Chapter 15

Jemima’s apartment was dimly lit, the scent of vanilla candle thick in the air. She lounged on her pink cloud sectional sofa in a pink silk robe that was similar in shade, legs curled under her, scrolling halfheartedly through her phone. A playlist hummed low in the background- slow, moody R&B- until the door burst open.

Zoe stormed in like a hurricane, face flushed and chest heaving.

“Okay,” she barked, slamming the door behind her, causing Jemima to jump in her seat at the loud bang. “Forget the body bag. I’m chopping that boy up and spreading his limbs all over campus, and then I’m going to release fifty heavily hydrated dogs to piss on them!”

Jemima blinked, sitting up, “Zo, what-”

“She flirted with him and he flirted with her,” Zoe snapped, practically vibrating with rage, “Your man and Alexa. Printer. Students Lounge. I saw it with my own two beady eyes, and I swear to God if she tucked her hair behind her ear one more time, I was gonna rip it off her damn scalp!”

Vanessa walked into the room just then, in her own red silk pyjamas- booty shorts and a matching thin strapped top- with a blue towel wrapped around her hair. She paused, “what happened?”

“That new girl has Kaden under her little pastel-coloured spell,” Zoe growled, pacing like a wildcat. “And this idiot- no offence,” she threw a hand at Jemima, “is completely eating it up like an uncultured swine trying mangoes for the first time ever in his life.”

Jemima’s face was stone- not giving away at her emotions, but her already dark eyes were even darker with a chilling icinesses in them.

“He smiled at her?”

“Like she was a Disney princess he met in an enchanted forest,” Zoe rolled her eyes, then hesitated to reveal the next bit of information. “…And he asked her out.”

Jemima’s entire body tensed, “he what?”

Zoe and Vanessa exchanged worried looks, half expecting her to explode and take the entire city with her. “He asked her out for ice cream…in another ice cream shop in a different part of town he’s apparently always wanted to try, and she’s gonna make him taste her favourite flavour- chocolate and mint.”

Vanessa sat down next to Jemima, arm going around her shoulders, “he doesn’t deserve you, you’re young and-”

Jemima shrugged her arm off and stood to her feet, then walked over to the floor to ceiling windows overlooking the small city below, arms folded across her chest. Her reflection in the glass looked calm, regal, but inside? Her blood was boiling.

“We’ve know each other since we were in diapers, and been together since high school- there’s no way I’m giving up on him, Nessa. Kaden Solomon and I were meant to be, and I’m not throwing years of history away because some nobody is trying to get between us.”

Zoe threw her arms in the air and let them fall to her sides in defeat, she gave Vanessa a ‘she’s never gonna let me incinerate him, is she?’ look.

Vanessa shrugged, then stood up as well, walking up to Jemima by the window. “Look, Mims, I would advice you to forget about him and find someone who wouldn’t make your head heat up with trying to find ways to keep some girl away from him like he’s some kid that doesn’t know right from wrong, and that flirting with other girls besides his girlfriend is wrong.”

Jemima sighed, her forehead resting against the cool surface of the glass, eyes closed.

Vanessa put a hand on her shoulder, “but we’re your best-friends and whatever you do decide you want to do, you know that we will support you all the way. We’ve got your back no matter what.”

Jemima slowly turned to face them, “really?” Her voice cracked and her eyes glossed over.

“Don’t you dare shed a single tear for that piece of poop!” Zoe warned, stepping closer to her, hand going up to pat her cheeks as if that would stop the tears from pouring out.

Jemima giggled and pushed her hand away, blinking away the tears and exhaling deeply through her nose to calm herself. “I’m fine, thank you girls.”

“Also,” Zoe remember she forgot to add something else, “she told him that you threatened her to stay away from him and he was all like ‘I’m gonna talk to her, she has no right to do that because she doesn’t rule anyone’.”

Vanessa rolled her eyes, “so she’s a snitch too, how surprising.”

Jemima shook her head with a scoff, “there was only one goal she wanted to achieve with revealing that to him- and that’s to make me look like the villain.”

Which she was- but we’re all on her team here so let’s look past that.

Vanessa raised an eyebrow, “she so thinks she’s pulling all the strings here, and must feel so damn smart. So, what do we do?”

Jemima’s lips curled into a chilling smile.

“She want me to be the villain? Fine, I’ll be the villain. That ‘threat’ she cried to Kaden about will be child’s play by the time I’m done with her.”

“Oh, we’re doing this?” Zoe perked up, excitement twinkling in her hazel eyes.

“Oh, we’re doing this,” Jemima smirked as she strutted back towards the sofa, sitting with her right leg on top of her left. She picked up her phone from where she had left it on the coffee table and went back to scrolling, “but we’re starting off slow, like rebranded slow. If she want’s to play clean, we’ll play cleaner. We’ll lace every pretty little cupcake with strategy.”

Vanessa sat back next to her, her lips spread into a grin, “what’s the plan?”

“First, we sweetly ruin that fundraiser she’s organising- create complete disaster and then outshine her. And then we ruin her reputation, I’m talking absolutely break her apart. We’re going to make her life on campus so miserable she’d be skipping town before the dean decides he’s had his fill of her mother. And when she breaks- when that picture perfect mask slips- we’ll be there, with front row seats.”

“And popcorn!” Zoe threw her arms in the air and did a little twirl, excitement radiant on her face like a kid who won the golden ticket to the chocolate factory.

Vanessa clapped her hands, her grin wider and eyes twinkling with mischief, “she won’t know what hit her.”

“And Zo, find out where and when they’re going for that ice cream date. I think we’ll soft launch our plan with a very uncomfortable accidental encounter,” Jemima clicked out of the Instagram app she was scrolling through and clicked on the messaging app, searching up a name.

Zoe looked down at Jemima with dreamy eyes, “I so love the way your mind works when you’re plotting.”

Jemima blew her a kiss.

“Let’s show her how real pro’s play a damn game,” Vanessa giggled.

“Then she’ll know who’s Queen,” Jemima added with a large grin.

•N Peters•

-I need you to do something for me.

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