Sweet Revenge

Chapter 17

I gape at Ryan, hardly able to believe his nerve. First, he breaks into my house through my fucking window-so creepy- and now he expects me to help him? What did he ever do to help me that he deserves the favor returned?

Plus, how am I even supposed to know if he really is innocent or not? He has not earned my trust at all.

However, I don't let him know this since his request will be very helpful for my plan.

"So?" He asks again, fear etched into his features.

"Hold on for a second. We need to talk privately in the hall first." I say, leading my three confused friends out my bedroom door.

"What are we going to do?" Kelsey questions and something in me revels in the fact that she's turning to me for guidance. I don't know if it's selfish, but a small part of me adores practically being the leader of our scheme.

"You know how I said that I was going to pretend to meet with Ryan for our plan?" I start and continue after they all nod. "Well, I didn't really have an idea on what, exactly, I was going to meet with him about."

"So, you're going to pretend to meet with him about this." Kelsey fills the blank, reading my mind exactly.

"Correct. We'll say yes to helping him prove his innocence and I'll text him tommorow about meeting up to talk more about it." I finish explaining.

"Okay, so we're going to be fake nice to him right now?" Samara clarifies.

"I know it's hard for you Samara, but yeah." I tease, making the girls completely crack up.

We settle down quickly after, being cautious of Ryan hearing, and take a few tentative steps back into my bedroom.

"We've made our decision," I start telling Ryan, making him squirm with anticipation. "We will do whatever you need to help you out." His face brightens as soon as the words leave my mouth.

"Thank you so much. I had a feeling you were going to help. I'm glad I can trust you guys." Ryan exclaims, looking as if he just spent an entire twenty-four hours on cloud nine. The irony in his words "I can trust you" makes me want to burst into laughter and I immediately admonish myself for it. I shouldn't find murder funny.

It's not like I want to kill Ryan, but I have to. It's what Poppy would want and it's even more justified now that there's official rumors that he killed her.

"Of course. We're always here when you need us, Ryan." Samara assures him with a disarming smile.

Honestly, she's eerily good at feigning affability. She has an alarming superpower of being able to allay any suspicions one may have of her. It makes her an extremely crucial member of our group.

"It's great to hear that. Now I can add your names right next to the others who agreed to help, Jesse and Noah. See you Monday." Ryan waves goodbye, slithers his way out my window, and lands with a resounding thud before I even have time to digest his last few words.

I really hope he fell straight on his ass. That's what he deserves for storming out before I could further question him about Jesse. Now that I think about it, he must have something to hide and knew interrogation was coming. I wouldn't let him off the hook that easily.

Before I could turn to my friends and ask them about his "Jesse and Noah" comment, my mom cracks my door open and pokes her head in.

"Was Ryan just in here, girls?" Mom questions and I nod slowly.

"Yeah. How did you know?" We made sure to remain as silent as possible and she wasn't even in her room while we were chatting; she was downstairs in the kitchen. The semi-deep voice could have belonged to anyone.