Vicious Read Free Page A

which must have made him the rat king.
    Connie watched in the same direction, but she was staring at Ewan whom I had just told her about. Connie was my best friend at school; which didn’t mean that we were close, just closer than I was to any of the other girls. When I was fourteen, we were foster sisters for a short time. She and another girl had beaten the crap out of me over a dispute over dishes. When that other girl moved out, I returned the favour to Connie. We’d been friendly ever since. She wasn’t in the system anymore though; she had an older boyfriend who she crashed with while her foster family kept collecting payment for her. While she continued attending school and kept her nose clean, no one checked up on her. Her boyfriend was a seedy fuck, but he had his own apartment and income from dealing drugs. That meant that no one fucked with Connie.
    “Ew, Ewan,” She screwed up her face as we sat together at lunch. Diana had given me money with the strict instructions that there would be no more until next week and to use it wisely o therwise I’d starve. “He’s revolting and kind of scary. What’s your plan?”
    “I’m not sure yet.”
    She rolled her eyes. “Come on. You can tell me. You always have a plan. Plus, you’d better tell me in case it’s a bad plan. Like with your foster father, that didn’t work out so well now did it? And you’re stuck with icky Ewan, who’s probably going to rape you in your bed.” She stuck a french fry in her mouth after saying that so casually.
    I gave her a dirty look, but she was right. I hadn’t wanted to tell her because I wasn’t sure that it would work, but I wanted to run it past someone. “Divide and conquer.”
    She raised an over plucked eyebrow at me. “What?”
    “Guys like him get their power from being with their delinquent friends, right? I mean, he’s pathetic; he can take me on because I’m weaker than him. But you never hear of him doing shit by himself, right? He never takes on tougher guys. He’s got no balls.” I stole one of her fries. “So, if I get to his leader, then no-balls-Ewan will leave me alone.”
    Connie nearly choked with laughter. “That sounds a lit tle farfetched. So who’s the so-called leader of Ewan’s group of losers?”
    “Damon Lucas.” I nodded toward him. A girl was flirting with him, and his eyes raked down her body in appraisal. What a pig.
    She st opped laughing. “Okay.” She wrinkled her forehead and the thick foundation she had slathered on made her look about thirty rather than seventeen. “But he’s an asshole. How do you know he won’t just screw your skinny little ass then toss you to all his friends to play with?”
    I took a breath. “I don’t know. But I’m not going to be Ewan’s whore, and I am not switching schools. I have to make this work.” I must have look ed sad or desperate because Connie made the out of character gesture of squeezing my hand in comfort.
    “You’re clever. I think it’s a stupid idea, but knowing you, you’ll make it work.” This was high praise from Connie.
    “And you can help me,” I told her with a hopeful grin.
    She screwed her face up as she looked suspiciously at me. Her thick, black eyeliner made her eyes looks small. “How?”
    “Your boyfriend’s these guys ’ dealer, right?” I said quietly. “Just invite me along to the next party or whatever. I’ll wing it from there.”
    She tilted her head as she studied me and coiled a strand of her dyed black hair around her finger. “Wow, you’ve fallen far already. I thought you looked down on Raymond and me. I thought that you thought that he was a loser. ”
    “Connie…”
    She collapsed into giggles. “I was just kidding. He is a loser. But he’s my meal ticket. What’s a girl to do?” She shrugged.
    “I owe you.”
    “I know,” she said, still smiling. Then she frowned. “We’re not exactly feminists are we? I mean whoring ourselves out—“
    “All men are pigs,