“You’re my problem,” she snapped, completely undeterred by our height difference. “You keep staring at Reid, and it’s time you stopped. He doesn’t want you Jade, and you need to get over it. I saw you, at dinner, while we were in the pool. It’s pathetic.”
It was pathetic, but I wasn’t about to tell her that.
“He’s my friend,” I replied lamely.
Where the fuck was feisty Jade when I needed her?
“I made it clear that it was either you or me, and he chose me, so just do us all a favor and stay the fuck away from him. He made it obvious he doesn’t want anything to do with you, so why haven’t you caught the hint yet?”
Her words hit their mark, but they also stirred something else inside me.
Anger.
My need to protect myself.
The old Jade.
I stepped closer to Stella, sure to encroach on her personal space. “You don’t know a thing about my friendship with Reid. If he wanted me out of his life for good he would have told me himself.”
Stella’s mouth twisted and her smile turned sinister. “You poor, stupid girl. Reid feels too sorry for you to say anything, but I don’t. So here’s the deal, stay away from him, and we won’t have any problems, got it?”
I shook my head, and started to turn. “No, we don’t ‘got it’. I don’t take orders, least of all from Reid’s latest bed fly. So if I were you, I’d turn the fuck around and pretend this conversation never happened.”
I started walking away, but a sharp tug of my hair had me stumbling backwards.
“You bitch!” Shrieked Stella. I fell to the ground, hitting my elbow on the ground, and lifted my arm just in time to deflect Stella’s fist. My head hit the floor so hard my vision blurred but at least there was no way Psycho Hobbit was going to bruise my face.
“Get off me!” I yelled, deflecting another punch.
“He’s mine!” Stella’s shrill voice echoed around us. “He doesn’t want you!” She spat. She’d somehow managed to straddle me, and I struggled to keep her from clawing at me. “He said all you were is a fuck, and that it meant nothing to him. Get it yet? He doesn’t fucking want you!”
She was lying. She had to have been. Reid would have never said anything of the kind.
Before I could tell her as much, she was lifted off my body, and Kennedy was at my side. “Oh my God, are you okay?”
“Let go of me!” Stella fought Dane’s grasp. She elbowed him in the face, but he didn’t let go of her.
“I don’t think so,” he grunted.
Kennedy helped me up, and I rubbed the back of my head.
“What did she do to you?” Asked Kennedy, her eyes looking me over. “Did she hurt you?”
“She deserved it!” Snapped Stella. “Let go of me, or I’ll scream!”
“I’m going to get Reid,” said Kennedy.
“Do you think he’ll believe any of you over me?” Stella laughed, sounding like a maniac. “She attacked me, I was just defending myself. I came around the corner, and - ”
“And what?” Kennedy asked angrily. “We found you on top of her, swinging like the crazy bitch that you are!”
Dane dropped Stella onto her feet, and stepped away from her. “Reid is going to hear about this,” she said, walking away briskly. She disappeared around the corner, and all I could do was stare after her.
What.
The.
Fuck.
“You okay?” Asked Dane, his brows furrowed.
“Fine,” I replied. “She just…”
I shook my head, and winced when a slow, steady throb reverberated through my skull.
“You need to find Reid,” Kennedy told Dane. “I’ll take jade upstairs, and make sure she’s okay.”
I grabbed onto Dane’s arm, and stopped him. “No, don’t. Just drop it. I’m fine.”
“She was hitting you,” cried Kennedy. “We have to tell Reid!”
“You’re probably too late,” I replied. “She’s probably already spinning him some fucked up version of what happened. I just want to go to bed.”
Dane and Kennedy both looked at me with concern, and as much as I appreciated it, I wanted to be left alone.
“I’m okay, really. I’ll just see you guys in the morning.”
Kennedy pursed her lips, ready to argue, but Dane spoke up. “If you’re sure…”
I nodded, and started walking towards the elevator. “I’ll see you in the morning, okay?”
They let me go, and as soon as I was in the safety of the elevator I let the tears fall. What the hell had just happened?
The doors were about to close, but they opened up again, and my head lifted.