you that?”

“Just Kash, usually. And that’s because I annoy him on purpose.” The cocky smirk was back. He was giving her bedroom eyes. “If a chick calls me annoying, it’s because she wants me but doesn’t want to admit she wants me.” He leaned against the wall. “How about it? You want me?”

Her phone buzzed in my hands.

Liam: Are we still on for the apartment?

I answered for her. “Uh, no. Remember.” I showed Matt the phone. “She’s got a thing for Liam.”

He read the text, but his smirk didn’t lessen. “The guy’s in for a world of hurt.”

She cursed, grabbing the phone this time. “You guys are both horrible human beings,” she replied, then remembered. “Oh, shit. I didn’t really mean that about you, Bailey. Just him.” She threw Matt a look.