Black Widow

Ready or Not

(Jade & Jesse edit)

***

Jade's Pov:

I raised an eyebrow at Liz.

Surely she couldn't know about that.

She reached into her pocket, pulled out her phone and tapped around for a few seconds before handing it to me.

I took it immediately.

At the top of the screen, in bold letters, was a headline:

THE QUEEN OF PLAYERS

The "Legendary Player" has finally been outplayed, ladies.

Leon Stone has officially had his heart crushed by New York's infamous Black Widow.

If anyone could make Leon fall that hard, it was her—and she definitely lived up to expectations.

Well played, Cross.

"Poor boy," Liz said.

I looked up to find her wearing the most exaggerated pout imaginable.

It vanished almost immediately.

"He's hot, though. You've gotta at least give him that."

I scrolled farther down and found a picture of Leon and me sitting across from each other in the school cafeteria.

We were looking at each other with matching playful expressions.

For a second, I barely recognized the girl in the picture.

I let out a quiet chuckle.

"Oh, yeah. I'd completely forgotten about that."

"I'm not surprised. Apparently you spent your last few months in New York leaving a trail of broken hearts behind you." Liz laughed. "You've been dumping guys left and right."

I smiled despite myself.

Her laugh had always been annoyingly contagious.

"Anyway." She jumped off my bed. "Now that you're finally here, we can get to the important stuff."

She made it halfway to the door before stopping abruptly and whipping around.

"Suit up, girl. We're going out."

Of course we were.

I watched her disappear down the hallway before leaning back on my hands.

New York had been fun.

Leon had certainly made sure my final few weeks there weren't boring.

But that was over now.

New city. New university. New people.