Total pages in book: 63
Estimated words: 59739 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 299(@200wpm)___ 239(@250wpm)___ 199(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 59739 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 299(@200wpm)___ 239(@250wpm)___ 199(@300wpm)
“Hey,” I say, rushing over, breathless from the run to get here. “Hey, what’s going on?”
“It was her,” Tatiana screams so loudly it makes me flinch. “She fucking ruined my life.”
I’m confused.
I look to Rachel, who is biting her lip. She glances at me, and then says low, “Aggie was the one who got Tatiana thrown from the lead role. What they didn’t tell you is that when they got home, Tatiana was going to be suspended.”
Wait, what?
I look to Aggie. “What is she talking about?”
Aggie is crying, heavy tears falling down her cheeks. “I didn’t... it was an accident.”
“How?” Tatiana screams.
“Stop,” I yell, throwing my hands up. “Just calm down and someone tell me what the fuck happened?”
“Aggie reported me for drug use,” Tati wails. “She is the reason I got kicked out of the lead role and she is the reason I’m going to lose my fucking career when I get home.”
My heart skips and I look over to Aggie, who has her face buried in her hands.
“Aggie,” I say, my voice shaky but careful.
“It... I was worried, okay? I knew she was doing drugs to help with her injury, and I could see that it was getting worse. She missed practice more than she should and we were all suffering because of it, so I made a report.”
Oh.
Gosh.
“You could have talked to me,” Tati yells. “You could have fucking come and talked to me. Instead, you went behind my back so you could get what you wanted, and you did, the lead role.”
“We all worked hard for our career,” Aggie screams, her voice rising higher than I’ve heard it. “We all fucking worked for it and you’re there, high as a fucking kite, getting everything. It’s not fair, Tati. It isn’t fair and you know it.”
“I’m your best friend,” Tati bellows. “You should have come to me.”
“Okay,” Zeke says, taking Tati’s arm. “We all need to calm down. Tati, you’re going to walk with me. We will revisit this when everyone has had a minute to process.”
“Good idea,” Kellen mutters.
“No,” Tatiana jerks her arm from Zeke’s grip. “No, I’m not going anywhere.”
I see it coming a full half second before it happens. My feet don’t even have time to react before Tatiana launches at Aggie across the sand, a screaming blur. Her fist winds back, and the next instant both women are tumbling in a frenzy of hair and fingernails and knees.
“Jesus Christ!” I yell, but it’s already chaos.
Tati grabs Aggie’s hair and yanks her down, hard, but before she can get a second shot in, Kellen and Zeke are on them. Kellen wraps his arms around Aggie’s waist and hauls her off the ground, while Zeke tries to catch hold of Tati without, I guess, breaking her. Tati kicks out at Aggie even as she’s midair. An arc of sand explodes into the wind.
Screaming—so much goddamn screaming—rises over the shoreline.
“Stop it!” I bellow.
It’s useless.
Tati has tears streaming down her cheeks, hair wild, and she’s shrieking as she tries to break free of Zeke’s grip.
“How could you!” Tati cries, still fighting. “You ruined everything! Everything!”
Zeke starts to drag Tati away, pinning her arms to her sides. She writhes and screams, but she is no match for him. They disappear down the beach. I glance at Rachel and Ace, then turn just in time to see Aggie running off towards the rocks.
“I’ll go,” I say to Rachel. “Make sure Tati is okay.”
Rachel nods, and jogs off.
I find Aggie sitting on a rock, tears rolling down her cheeks as she stares out at the ocean. I sit down beside her, bringing my knees up and leaning on them. “You okay?” I ask, knowing what the answer will be.
She doesn’t look up. “I didn’t want to hurt her. I know you all don’t believe me, but it wasn’t my intention.”
“Why did you do it then?” I ask, softly, carefully.
She looks to me, her eyes puffy and cheeks streaked with tears. “I just wanted a fucking chance,” Aggie says. “I knew she was using. I caught her taking pills. She was dancing so fucking good because she was high and letting everything go while the fucking rest of us had to work our arses off. I know it was wrong.”
“Yeah.” I try to keep my voice even, because if I don’t, we are all stuffed. “She should have heard it from you. You know that, right?”
She squeezes her hands into fists. “I know. At the time, I was just so fucking angry. Now, I know where I went wrong.”
I put my hand on her arm, and for almost a minute neither of us speak.
“You need to talk to her,” I say. “But not right now. Not for a while. Let her process this, let her cool down.”
Aggie nods, then wipes her face with the back of her hand. “She’ll never forgive me,” she mumbles. “If we ever get out of here, she’ll never even look at me again.”