Tell me how can I right my wrongs
That's something that I should know
✂︎------------------------
"AND TAO! Out of all people you pick the bitch that's trying to ruin my fucking life?" I screamed. I was a hypocrite. But for a good reason, I hope.
"It just happened, Laura. I'm sorry, I don't know what you want me to say," Reece said, looking at the ground.
Currently, we were in the courtyard during lunch where I continued to yell and rant because I was still so incredibly pissed that I had to ditch the first period where I shared a class with Tao because I quite possibly might've killed her.
"Maybe just don't fucking do that!"
"We aren't even dating, Laura. Why are you so mad?"
"Ok fine, you're right. Just next time hookup with someone who isn't practically trying to start a war with me."
"Maybe if you told me what's going on I'd actually understand you," He replied, reaching out and grabbing my hands.
I looked at my hands interlaced with his, it's been a while since we've done this. Looking back up, he was giving me that look of empathy he always gives me. Shaking my head, I pulled my hands away and crossed my arms. "I'm not involving you in my problems anymore. So if you don't stop involving yourself there's going to be an even bigger problem."
"Involving myself?"
I sighed, annoyed he wasn't just taking the answer I already gave. "Yes, Reece. Tao doesn't like you, she's using you to get to me."
"She knows about us?"
"There is no 'us' anymore and she knows that which is why she's using you," I explained. But he still looked confused. "Reece, just stay away from her, please. For your own sake and for mine."
Straightening out myself, I pulled down my rising skirt and tried to give him a small smile. "Talk later?" I said, turning around to leave. I didn't want to talk later. But I didn't want to leave him just like that.
I wasn't sure where to go now, certainly, I didn't want to go sit with Tao where she was proudly bragging about her stupid makeout session or something else because her mouth ran faster than she did.
Leaving the courtyard, I decided to just wander the school. It was massive and I didn't actually take time out of my schedule to go anywhere besides my classes, the library, and the cafeteria. There was surprisingly a lot of unexplored and probably empty classrooms in the school.
Such as the west wing. The emptiest part of the school because it was also the oldest. That far could be told from the cracks in the walls, and the nearly disgusting hallways and old fashioned lockers. But one of the doors, unlike the rest of the rusting metal ones, was shiny and painting a bright burgundy red. Pushing the door open, I stepped inside. It must've been one of the cooking rooms. There were ovens and fridges and utensils. Looked almost exactly like one of the kitchens you'd see on Chopped.
But I wasn't alone in there.
"Isaia?" I questioned, standing by the door with my arms crossed.
He was sitting by an open window, smoking a cigarette with an untouched sandwich in front of him. His head flashed over to me, and instantly he hid the cigarette behind his ear as if I didn't already see. "Why the fuck are you here? Did Tao send you to find me?"
"No... Why would she?" I asked, genuinely confused.
He shook his head, going back to looking out the window and removing the cig from his ear.
Taking my chances, I sulked over to the window and just stood beside him. The window looked out directly into the London city. But you could barely see it through the fog and because the distance. It was just like an outline on the horizon. It was actually really fucking pretty,
"Are you...okay?" I asked.
His reply was bitter and quick. Unsure. "Obviously."
"Really? Because, if I'm correct, if you were okay you wouldn't be hiding away on the west wing in an empty classroom..alone."
"And neither would you be," He responded, still not looking at me.
"But I never said I was okay, you did."
Isaia sighed, running a hand through his hair and taking another puff from the cigarette. Wrinkling my nose, and plucked the piece of shit right from his hand and tossed out the window. He looked at me finally, confused, but still not saying anything. That time it was my turn to not return the eye contact, looking outside still.
"Well, unlike others I don't give a fuck how you're feeling," I said. He opened his mouth to speak, but before he could say anything I continued. "So if you want to talk about it, you can. It's not like I'd tell someone or use your feelings against you."
"Why do I doubt that?" He replied.
"Because you probably haven't had someone you could be genuinely honest with, in a long time. Everyone in the school is fake," I guessed. Though I was probably right because I felt the same way stuck in the piece of shit school.
"Including yourself," He said, furrowing his eyebrows.
"You call it fake, I call it defense," Isaia sighed and didn't reply for a minute. So I continued. "I might as well admit it because everyone and their mother knows this. But I'm not stupid. And neither are you."
"What are you trying to say?"
"I'm saying I truly don't give a fuck about anyone in this school," That was only a partial lie. "But I know that's not a mutual feeling between some people. Therefore you could tell me every one of your secrets and I wouldn't care. You can either use this against you or for you."
And that was 100%, not a lie. I could care less about the A-listers. Because I know I only have to care about Tao. If Tao falls, so does the rest of them. If I kill the chief, their army falls with them. That much is proven all through war history.
After another good minute, Isaia finally replies. "I'm in love with Tao. Or...was."
I didn't say anything. What was I supposed to say? 'Sorry for your loss?'.
"And?"
"In 8th grade, we dated but we didn't tell anyone. A B-lister... that Luca kid you hang out with, well she asked him out. I don't know what she saw in him but... she saw something. Originally he said yes, anyone would. But I got jealous because I thought what Tao and I were serious and meaningful... I guess not. I set Luca up. I forced one of the D-listers who worked with computers to make it look like Luca was cheating on Tao with girls in his DMs. With one of Tao's best friends... her name was Victoria or something," He spilled out. And I could tell he wasn't even close to done.
"Tao went insane. Her whole personality switched. She became so... bitchy. I mean she always was, but suddenly she hated everything and everyone and wanted everyone lower than her to suffer. Victoria ended up moving before anything super bad happened, but Luca and Victoria went from an A-lister to a D-lister within a few hours. I felt bad, but since I was so in love with her I didn't care. I thought with Luca out of the picture she'd want me back.
"But she didn't. She didn't want any fucking one. I'm surprised Luca didn't switch schools or try to kill himself or something. The bullying he suffered was so insanely bad but I never did anything about it because Tao was the one who made it hardest for him.
It got really bad in my Freshman year. She said she missed having a best friend. I would always ask why she didn't just stay with Brandy or Zia and she said it was because they knew too much. So that's when she took in Annabell. One of the most generous, beautiful, good-spirited person I've ever met besides from Luca. It started off normal, a little weird but normal. She came out of nowhere, and was invited to everything, was always with Tao. They were even closer than Victoria. I don't know what happened, we all truly loved Annabell.
At least I did. She was so understanding, good at comforting people. Just really... perfect. But something happened, probably something small, but Tao suddenly came to us saying she needed our help destroying Annabell. That Anna was a backstabbing dirty slut that didn't deserve shit anymore. Those were Tao's exact words. The guys were all hesitant. But they followed Tao like a dog and a treat. I did too because I still loved Tao more than Annabell.
But Tao said she wanted me to hurt her. Specifically, because we were the closest. I was supposed to make her fall in love with me too, and then hook up with her. And that's all I knew. Except for the night of the party. Ace held another party and Anna and I went together. She drank... a lot. She even went to rehab the summer just before that year for it... I thought I was the only one who knew but Tao must've found out because she spent the whole night trying to get Anna wasted.
I tried to stop Anna, I didn't want her to go back to drinking because she'd done so much to stay away from it. But she didn't listen. Tao had Brandy and Zia drug Anna. I took Anna to one of the guest rooms, so she could sleep it off or something. But she kept trying to... have sex with me or something. Brandy found us together in the bedroom and took a picture and showed it to all the A-listers.
And that Sunday Tao messaged all of us to come to her house. She literally sat us down in a fucking circle like it was some business meeting, and pulled up the picture on her phone. I didn't even know they took a picture at the time.
Tao basically announced that I never loved Anna, and now they have her nudes so if she ever tried anything 'again', whatever that meant, Tao would leak them to the whole school. Anna stormed out after that, and I remember her face. She was so...heartbroken. She went crazy, yelling at me and trying to hit me. I remembering feeling so sad and pissed at Tao. But I never did anything about it. The bullying started that Monday.
And it lasted till April, when someone... I forget who. Either Sonny or Cajes, caught her making out with some guy and told Tao. Tao leaked Anna's nudes and the bullying got so bad that month a week later she slit her wrist and never came back to school.
Anna's family sued Tao, but Tao's parents didn't believe Tao did anything she was being accused of and because they were so wealthy and Anna really wasn't, the lawsuit was dropped and nothing happened to Tao. I thought it was over. I thought it was done with and Tao would go back to the original self. But in Sophomore year, she did it all over again. But this time to a girl named Rachel who I later found out was Anna's cousin.
Tao used me to get close to Rachel. Leading me on, kissing me, acting as she loved me. Tao knew she had me wrapped around her finger and used that against me with every chance she had. Rachel was smarter though. For a good, while our reputation started going down the drain until Tao found out Rachel was behind everything. Once again she went psycho. It was obvious that Rachel didn't care but it was so... bad.
Tao and I got into a fight... a really bad one. None of us have ever been the same since. The boys were all tired of Tao's shit, and the girls stilled followed Tao like a puppy dog. It was the final straw."
Isaia took a deep breath. Like he'd gotten a weight off his shoulders that he's been carrying for years. "I see," I replied steadily.
What Rachel told me was so much worse. As if the A-listers wanted to destroy everyone when it was really just Tao controlling them and Brandy and Zia too hopeless to do anything but follow. He actually loved Annabell. That changed everything. Rachel said he never loved Anna, Rachel made Isaia seem so insanely heartless it hurt to think that people like him existed. That doesn't change what he did, but it does change my perspective on him a little bit.
Isaia ran a hand through his hair. "And you're next, Laura. Tao's trying to destroy you now too and she's pissed I won't help her. She's pissed none of the guys want to help her."
"I know," I replied, keeping my voice even.
Isaia stopped, raised his eyebrow and looked at me. "You knew?"
"Not the details. But I knew what she was trying to do."
"Oh."
"Yeah."
Probably shouldn't have told him that.
"Well that makes sense. I think Tao thinks you might know, but she hasn't figured out how you would know if you did. She's so much colder this year. At least last year she had half a heart left. This year, all she wants to do is destroy you. She's obsessed."
"She is obsessed, isn't she?"
Isaia, stood up leaning against the counter. Now that I did now more about him, he seemed so much more vulnerable. And everything was starting to make more sense. That must be why she was so pissed about me hanging out with Luca. Because deep down she loved him at one point. That's also probably why she targetted Reece out of all people.
"How do I know you won't tell anyone I told you this?" He asked, narrowing his eyes.
"Because you know something about me too."
"Which is?"
"You know that I'm always one step ahead of you guys. That should be leverage enough."
"Don't say 'you guys'. The guys and I don't want anything to do with what Tao's planning anymore. The girls on the other hand..."
"Isaia, as I said. I'm not going to use anything you say to me against you. But that doesn't me I don't have the option to."
"Excuse me-?"
"That means you can't step out of line. Now you can't turn on me, Isaia. Because I know your dirty little secrets and unlike Annabell, I have the money and power to actually do something about it."
"Laura-."
"I'm not blackmailing you. I'm just telling you that you better stay out of it. You better keep your word and you better not turn on me because I easily can to the same. This isn't a threat, this isn't a warning, it's just a little hint to help you make the right choice."
Isaia didn't say anything, thinking it all over. "What's your goal?"
"I think it's pretty obvious what my goal is. And if you interfere you will go down just like the rest of them. I think it would be in your best interest to stay out of the way."
Isaia smirked, shaking his head and looking out the window. "Well, Laura Strathen. I wish you the best of luck. It's about time someone does something."
"Isaia Woods, you don't get a free pass. But if you make the right choices from here on out, you make get cut some slack."
"And that means?"
"That means if you go back to being the same coldhearted bitch you were before that would spit on anyone who looks at you wrong, you're fate is the same as Tao's," Standing up, I straightened out my skirt and stuck out my hand. "Let's call this fair game. Unless you go back to breaking the rules. And I will find out if you do so."
Isaia hesitated. "So if I don't fuck up or help Tao you won't ruin my whole future?"
"Correct," He nodded his head, and then slid his hand into mine and shook. "I'm glad we have an agreeance. And I recommend you try to convince your friends to do the same because at the moment their reputation means as much to me as Tao's."
Turning to leave, Isaia didn't reply, but I knew he was looking at me. "Laura!" He called out. When I turned to look back at him, he was smiling. "Thanks."
I returned a slight smile, nodding my head and leaving the classroom.
All I can do now hope.
Song Of The Chapter: right my wrongs - Bryson Tiller
Okay before I say anything lemmi clear up some plot holes I probably messed up in the series because in the 1st book I didn't have all the details written out so I messed up a few things.
1. They are all juniors or year 12, but not all of them are originally born in London. I think I mention a few characters has different accents and birthplaces and whatnot
2. Before anyone gets paranoid Isaia wasn't lying about his story for once
3. Isaia is spelled Isaia, not Isaiah, I know I messed up the spelling a few times
4. If you're confused on ANYTHING comment and I will explain it all :)
Uhm okay this chapter is over 2700 words, but I don't regret a thing.
Sorry if you don't really like long chapters but I wanted to give the full story without skipping details or anything. I hope this lightens the mood after the last chapter cuz Ik a lot of people were pissed because of Tao.
ANYWHO ENJOY :DD
Question: How do you feel about Isaia, Sonny, Cajes, and Ace now?
Much love - Kujiis