Chapter 1 I Hate Him!

"I've had sex with Logan," I said, crossing my arms, a smirk stretching across my face. "Plenty of times. You're not the only one who's been cheating."

"You fucking whore!" Nolan spat the word at me, and a fleck of saliva landed on my cheek. I wiped it off, eyes blazing.

His voice carried across the courtyard. Conversations died, heads turned, and people started murmuring, pointing, and staring.

The audience made my skin prickle, but I wasn't backing down. I was ending things with Nolan today, even if an earthquake hit.

I was done with the abusive, cheating, lying bastard. The second black eye he'd given me last week would be the last.

He hulked over me, face blotchy red, veins bulging. On any other day I'd have apologized until he calmed down, anything to keep his fist away. Not today. Today, I almost wanted him to swing. Let the whole campus see the violence he hid behind his star-rugby-player act.

"It's over between us!" he hissed.

I laughed in his face. "I'm the one breaking up with you, dumbass!"

He stepped closer, his back to the crowd, his voice dropping so only I could hear. "You won't get away with cheating on me, Chloe. I'll ruin you."

"Try me, loser. I'll post photos of the black eyes you gave me and show everyone what you really are. Then you can kiss your spot on the team goodbye."

Fear flickered across his face, and it was deeply satisfying.

I pressed on. "I don't know what I ever saw in a piece of shit like you. Logan showed me what a real man feels like. Your pathetic, shriveled little half-inch cock could never compare."

Nolan's face contorted. He looked desperate to hit me. "Thank your lucky stars we're outside, bitch," he growled through clenched teeth.

I clicked my tongue, turned on my heel, and whipped my blonde hair across his face.

I thought that was the end of it. What damage could one little lie do? I'd only borrowed Logan Carter's name to jab at Nolan's ego. Logan, Northside College's very own Troy Bolton, Mr. Tall, Dark and Handsome idiot, worshipped by half the female campus. Of all the men I hated, he was the one I hated most. I hadn't slept with him and never would, even if he were the last man on earth.

Brrr. Brrr. Brrr.

I groaned and searched blindly for my phone, which refused to stop vibrating. I squinted at the screen, rubbing the sleep from my eyes.

"What the hell…?"

I shot upright. Notifications covered the screen. Hundreds of them. Messages, tags, mentions.

Some genius had posted a video of the breakup. It started right after Nolan called me a whore, and, how convenient, the cheating and the threat had been cut. It was on some asshole's YouTube channel, and the view count was climbing so fast I could watch the numbers change.

Every college forum had me trending as the slut who'd cheated on the amazing Nolan Jenkins.

‘She's such a fucking slut, bragging about banging Logan Carter.’

‘Cheap whore getting passed around by athletes.’

Was Logan catching the same heat? I scrolled, eager. At least that would be something.

No. No, no, no.

He wasn't getting hate. He was getting praise.

‘Mr. Steal Your Girl.’

The campus had decided Logan had "stolen" me as revenge, because Nolan had apparently slept with a girl Logan liked at the start of the year. Everyone had spun my stupid lie into an epic revenge arc.

‘Logan strikes back.’

How had I wrecked my own reputation and made Logan Carter more popular? My fists clenched. Was Nolan behind this?

Vulgar memes spread faster than I could block them. My DMs were worse. Several guys had decided my new reputation meant I was available.

‘I'm not an athlete, but you can bounce that ass up and down on my cock like a basketball anytime you want.’

‘Let me have a taste of the sweet pussy that hooked both Logan and Nolan. I run track and field if that helps.’

I screamed and nearly hurled my phone across the room. This had to be illegal in some capacity.

I opened my private messages, desperate for someone on my side. The first was from my brother.

‘WTF! How can my twin sister be sleeping with my best friend?? Call me NOW. I'm telling Mum!’

Yes, my twin. Nathan, the thorn in my side, who'd somehow landed a basketball scholarship to Northside despite grades that should have kept him out. The drive here had been silent. I'd perfected the art of ignoring him and left him talking to the air whipping through the open window. For the whole first week of freshman year, I avoided him everywhere and told no one we were related.

Then I found out Logan had been accepted too.

Naturally, the two of them had picked their precious "friendship" right back up. Nathan had been Logan's best friend since we were kids, until Logan moved away in seventh grade. I remembered that day perfectly. I'd run home red-faced and bouncing with joy.

"He's going! He's finally going!" I sang, bursting through the front door, only to find that no one shared my enthusiasm. My brother was devastated, and my parents, who were busy comforting him, were just as heartbroken to lose their "sweet boy Logan." I scowled, stomped upstairs, slammed my door, and blasted celebratory music, dancing and singing at the top of my lungs. When my mini concert ended, Nathan walked in and called me heartless.

But that was the past. Northside was supposed to be a clean slate, a prestigious college none of the birdbrains from my old school could ever get into, even if they studied for a year straight. I'd avoided Logan like the plague he was, and I planned to keep it that way.

I scrolled past Nathan's message to the next one.

An unknown number. Three words.

‘Meet up? Logan.’

My thumb froze over the screen.

"Four eyes!"

I could still hear it: my glasses skidding across the classroom floor after he knocked them off my desk, laughter rolling through the room before I'd even bent down. He'd snatched them up and waved them in my blurry face, grinning. ‘Can you see without these, shrimp?’

I'd thought I was done with him.

And now Logan had texted me. First, who gave him my number, and where could I find them so I could send a coffin as a birthday gift? Second, how was I supposed to keep existing knowing Logan Carter had watched a video of me bragging about fucking with him?