Arranged

The weekend - or the rest of it - rolled by without a word from Shade. Nessa hadn't really expected to hear from him after he'd zoomed off Saturday night with Sade and Joshua. It had probably taken all he could not to kill Rhone on sight, so he more than likely used Sunday to cool down.
And it seemed like he was going to use Monday, too, since Sade came to school alone.
It only made Nessa more nervous about seeing him again. What should she say? How should she act? It wasn't exactly like she could just return to normal around him. That would probably just hurt him more. But, damn, she hated playing the wounded animal. And with Joshua and Sade so immersed in each other and Jay cooped up in his room refusing to come out, she couldn't find anyone to talk to. It didn't help matters that Terry was on vacation, either.
And then there was Rhone. . . He was wallowing around Manor House as miserable as miserable could be for some reason. Probably because his pretty face was sporting a busted lip and a good-sized bruise, Nessa figured. Not that it mattered. She was avoiding him like poop. And she hated poop.
She sighed. She wasn't going to be able to avoid him in Civics and Econ, though. Not unless she skipped, and that was so not happening.
But, right now, she was heading to P.E. She really didn't want to run today, though. She was already emotionally drained. Getting physically drained as well was just going to make things worse. But where could she go to ditch?
A light bulb popped on in her head as she remembered the piano room she'd found a while ago. The unused piano room.
Feeling a little proud of herself for being so clever, she turned on her heel and rushed to the Performing Arts wing of the school, trying to get there before the bell rang. She didn't make it and had to duck into a storage closet to wait until the hall emptied.
Deeming the coast clear, she crept out into the quiet hallway. Or, what should have been a quiet hallway.
Nessa was shit out of luck lately, it seemed.
Piano music, soft and muffled, drifted out from behind the door to her solace. And not just anyone's piano music, it was Rhone's piano music.
She could only see the head of the piano from the small window in the door, but, sure enough, there he was, his fingers flying across the keys and his expression solemn.
Nessa was shocked. Not so much because Rhone could play (he was a musician, after all), but because what he was playing was nothing like the music he screamed into the microphone. This was elegant, soft and slightly sad, verging on almost whimsical. And it was so not Rhone.
A hand came into view, the manicured nails sliding along the smooth surface of the instrument and following up Rhone's arm like a possessive lover. The hand belonged to Kylie, and she walked around the bench to stand behind Rhone, sliding her arms around his shoulders and chest.
Rhone stopped playing.
"Why so sad, Rhoney?" her shrill voice drifted out. It made Nessa's nose wrinkly.
"It's none of your business, Kylie," Rhone told her. His voice sounded angry. "Why are you here?"
"Why am I-" She pulled back from him, setting her hands on her hips, her face angry. "You know, Rhone, lately you've been acting like I don't mean anything at all to you lately."
Nessa watched Rhone's eyes roll and had to contain a giggle. "What in the world made you think you meant anything to me in the first place?"
Ouch. That had to hurt.
Nessa watched Kylie stare at his back for a moment in confusion before a slow - and probably what she thought was seductive - smile came over her face. She came around him and swung her leg over, sitting down on the keys in a clang of notes and leaned forward. Nessa didn't need to be Rhone to know that Kylie was probably flashing all her goods, especially with that short skirt and low shirt.
"I must have meant something to you for you to sleep with me twenty-seven times," Kylie told him, a little whiney.
"It was fourteen times, Kylie," Rhone sighed, obviously irritated. "Fourteen. Learn to count. And sex is just sex."
Nessa couldn't believe it. What the hell was this? She'd known they'd slept together, but fourteen times? What'd they do, have a marathon?
"But you said-" Kylie started.
"What I said was just an excuse to get in your pants, Kylie." He gave her a hard stare. "Nothing more."
Nessa could see Kylie's ears turn red. She would bet her stuffed-toy collection that her face was, too. "That's not fair! Ever since that girl got here, you've changed!" She paused and when her voice came out, it was watery. "I want my old Rhoney back."
Nessa was confused. How in Kylie's mind had Rhone changed? He was still the same arrogant, selfish jerk she'd met in August. Everything else was just a facade. He had said so himself: He used words to get into girls' pants.
But did that mean everything was a lie? Was Nessa really that big of an idiot? She didn't think so, but, then, she was biased. Oh, man, this just complicated things more.
And things were about to get worse.
As Nessa looked up from where she'd been staring at the tile in thought, she froze, then had a mixture of surprise and anger run through her.
There they were, Rhone and Kylie, their arms around each other and kissing like they were the only sources of water on the planet and they were thirsty as hell. It was gross, it was expected, and it was pissing Nessa off.
Turning on her heel, she stormed off towards P.E. She could really use that run now. Especially since she was feeling an emotion she wasn't supposed to feel and something that would only complicate things further: Jealousy.



Rhone shoved Kylie off, pushing away from the piano. He wiped his mouth, disgusted. Jesus, the girl didn't know when to give up. Why hadn't he realized sooner that Kylie was nothing more than a ditsy slut?
"Close your legs, Kylie," he ordered, turning away from her.
"Rhone," Kylie whined.
Rhone sighed, irritated. He just wasn't in the mood to care. Not anymore. His life was shit and, when he'd finally found something that wasn't, he'd screwed it over.
No, wait. He'd screwed himself over. Nothing else.
Scrubbing his hands over his face, he held back a groan of frustration. Everything he did was wrong. He turned in one direction, he fell into a hole; He turned in another, he hit a wall. What the fuck was he supposed to do to get on the right track?
"Look, Kylie," Rhone started. Why was she even here? Didn't she have class? "I'm not interested in sleeping with you. Not again. Ever. So put the thought out of your pea-brain-sized head and go find someone else's bed to occupy."
Kylie's eyes narrowed on him. "What's happened to you?" Tears filled her eyes and Rhone sighed inwardly. "You're not the same Rhone I used to know."
"And there's a problem with that?" Rhone snapped. "Jesus, Kylie, are you that desperate? leave me alone, already. I don't want you. I never really did." He shook his head. "So we had a few rounds of sex. So what? I don't actually care about you, Kylie. Realize that already and you'll be a hell of a lot happier." He walked to the door. "Besides, throwing yourself at me like this over and over again is just pathetic."
He slammed the door, pissed and miserable, leaving Kylie behind to wallow in her own problems. The thing was, even with Kylie offering herself (which was tempting, he had to admit) there was no one Rhone wanted. Not really.
Well, no one other than Nessa, that is. So he would figure out a way to turn this around. At the concert. Things would definitely work out there. Nessa had promised, after all.



Two weeks passed and, though Nessa knew it was childish, she really couldn't get rid of the awful feeling she had every time she saw Kylie. It didn't help that things weren't exactly peaceful at home.
After that incident with Jay, he had holed himself up in his room for a week. When he'd finally come out, he was creepily back to normal. He wasn't acting at all the way Nessa had thought he would. He was way too happy. Happy Jay was a scheming Jay. And a scheming jay meant a bad outcome for all parties involved. Whatever he was up to, Nessa had a feeling that it was going to do more harm to their relationship than good.
She didn't really know what to think of that. What she did know was that, with the way things were between her and Shade, her and Rhone, and her and Jay, someone was going to explode and cause some sort of disaster. And, more than likely, she was the one that was going to get hurt the most in the end.