Filed to story: Once Upon a One Night Mistake Book PDF Free by Simone Shirazi
Her words caused Claudia to stumble, unable to come up with a proper reply. Apparently, she’d been expecting Taliana to cower in fear.
“That’s what I thought,” Taliana murmured, turning away again.
Neither of the girls said another word until the bell at the end of homeroom rang. Taliana could’ve sworn she heard Claudia mutter? bitch under her breath as she left the room, but Taliana did her best to ignore it. Claudia wasn’t worth another charge on her record.
As they’d agreed, Sebastian was waiting for Taliana by his locker.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, taking in her frown. “You get detention again?”
“No, not that. I wasn’t the only one Blair gave a copy of my record to,” Taliana fumed. “Do you know Claudia Vayle?”
“That blonde girl who likes to make everyone’s life hell?” He nodded and grimaced. “Yeah, I know her. Dated her briefly, actually.”
Of course he had. “She now has a copy as well.”
Sebastian winced. “Shit.”
“Shit is right.” Taliana groaned, unable to believe her luck. “I really thought Blair was just all talk and no action. Now Claudia Vayle has my record in her clutches.” Her stomach did another uncomfortable flip at the notion. “Was I really that na?ve to think I could leave my past in LA?”
The look he gave Taliana was enough of an answer.
“Damn it, Seb, what am I going to do? This isn’t exactly information I wanted to reveal. I mean, the school and my parents know, but I didn’t want everyone else to.”
“Why didn’t you tell me about this earlier?” he asked, leaning against his locker. “This is pretty huge.”
“I didn’t think it was important! It’s not like I anticipated your ex-girlfriend to blackmail me into dumping you!”
Sebastian blew out a breath. “Yeah, well, I didn’t expect it either. Is there anything else floating around out there that I need to know about before someone decides to use it against you?”
Taliana paused to think. “I don’t know, there’s probably a lot of stuff that could be used against me.”
“Great, okay.” He sighed. “We’ll just take this one step at a time, all right? I mean, how bad could this get?”
The answer to his question didn’t come until it was time for lunch. As they made the trek from Latin to the to the courtyard, they discovered that practically the whole damn school knew about her past.
“Have you seen Taliana Avilla’s rap sheet? It’s insane! The girl’s a hardened criminal.”
“Is this for real? How is she not behind bars?”
“Ugh, Sebastian just needs to dump her. He could do? so much better.”
“Dude, that Avilla girl is no joke. Props to Phillips for having the guts to screw her.”
“I can’t? believe Sebastian would date a convicted felon. Does he have a death wish or something?”
“I’ll bet you two grand his father will threaten to disown him over this.”
“I’ll bet you five grand he will? disown him.”
“This is ten times better than the time Michael Richardson was arrested for streaking on school property! No wonder they accepted her with open arms.”
“The only reason she’s not in jail is because her mom was? totally sleeping with the judge who was ruling over her case.”
“Yeah, that sounds like something Andrea Colton would do. She and Taliana are such whores. But you know what they say: like mother, like daughter.”
Though Taliana had just been listening passively before, the comment about her mother caught her attention. “That girl did? not just say that,” she seethed.
“She did and she can,” Sebastian said calmly as he wrapped an arm around Taliana’s shoulders, likely to keep her from lunging after those people. “It’s just gossip. Don’t let it get to you.”
“How can it not?” she questioned almost hysterically, overwhelmed by all the eyes on them. “Not only are people spreading lies about me, but my mother as well! That’s a line you just shouldn’t cross.”
“I’m well aware,” he said warily, guiding her through the packed halls. “You broke my arm for making a comment about her.”
“Yeah, and if these tactless assholes don’t shut up, I’ll do the same to them.”
“You do that and your record will look a lot worse than it does now,” Sebastian reminded her.
Taliana scowled at how unfortunate that was. “Damn it.”
A smile tugged on the corners of his mouth as he tensed with laughter. “You’re too violent for your own good.”
“I’m working on it,” she grumbled as he opened the door to the courtyard.
If possible, the voices out there seemed even louder than in the hall, almost all of them discussing Taliana and her lengthy rap sheet, causing her already terrible mood to darken even more.
“We can’t let Blair get away with this,” Taliana mumbled, taking in the faces of the people staring and giggling behind their hands. “I won’t let her.”
Sebastian sighed, more than likely knowing Taliana was going to suggest such a thing. “What can you really do? Blair won this round.”
She ignored his statement of defeat and scanned the courtyard again, eyes landing on Blair and her posse. “We should do something to show her we’re stronger than ever, that we’re not afraid of her stupid threats.”
“What do you have in mind?” Sebastian asked just as Blair glanced in their direction.
Taliana looked away before Blair realized she’d been staring and gave Sebastian a half-hearted shrug. “I have no idea,” she admitted, turning to face him as they came to a stop a few feet from their group. “But if we do something, we need to do it soon. We have Blair’s attention.”
“Zak’s, too.” His gaze flitted to something over Taliana’s shoulder before coming back to her. “What are the odds? The perfect opportunity to pull something and we-” He suddenly grinned, as if something had just come to him. “I’ve got it.”