Cross My Heart and Hope You Cry | The Clique Fanfiction

20

"So," she started sharply, "why are you here?"

Kristen swallowed. "Cam didn't cheat on you with Claire."

Cassia's gaze darkened. "I'm not in the mood for your group's mind games," she said slowly.

Kristen shook her head quickly. "It's not a game-"

"-I know what I saw," she hissed, cutting her off. Her face was fiery, and the scowl that settled onto her lips was one she'd never seen before. Cassia was always so composed, with nary a hair —nor a carefully catered smile— out of place, so she almost reeled back in shock at the strong emotion which fell onto her face. "If you think that you can just come in here after what she did and play me for a fool-"

"We set her up!"

Cassia's mouth snapped shut, and Kristen quickly continued.

"When Massie saw you and Cam on the outs she wanted to take the opportunity to get back at you. She- she wanted to make your life miserable like you'd made hers. She wanted to knock you off the pedestal." Cassia wasn't speaking—she was barely emoting. "So she had this idea to make it seem like Cam left you for Claire, but Claire she- she'd written us off by then, so we had to blackmail her. I-um," she licked her lips nervously and dropped her head to stare down at her fingers which were playing with the edges of her plain running shorts, "I took a text convo we had out of context and gave it to Massie. If it got out to Layne and Heather and them she would've lost them as friends so she agreed to do it. Claire and Cam, they're just victims in this . . ." she trailed off, darting her eyes upwards to meet Cassia's.

"How did you do it?" She asked, her voice neutral. Kristen wished there was something to tip her off as to how she was feeling.

"We took Massie's dad's good stationary, typed up two notes and printed it onto them, both saying to meet in the storage room with your time five minutes after his. Massie, Alicia and Claire got to school early to plant the notes and then have Claire in the closet. Once we saw Cam go in we waited until we saw you coming. The signal was a text message; Claire's phone was on silent so it would just vibrate and Cam wouldn't notice anything. That was her signal to . . . kiss him."

"And I'm just supposed to believe you?"

"I have proof."

Kristen fumbled in her back pocket and pulled out her phone, opening the NPC group chat and sliding it across the coffee table. Cassia simply stared down at the phone blankly for a few moments before she finally picked it up, holding it gingerly almost as if she were afraid of it. Kristen remained stiff and quiet as Cassia slowly scrolled through the litany of text messages crowing about their "brilliant plan" and hid a wince at the thought of what she was currently sifting through. Massie had been very proud when the whole ruse played out exactly as she wanted.

When Cassia finally placed the phone back down, she glanced back up at Kristen before she spoke softly. "So why did you suddenly get a conscience?"

"Well, um," Kristen said, flustered, "well, I felt guilty . . ." Her voice trailed off weakly. She was beginning to regret this decision as soon as it had come to pass—but she knew she couldn't turn back now. She couldn't take it back.

"Guilty?" Cassia asked, raising her brow again. She nodded, biting down hard on her bottom lip.

"About what?"

"The whole thing; about what happened with you and Claire and Cam because-" she hesitated, "because it wasn't fair to them. . . it wasn't fair to you either, and I am really sorry, but if I hadn't gone along with the plan I would've been kicked out of the Pretty Committee. I betrayed Claire who was my friend and she-" She paused, looking away. "She doesn't deserve the Blacklist," she finished quietly.