The Revenge Read online

  Also by Hannah Jayne

  Truly, Madly, Deeply

  See Jane Run

  The Dare

  The Escape

  Twisted

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  Copyright © 2017 by Hannah Jayne

  Cover and internal design © 2017 by Sourcebooks, Inc.

  Cover design by Elsie Lyons

  Cover image © Paul Knight/Trevillion Images

  Sourcebooks and the colophon are registered trademarks of Sourcebooks, Inc.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems—except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews—without permission in writing from its publisher, Sourcebooks, Inc.

  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.

  All brand names and product names used in this book are trademarks, registered trademarks, or trade names of their respective holders. Sourcebooks, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor in this book.

  Published by Sourcebooks Fire, an imprint of Sourcebooks, Inc.

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  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data is on file with the publisher.

  Contents

  Front Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  One

  Two

  Three

  Four

  Five

  Six

  Seven

  Eight

  Nine

  Ten

  Eleven

  Twelve

  Thirteen

  Fourteen

  Fifteen

  Sixteen

  Seventeen

  Eighteen

  Nineteen

  Twenty

  Twenty-One

  Twenty-Two

  Twenty-Three

  Twenty-Four

  Twenty-Five

  Twenty-Six

  Twenty-Seven

  Twenty-Eight

  Twenty-Nine

  Thirty

  Thirty-One

  Thirty-Two

  Thirty-Three

  Thirty-Four

  Thirty-Five

  Thirty-Six

  Thirty-Seven

  Thirty-Eight

  Thirty-Nine

  Forty

  Forty-One

  Forty-Two

  Forty-Three

  Forty-Four

  Forty-Five

  Forty-Six

  Forty-Seven

  Forty-Eight

  Forty-Nine

  Fifty

  Fifty-One

  Fifty-Two

  Fifty-Three

  Fifty-Four

  Fifty-Five

  Fifty-Six

  Fifty-Seven

  Fifty-Eight

  Epilogue

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Back Cover

  To Lynlee Jayne, who was with me throughout this whole experience.

  One

  Tony

  Hope reached out to me, the tips of her fingers brushing over my forearms, sending a barrage of goose bumps up my body. She was leaning in to me, close enough that I could see the light bounce off her glossy, pushed-out lower lip, could smell the faint scent of strawberry on her hair. Hope was the most beautiful girl in the world and she was mine, close enough to touch, to hold, to kiss, so close that I—

  “Our love is a flower,” she cooed.

  The words pricked at the backs of my ears. Something wasn’t right.

  “Hope—”

  The room wasn’t as dark as I’d thought it was. The light shifted slowly, and I could make out shadows, rapt, staring. We weren’t alone.

  “That blooms…” Hope went on.

  “No.”

  I could feel the burn up the back of my neck. Could feel sweat start to bead at my hairline.

  “Hope, please don’t.” My voice sounded weird and high and pathetic. Hope’s eyes flashed with something like an apology and then hardened into slits of silver. The edges of her lips turned up into the smirk I had once found so sexy but now cut at me and turned my stomach.

  “That brightens each and every room…”

  Her words dissolved into laughter that came from every corner, reverberating, thundering through my skull. The lights were on. I was in the school hallway, and everyone was pointing, laughing. Except for Hope. She was in the middle of them all, her serpentine tongue dashing across those stupid, glossy lips as she read my poem out loud. One eye quirked in a silent, biting threat. Everyone’s on my side, Tony. She didn’t even move her lips. I brought you up from loser status just to crush you back down again.

  I woke up tangled in the sheets, my chest damp, my heart clanging like a fire bell.

  Hope.

  I kicked my legs over the side of the bed and dropped my head into my hands. “Jesus.”

  It had been just over twelve hours since I broke up with Hope Jensen.

  I dumped the most popular girl in school.

  I hadn’t meant to, hadn’t planned it. I really did love Hope. She was funny and smart and gorgeous—but she also had a mean streak that was hard to stomach. She was a pseudoceleb and a trust fund baby, so for the first few months when she made comments, I could brush them off. She didn’t realize she was being shallow when she made the occasional snide comment about someone’s clothes or hair or car. She didn’t understand that not everyone lived the way that she did, that not everything was going to go her way.

  We were different, and pretty soon the novelty of dating me, a poor kid so far out of her league, was going to wear off. I thought I was doing her a favor. I took her to the beach. Did it in private. Even made it look like it was all my fault. I thought we were cool. Hope agreed, we hugged, she said we would still be friends. The next day, she gave me a big, dazzling Hope Jensen smile and told everyone I had a raging case of herpes.

  A day after that, Hope ripped my heart out in front of the whole school, then did a little tap dance on it by reading the letters I had written her out loud.

  I wanted to forget about it, to forget about her, but after dating her for seven months, she was everywhere. Her cheerleading picture stuck to the side of my computer monitor. The homecoming court picture where one of her gorgeous, tanned legs jutted out of the slit of her dress. The selfies she called usies, our faces smashed together and taking up the entire frame.

  I snatched one of those down and ripped it apart, tearing Hope in half right between the eyes.

  My phone was glowing on the bedside table and I thumbed it, rolling down a line of tweets calling me everything from a loser to a wannabe to a pathetic loser wannabe.

  Fucking Hope.

  When I opened my laptop, she was there too—a collage of pictures of her grinning, strutting, posing, and making kissy faces while the students in the background adored her on my screen saver—just like I had. But that was over now. If she was going to mess up my life, I was going to mess up hers.

  My fingers raced over the keyboard.

  I went to every website I could think of. I signed Hope up for everything from breast pads to dating websites. I sent her free samples by the truckload—hemorrhoid creams, Depends, strawberry-flavored lube. Pet food samples. Hookup sites. Neo-Nazi support groups. Desert Storm survivor chat rooms. Hope Jensen, DOB: 5–19–00. Dial-A-Bride. Hot Singles in Your Area. Hope Jensen, blond hair, blue eyes. Tinder. LoveSpace. Bangbook. Hope Jensen, five foot seven, 108 pounds, “open to anything.”

  The sun was starting to break through the blackness outside and I yawned, glancing back at my glowing laptop screen. Hope’s information was still up on my screen—phone number, email address, home address. Right before I logged off, a dialogue box popped up with a single question: Share Location?

  My eyes flitted over the pictures of Hope surrounding my screen, the smile that now seemed smug, the eyes that suddenly seemed so hard and cold. I heard her voice in my head, that saccharine-sweet tone slipping over the words I had given to her, that I had given to her in confidence, in private.

  I hovered over the share location question and clicked Yes.

  Two

  I grinned when I drove past Hope’s house the next morning. There was a pizza guy on the front stoop—gotta love those twenty-four-hour delivery guys—holding a half-dozen pies and jamming his finger against the bell. I could imagine Hope stomping through the mammoth front hall, her hair half-done, livid that someone would dare interrupt her beauty routine.

  In chemistry, Hope made a big show of not sitting near me, telling Mr. Howard that she’d
prefer a new lab partner while cutting her eyes to me, then rolling them dramatically.

  Mr. Howard shrugged. “You can sit wherever you like as long as you turn your phone off.”

  Hope glared at her phone. “I can’t help it. I’m getting, like, fifty calls every minute. I don’t know how all these idiots suddenly got my phone number.”

  I had a hard time hiding my satisfied smile.

  Angela, the girl who sat behind me and who would probably end up being my new lab partner, kicked the back of my chair. When I turned around, she jutted her chin toward Hope and then raised her eyebrows.

  Angela and I weren’t really friends, just two kids who went to the same school. She was new last year and hadn’t really joined any group that I knew of, but we were on pretty good terms. I leaned against her desk and lowered my voice to a whisper.

  “It’s possible I may have accidentally leaked a teensy”—I held my thumb and forefinger a millimeter apart—“bit of Hope’s personal information. Like her phone number.”

  Angela’s lips turned up into an appreciative half smile.

  “And her address.”

  No one else was talking to me—unless you counted the guys who were my friends yesterday coughing pussy and loser into their hands every time I passed—so it felt good to have someone make direct eye contact.

  “I’m surprised you even dated her,” she whispered to me.

  I shrugged, smiling to hide the sting. No one thought Hope should be with me. She was a knockout with a mean streak, and I was just…me. But for all her issues, she was awesome too. She had a tough exterior. She had to, she told me, because everyone always wanted something from her. But with me, she was soft. Or at least that’s what I’d thought.

  When the bell rang, Hope tossed me a last slicing glare before her two best friends flanked her and walked her out of the classroom, holding on to her arms like she would crumble from the stress of forty-two pizzas at any minute.

  Angela came up alongside me, crossing her arms in front of her chest. “That girl’s a real piece of work.”

  I nodded but kept my eyes on Hope. She let out a whoosh of air as her phone rang, then held it to her ear. Angela was saying something, but I was straining to hear Hope over the din. Then, loud, from Hope: “No, I am not up for whatever! That’s disgusting! How did you get this number?” She let out one of her signature groans and stomped her foot.

  Payback’s a bitch.

  The school day flew by, and Hope’s name was on everyone’s lips. They weren’t talking about me, about our breakup; it was all Hope: Did you hear that someone delivered forty pizzas to her house? Someone left a gross note on her car! Her phone has been blowing up. I hung back, listening, laughing. There was a part of me that felt sorry for her, but that part was tiny.

  Hope had ruined me for no reason. She had turned the school against me, and I didn’t even know why. She was my girlfriend. She had told me she loved me, let me put my hand under that huge slit in her homecoming dress. I had loved her. I thought we could end on good terms. But clearly Hope didn’t think that way.

  She deserved everything that was coming to her.

  Three

  My phone was ringing. I rolled over and knocked half the stuff off my nightstand before finding it.

  “’Lo?”

  “Tony?”

  I sat up, rubbing my eyes and yawning. “Hope? What time is it?”

  “It’s nine thirty at night, you jackass. Were you asleep already?”

  I glanced at the bedside clock and then at myself, lying on top of my sheets and fully clothed.

  “No.”

  Hope sucked in a long breath and then dropped her voice. “Look, Tony. I know it was you. I know you put my name and address and phone number all over the Internet.”

  I wanted to feel proud of myself, but I was still confused and sleep-addled, somehow hoping that Hope was calling to apologize for spreading the rumor, for reading my poems out loud.

  “You have to take it off.”

  “What?”

  “My name. My picture. My info. You have to take it off the Internet, Tony. Right now.”

  The shrill tone of her voice cut through my fog and right down to my anger. “Why would I do that?”

  “It’s not fair.”

  “Like you humiliating me in front of the entire school?”

  “You dumped me, remember?” Her voice was a tight snarl.

  I was too angry to reconsider, to be taken aback. “And reading my letters out loud to your fan base? What the hell, Hope? What did I do to you? I thought we were good.” I could feel the lump forming in my throat, and I tried to get angry again but couldn’t. “You told me you loved me.”

  Hope paused for a beat. Her voice was soft. “Please, Tony.”

  “Please what?”

  “Take my information off the Internet.”

  I was rubbing my temples, shaking my head. “You deserve whatever you get, Hope.”

  “Please!” Her voice was shrill but this time with a soft, quavering edge. “People have been calling me.”

  That made me smile. “And dropping shit off on your porch. I don’t care. Just like you apparently didn’t care about my feelings before you—”

  “I think someone followed me home.” There was a hint of desperation in her voice, but Hope could turn her emotions at the snap of a finger. She was an expert at getting what she wanted, going from cheerful and bubbly one moment to a sobbing, heart-wrenching mess the next. She was good.

  “I’m sure it’s probably one of your many admirers. Good night.”

  “No, please. Please, take everything down. I’m sorry, okay? I’m sorry and I think someone has been following me and I’m really scared. What if some psycho got my address off the Internet and is stalking me?”

  I rolled my eyes. “Good-bye, Hope.”

  “Tony!”

  It sounded like Hope had dropped the phone, probably kicking it for dramatic effect. Then I heard it: a scuffle.

  The low grumble of a male voice.

  A sharp no from Hope.

  Arguing.

  A faint scream. The eek of wheels peeling out. And then nothing.

  Four

  My pulse ratcheted up, and I pressed the phone to my ear, trying to hear more. I screamed Hope’s name, but there was no response, no giggle followed by some insult so typically Hope—lame ass or dumb freak or jackwad. There was just silence.

  “Hope?” Pause. “Hope, come on.”

  Silence.

  I jumped out of bed and grabbed my keys and was halfway out the door before I figured it out: typical Hope.

  Nothing was ever her fault. Things always went her way. Hope always got what she wanted. She was a pseudoceleb not just at school, but in town too. Her parents cohosted a morning news show, and Hope was their golden child: smart, pretty, sunshine-out-her-ass perfect. I had seen her work the system. She never paid for coffee or breakfast or anything at Effie’s because the television was always tuned to Channel 7, and every morning Bruce and Becky Jensen smiled out at Effie’s clientele and included the syrup-stained masses in their affable family banter. Thus, the prodigal daughter should never want for a scone or a lumberjack scramble. She got out of speeding tickets and parking tickets and once nicked a car but got off with a warning because the other driver was “such a big fan.”

  Hope pretended that she hated dealing with the great unwashed—that’s what she called everyone who fawned over her and her parents—but she reveled in it, even had a shelf in her room stuffed with plush animals and ugly trinkets that her parents’ fans had given her. She also had a closet shelf loaded with booze and pills, uppers and downers courtesy of the other rich kids.

  She had probably staged the whole scream-and-squeal. I imagined her screaming into the phone, then holding the thing up to her laptop as a car peeled out on Furious 7. She was probably laughing while my heart thudded against my chest as I looked for my keys, ready to save the day.

  I sat back, stretched out on my bed again, and stared at my phone. Hope would call back any minute, furious that I hadn’t dialed her a thousand times. She was probably counting the minutes now, waiting.

  Any minute now.

  She thought she knew me so well.