Chapter 4: The Invitation

Brie’s POV

After a twenty-five-minute lecture from Miss Crowler and two more classes that wasted time discussing a syllabus that they would abandon halfway through the semester, it was finally lunch. Lunch for me and Vic usually meant feeding her my lunch while she plotted her ‘revenge before graduation’ scheme.

I spotted her cream skin and curly locks sitting at our usual table. She had her headphones over her head, but I doubted she was listening to anything. Vic was observant—she listened to her surroundings and paid attention to people’s actions before reacting. She believed the best way to find out a person's intentions is to watch them; an honest person wouldn’t have impure actions.

I slammed my bag on the table, getting her attention. She frowned at me. I must’ve interrupted some juicy gossip she was getting.

“What did you hear?” I asked as I sat down.

“Apparently Logan’s going around inviting people to his infamous birthday party,” she whispered.

I never blamed Logan for what happened, but I did blame him for how he treated me afterward. When I met him, he was a try-hard but still nice, and then after that, he became a nightmare. The guy I met wasn’t at all who Logan turned out to be and I could think of several places where I think he should shove his invitations.

Vic rolled her eyes. It was that very party years ago that I had been nearly assaulted at. It was at that very party that Victoria saved me and became my friend. Still to this day, I haven’t asked why she was there with a vengeance because it didn’t matter why. It mattered that she was and that she stopped whatever from happening.

I didn’t mind that the parties continued after what happened to me, but I cared that no one took heed. I cared that in their eyes I was an attention seeker while the real creeps got away. I cared that once you put the Peak family name into something, you are blacklisted from society. I cared nothing for Logan Peak’s parties, but for all the possible victims that could come out of it.

“I know hearing about the party isn’t any easier,” Vic said.

She was right. It was a constant reminder that I was once in that group to be invited. But more importantly, it was a reminder that weighed heavily on my mind of that night. The night terrors were manageable; I could always wake. The thoughts while conscious were much worse.

“If it isn’t my two least desirable ladies.” Logan's voice penetrated my ears.

I hadn’t seen him all day and part of me had my fingers crossed that his parents would transfer him to some posh offshore school until graduation. I had the same hope every year and every year the Peak family disappointed me with his presence.

“What do you want?” Vic asked.

“Now, now, is that any way to talk to the one person who can make your senior year a little better?” he asked.

Bingo! There was the gloating d*ck I’d come to hate.

I looked up, his green eyes piercing me. Had he always had green eyes? They looked so much like the guy at gyms but so different as well. Logan’s eyes were a hard green—nothing about the color seemed attractive. The guy from the gym… pierced me where I stood and to be honest, I didn’t want to move from his gaze either.

“Oh, kiss my natural beige a*s, Logan,” Vic scoffed.

I couldn’t hold back my chuckle. Vic’s inability to bite her tongue was always refreshing, especially in the face of people like Logan and Noelle.

He huffed and threw two envelopes on the table, each with our names scribbled in terrible writing on the front.

This had to be some kind of bad joke. There was no way in hell that Logan Peak was inviting us to his party. The social pariah and the equally social outcast. He had to be doing hard drugs to honestly hand us an invitation right now.

"Are we supposed to say thank you?" Vic asked.

Despite her cold retort, I knew she was just as confused as I was. Logan hadn't invited us to his party EVER and he's had multiple in the spam of freshmen year to now. Why was now so special? What was he planning?

My gut told me that whatever the reason it wasn't anything good. Logan had proved to me time and time again that he was innately evil. He was sweet at the beginning, but that was just a ruse to get you to trust him and then his true nature appeared once you served your purpose to him.

"You should be kissing the ground he walks on for taking charity on you two," Noelle said.

That girl was the ultimate evil. She made Logan look like an amateur. Everyone knew Logan was an a*shole like his father, the apple didn’t fall far from the tree, but Noelle tricked everyone. With her strawberry blonde hair, button nose, cute face, and short stature no one would expect her to be vile. I mean how could a five foot even, hundred- and ten-pound girl threaten anyone? That was everyone's downfall, we all underestimated her. She was the brain, and Logan was her indestructible brawn.

“I almost considered it, but then your chihuahua started barking and we all know I’m not a dog person,” Vic sneered.

According to Vic, a long time ago she and Noelle had been thick as thieves. It was the common plot to most teen girl drama films. One girl changes over the summer and comes back an entirely different person. Only I don’t think Noelle came back a different person, I think she came back showing exactly who she always was, a wicked b*tch.

“Don’t be like that Vicky,” Noelle taunted.

“Oh Ellie, you of all people know I’m allergic to bullsh*t,” Vic retorted.

I sighed, just another day of petty verbal blows at Riverback Heights Academy. For once I wouldn’t mind a day of peace, a day where they left us alone and we acted as if they didn’t exist. I had too much going on internally to have to deal with them externally too.

“I don’t even know why you wasted invitations on them, sweetie,” Noelle cooed to Logan.

I could’ve puked at the display. I was certain that Noelle didn’t have a compassion bone in her body and if she did then I felt bad even for someone like Logan to be the object of her affection.

“Just think it over guys. I mean it’s senior year, I at least think we should all enjoy it.”

I hated that I nearly agreed with him. I hated that with that one statement he seemed less evil. That after three years of mistreatment, maybe he wasn’t as horrible a person as everyone wanted him to be. As much as I despised him, he was right, it was senior year and we should all enjoy it.

I gave him a side-eye. Logan’s words seemed sincere and genuine, but I had seen him in action and knew he was one hell of an actor.

“We’ll think about it,” Vic said and flicked her hand to shoo them away.

Every day I find myself more and more grateful having her by my side. There’s no way I would’ve survived this long without her.

But what are we going to do about the invitations lying on the table between us?