Hacking The Heart [Immortal Hearts #1] (#Wattys2016)

[11] - Reunion (Once Again)

Toni heard his words loud and clear, and turned her head, slowly, to the left. She also, very clearly, saw his expression. Landon's current expression was one that should not have belonged to a human, but rather a demon that belonged to the lowest pits of Hell.

His glare, those eyes could have only belonged to wrathful demon.

"She wasn't kidding..." Toni laughed. "You saw through it all, huh?"

"Really, I'm not gonna' lie to you and say that I knew the whole time. You almost had me fooled." Landon shook his head. "I actually realized it just before you picked me up. I heard Kaylee screaming in her room, and even before that, I noticed something was off when she actually 'dumped' me. I mean, wasn't it a little too convenient, you being there just as we broke up?"

"...Stop." Toni replied.

Landon, again, chuckled. "You know, it's funny. It's funny how you hate people treating you like an idiot, yet that's exactly what you're doing to me - rather, both me and Kaylee."

Toni, throughout her life, had always gotten anything and everything she had wanted. People would follow her every whim for numerous reasons, which could have been anything from money to fear, and not a word had ever been spoken edgewise. That, along with being spoiled and pampered her whole life, caused her to see the world in a disillusioned frame of mind and thought.

What Toni saw as a bare minimum in her life was a privilege to others, what Toni thought was cheap was outrageously expensive to other, regular people who only had an average income. Henceforth, what Toni thought was right in her eyes, was morally wrong through the eyes of others who weren't as well off as she was. In her mind, what she had said to Kaylee hadn't been that bad, but in the mind of someone else, it was cruel, extremely so.

"It's simple." Landon laughed. He was now able to look at everything with clear eyes, and cleary was just how he saw it. He could see right through everything, but nevertheless, it made him realize how much of an idiot he had been. "You coerced, or blackmailed, Kaylee into it and then asked - or paid, Mr. Quarterback to approach her and make me think that she had moved on. You thought that if I saw them together, I'd be inclined to forget about her and, in your words, move on. Specifically, with you."

"Landon, I can exp--"

"The fact of the matter is that you're a bitch. You're cold and lonely, and you'll do whatever it takes to fill in that loneliness, as well as pass it onto others. I do get it, though. It's simply self-preservation." Landon interrupted. "But it's disgusting. You are disgusting. Just run this through your thick skull real quick: The world does not revolve around you and your selfish little fucking whims."

Toni stayed quiet. Maybe it was because Landon had hit the nail on the head, or maybe she just couldn't face the brutal truth that Landon had hissed through his very teeth. While quite possibly in denial herself, Landon had been on point with his assessment of Toni, but that hadn't been what he was after.

Landon just wanted her to open her eyes and see the world outside of the pampered, illusionary paradise she had been living in. He had been brutal for that very reason, to wake her up and show her that very same brutality of the real world; a world where not everyone would agree with her or treat her like a queen, but rather, an average woman with above average looks.

Toni slowly lowered herself onto the grass and looked into the sky. "I blackmailed her. I told her that I was going to tell the whole school that she had been raped. I mean, all I had ever meant for it to be was a threat. I, personally, wouldn't want a whole student body knowing that. All I wanted was for her to break up with you, so I could steal you for myself." Toni pointed her index finger into the sky and moved it in circles. "You're right, I was stupid. I thought I could tear you away from her just like that, you know? I guess I would have to earn a good guy, someone like you."