Her Spite: A Reverse Harem Bully Romance (The Forgotten Elites Book 2) Eden Beck (best book club books TXT) 📖

Just where I like her.

Just where she held me for weeks this last semester.

I know it’s wrong, that the way I’m feeling should probably be closely examined by a trauma therapist or something, but by the time school starts up again—I’m positively giddy to see Bridget arrive back on campus.

It’s a feeling I never imagined I’d have before.

I spot her coming around the walkway outside the dorms and immediately head over to intercept her before she can get any ideas of her own about how this semester is going to play out. I can tell by the terrified look on her face that she knows I’m prepared to use her secret against her, without reservation, to get what I want.

Fear. Now that’s a look I never thought I’d see on Bridget’s face.

She quickens her pace and tries to duck into the housing office before I can reach her, but unfortunately for her—I’m fast.

“Hey,” I say as I grab her sleeve and tug her toward me just before her hand reaches the doorhandle.

“What do you want?” she asks as she longingly eyes the inside of the office through the glass.

“Oh, lots of things,” I say with a growing smirk. “But we’ll start with a roommate.”

I’ll miss rooming with Alaska, but I’ve had plenty of time to think about this. Bridget is resilient. The only want to keep her in check is to keep a constant eye on her.

An eye that now narrows at her as she rolls her own.

Bridget opens her mouth to retaliate, but I beat her to it.

“And before you try to say it’s not possible, I’ve already made the arrangements.” After all, I’ve had all break here alone to tie up loose ends.

“Fine,” she says as she turns away from the office door. “We’ll be roomies … happy?”

Not yet. I’m just getting started with all of this.

I herd her away from the door to the admin office and back toward Mason House. She keeps to the edge of the sidewalk, trying to put as much distance between us as possible. I, in turn, keep moving closer until she’s nearly stumbling over into the grass just to stay away from me.

Eventually, elbows brushing, she lets out a dramatic sigh and snaps her neck to the side to look at me.

“What did you do to your hair?” she asks with a condescending voice, as her eyes rake over me from top to bottom. “You looked weird before, but now you just look downright trashy.”

I can’t help but laugh. Nothing Bridget says to insult me upsets me anymore.

“I decided to go for a new look,” I say, stopping for a second to toss my hair over one shoulder. “Though it’s hardly new. You’re losing your grip, Bridget, if it took you this long to notice.”

Her jaw works silently for a moment, a flicker of emotions playing like a movie across her face.

“Well, just because I don’t pay attention to every boring girl here at school doesn’t mean I’m ‘losing my grip,’” she growls. “But, let me be the first to tell you that it doesn’t work for you. I mean, are you trying to live up to your slutty reputation?”

“Boring?” I say, cocking my head as I look back at her with a maddeningly contrite look on my own face. “No. But slut?”

And here, I grin.

“Actually, yes.”

Even Bridget has nothing to say to that.

I walk with Bridget to our new shared dorm room and watch as she indignantly settles into the room. I’m guessing that she’s going to try to spend as little time as possible in here with me, but that’s fine. I know that I can make her come running whenever I want her to.

Besides, she’s only been back a few minutes and I’m already exhausted. Not that I’d ever admit that to her.

It does make me wonder though, how does she keep up the energy to act this way all the time?

“Don’t you have anything else to do?” she huffs when she sees me just sitting on the bed and watching her unpack. “Wait, never mind. I forgot that you don’t have any friends. Well, except for those two losers that you hung out with last semester. Are they still around or did they bail on you too?”

Ouch. Word must have already got around that my parents disowned me—as word around here does—and I know that Bridget is happy to have something that she thinks she can torment me with.

Unfortunately for her, I couldn’t care less.

“If you’re referring to Alaska and Clark, then yeah, they’re still my friends. But I’m also in the market to make some new friends this semester. I think that’s something that you’re going to be able to help me with.”

She pauses again.

She knows exactly what I mean, if the look on her face is anything to go by.

It’s a look that says I wish you would drop dead.

“Fine. What do you want me to do?” Bridget asks with a sigh. She stops unpacking and plops down on her bed in an overly exaggerated motion to show me just how much I’m inconveniencing her life.

We sit facing each other as she stares at me and waits for me to give her first directive. I need to be smart about how I go about this. If Bridget suddenly starts acting differently in front of everyone, then her friends are going to know that something’s up. I might be able to force Bridget to be my friend, but one thing I can’t do is force her friends to buy into it.

Warren, Chase, and Sterling are already going to have a hard enough time transitioning into this new normal. I know I have, and I’m the one pulling the strings.

But they aren’t the friends I’m concerned with first.

Before I can thoroughly start ruining their lives too, I have to infiltrate the group. Fully.

And that starts with Bridget’s other friends. The ones that surround her.