THE TWO OWNERS OF THE COMMON ROOMS

MORGAN'S POV

For the first time ever, I was the talk of the entire academy and it had absolutely nothing to do with my amazing waves or my iconic, star-studded photoshoot with Beyoncé.

All around me whispers flew; people talked and questioned and it was about the same thing – Morgan jumped because of Orion.

I could tell that they were enjoying it even thought they became mute each time I turned and glared hard at them. They hated me, but they feared me more than they hated me and it was for that very reason I was able to get the girls in the girls' tower AKA the Dynasty lounge to shut up the moment I stepped my heeled, Louboutin-clad foot inside.

Paris, Genevieve and Margaux all stared up at me, their faces apprehensive and uneasy, but their composure like they owned the whole world. I scanned their faces briefly, then the room and settled back on Paris, the self-proclaimed leader of the Dynasty when I couldn't find who I was looking for.

"Where's Gigi?"

My best friend had become a ghost. For the entire week that she didn't talk to me, I liked to think that she had died and no one had found her body. It was the only reasonable explanation as to why she didn't call or text or even respond to any of the fifty texts that I sent her. There was no way in hell I was accepting the glaring possible truth that she did indeed ghost me.

"Where's Gigi?" I asked again, my voice louder and filled with a little bit of my fury and rage at them.

Paris flinched, her lash extensions fluttering widely as her eyes closed automatically at my raised voice.

"We have no idea," she responded. "She was a bit of a shadow this past week that you weren't around. I mean, she has always been a shadow – your shadow – but it seemed like this time around she really embodied her role."

I glared at her hard, hoping that she would feel the hate I felt towards her in that moment. Paris Harrington loathed me with every fiber of her being. And yet, for someone who supposedly despised me, she sure spent every waking moment orbiting my existence like a desperate moon, trying and failing to steal my shine. Despite all that simmering resentment, she was obsessed. She mimicked me, studied me, wanted to be me so badly it was almost tragic—if it weren't so embarrassing. She was like a mangy stray, snarling at my heels while wagging her tail, too deluded to realize she wasn't my enemy; she was my most dedicated admirer. Because that's what she really was—a fan who couldn't stand the fact that no matter how hard she tried, she'd always be an off-brand version of the one person she resented the most.

Her comment about my best friend irked me, and I so badly wanted to smack the satisfied grin off her face with the back of my lacquered finger nails, but I had bigger fish to fry and she was not worth it this fine Monday morning.

"Get me Prescott, Paris."

Slowly and to my satisfaction, her grin ebbed away until all that was left was a lopsided frown that looked like it wanted to be a cute pout but failed miserably at becoming one.

"Now," I added when her feet refused to budge. She knew her posse were watching her, but they knew as well as she knew that no matter how high she raised herself to be among the students of Briarwood Academy, I was and always will be higher in rank than she will ever be.

I plopped down on the soft, leather couch with plush, multi-colored cushions and waited for Paris to return with Prescott. Her posse sat quietly and feebly on the other couch a stone's throw away from me. I could hear their racing hearts from where I sat and I could practically see the sweat dripping down their backs as the silence stretched out, crude and uncomfortable.

"What?" I said at last, startling them. "Do you have questions for me, M-G?"

I turned to face them then, a sly grin on my face. I could read their minds even before I saw what they thought written all over their faces. "Are you wondering if I really tried to kill myself because of that video of Orion and the scholarship girl?" They looked at each other apprehensively. "Why? Do you think I did?"

"I think you were madder at the fact that you were cheated on with a scholarship girl than actually being cheated on," Margaux said. Genevieve nudged her slightly and gave her a reprimanding look.

"What?" Margaux replied innocently.

"What? What do you mean by that?" I asked frowning. I didn't expect that kind of answer. Then again, I had asked that question to one of the people who felt like they owned the whole school because their dynasties were as old as time itself. I should have figured there was no other response that could come from them.

"Well, I just meant that you're a queen and she's a peasant and she came to your kingdom and stole your king from right under your nose! There's no way that doesn't infuriate you one bit. I bet you hate her guts and you just can't wait to teach her a lesson."

Margaux couldn't have been more wrong. I was infuriated at the both of them, Orion more than Chloe. I wouldn't say I didn't feel like pushing her off a balcony because I did, but I was way more furious at the fact that he cheated on me than who he did it with. The fact that the deed was done was what pissed me off not who it was done with.

I didn't have the time to explain this to Margaux because in that moment, Prescott walked in, his messy ginger curls falling over his green eyes like they always do, giving him that innocent look that was far from what he actually was.

"You sent for me, milady," he said and tipped his imaginary hat. Paris stood behind him, her face fixed in a scowl while she tried to retain her poise and composure.

"Where's Gigi?" I asked.

"Don't you find it interesting that boys are allowed into the girls' tower but not the other way round?" He plopped down beside me, grinning so much it looked like it hurt.

"Don't deflect, Prescott. I know you know where she is."

"Well, they also know where she is," he said gesturing to the three girls with us. I looked at all three of them. Margaux and Genevieve both looked like they had been caught in a lie and they turned their faces to avoid my gaze. Paris didn't even try to hide the fact that she had so boldly told me a lie and was in fact proud to have done so.

Prescott looked at the girls and smiled even more. He was the only person whose parents were 'new money' who wasn't afraid of The Dynasty. "I think the whole school knows where she is except you."

He said it like a conspiracy was being plotted. Paris shifted uncomfortably then, her stance slouching slightly from its usual erect position. Something was wrong. Things have been happening behind my back and no one had bothered to inform me of it because I hadn't been taking my role in the hierarchy of this school seriously. Well, things were about to change.

"Where is she Prescott?" I asked, making sure my tone conveyed just how annoyed and not-interested-in-games I was.

"Common room." He paused then added, "East wing."

The common room, as the name implied, was a lounge just like the boys and girls' towers except that all students were allowed in it. We had four common rooms all located in different parts of the school and different buildings. The two common rooms in the main building where the towers were were the most easily accessible but rarely used. The east-wing common room was in a different building entirely, difficult to access because of its distance from where the main activities were carried out, but the most coveted among all students. It was because of this fondness for this common room that Orion and his band of assholes claimed full ownership of it and banned all students who weren't invited by them from entering it. The fact that Gigi was there meant that he had invited her. The question now was "why?"

"Hold my purse for me, Prescott," I said and handed it to him. He caught it, responded "Yes ma'am" with a goofy, mischievous smile and followed me out the door.

I marched all the way to the east wing common room in the other side of the school, not bothering with a golf cart because I was too mad for that. People whispered as I passed them, each talking about the same thing over and over again. It was becoming boring, really and quite annoying, but I was going to deal with that later. Now was for figuring out why my best friend ghosted me after trying to kill me and why she was with that lying, cheating scumbag.

"Oh, I'm sorry but I can't let you in," Theodore said. "It's occupied right now, Morgan. Maybe you can come back later." He winked at me and placed his hand on my shoulder. I wished I had laser eyes so I could burn it off right then and there.

"You will do well to step aside and get your filthy hand off me, Theodore. Don't make me repeat myself." He did let his hand drop to his side limply, but he remained as unmoving as a bull.

"Step aside for the pretty lady, Theo. She's really mad right now and I'd do well to think of my balls in this situation if I were you," Prescott said. He said that last part in reference to the time Alexander Lancaster's balls were grabbed, squeezed and twisted before finally meeting the tip of my heels while he was lying on the ground squirming like a baby. Theodore subconsciously placed his hands over his southern region and stepped aside.

"…do you understand me?" was all I heard from Orion before he went silent and turned to stare at me. He had a shocked look on his face, but it was quickly masked by a calm, cool and collected façade. Like he wasn't scared shitless right now.

I knew just how much trouble Orion was in with his parents. They needed this alliance to work out more than they needed the air in their lungs. When my father called his and threatened their entire family, promising to reign hell on them and ruin them so badly they wouldn't be able to recover for the next five generations to come, I just knew his parents were going to make him pay for it. And I was right. I did not see him or his parents at the weekly polo match and garden party on Saturday.

"What's going on here?" When Gigi looked at me, I could tell that she had been crying. All my anger and frustration at her immediately dissolved as I stared at her red and puffy face.

"Oh my God, Gigi!" I was by her side in record time, examining her face and wiping her tears away. "What's wrong? What happened? What did he do?" It surprised me too how deep and murderous my voice sounded when I asked that question. They both didn't answer me. Gigi looked like she wanted the ground to open up and swallow her.

"We were just talking," Orion answered. I snapped my neck in his direction, fire burning in my eyes.

"Talking? You do not talk to my best friend, Orion. Do you see me discussing with Theodore or Alex? Stay away from her as you do me. C'mon Gigi." I grabbed her hand and started pulling her up and that was when I noticed how badly shook up she was. She was trembling all over and I could feel her pulse from where I held her. Her heart rate was crazy.

"C'mon Morgan, let's talk about that video, please." He had the audacity to hold my arm. If I weren't holding Gigi, I would have slapped him so hard his cheek turned beet red.

"Talk? From what I saw, Orion, you do not have the ability to form coherent words. 'Uh uh uh'" I said, imitating his moans, "are not words and I refuse to communicate with someone I do not understand."

He at least had the decency to be embarrassed about it, but that didn't mean anything. He shouldn't have done that in the first place.

"I am so sorry, Morgan. I honestly don't know what came over me then." His plea wasn't even convincing enough. I had half the mind to laugh like a deranged woman and then spit in his face afterwards.

"What came over you, Orion, was a skinny ass bitch with tiny tits that look like two mosquito bites and a dream in which case you then proceeded to come over her. I am only going to say this once so listen up, Orion Breene – we are done. Capital D-O-N-E, done! I never want to speak to you again. I never want to see you again. If you see me coming, do well to look the other way. You are not worth me hitting, but I promise you, the next time you touch me or say my name, I will hurt you so badly you'd think a meteorite landed on you."

He became speechless which was exactly what I wanted him to be. Gigi gave one fleeting look at Orion before looking away when he glared at her. I grabbed her again and led her out of the east-wing common room. The people that had gathered by the door parted the moment they saw me approach and they were wise enough to not say anything. We kept moving, Prescott right behind us, until we were in the common room on the west side of the school – my common room.