I knew my fantasies were getting out of hand, but I tried to convince myself they weren't unethical because no one was getting hurt. Taylor Stern was undeniably attractive, and I found myself drawn to her. I experienced a similar attraction to Candace Salata when she started last year. We had the same prep period, and waiting in line for the photocopier had given us a chance to connect over our shared professional interests and sense of humor. That was a real attraction. But with Taylor, it was more physical. She had an undeniable body, and she liked to show it off. While I wasn't exactly her target audience, I still found myself watching her. It felt like I was owed at least a little something for all that she put me through. Despite her physical appeal, I disliked almost everything else about her. She was lazy, conniving, deceitful, entitled, and could be a real bully to anyone who crossed her. But for some reason, all of that was part of the attraction. The combination of her body

Not knowing what else to do, I set the spray down on my desk and took a step away. That was it. I was done. All that was left was to see if they'd blackmail me, or simply go for the throat and end my life as I knew it right here, right now. Abbie approached her sister, though it was clear she was apprehensive about Taylor's uncharacteristic nonchalance about all of this. Still, she was curious, pulling her sister's arm up where she could see it. It was still wet, almost dripping with how much I'd overdone it. Abbie sniffed, and when she didn't experience any pain or discomfort, sniffed closer. "What even is this shi--" With reflexes I didn't know I had, I pounced. One hand clamped on the back of Abbie's head and the other under Taylor's arm. The two were pressed together until there was contact, then held there. Abbie squealed and then flailed in shocked alarm. Worried she'd start screaming, I let go a few moments later. Abbie immediately spat and sputtered, wiping her mouth on her s

The younger Stern wasn't lacking in confidence, that was for sure. Even aside from having the guts to pose half-naked in the first place, she'd festooned them with quotes - lyrics, I was guessing - boasting of her hotness, sex appeal, and unattainability. Her expressions dripped condescension, arrogance, or both. Pretty nauseating stuff, really. But once I got past that, my eyes almost popped out of my head. There were dozens of lewd photos in here. None of them were fully nude, and she never did a bottomless pic, quite. But I'd gotten a lot of good peeks at her nipples, often merely partially concealed behind hands or hair or a translucent bra. Wide and pink-red and almost angry-looking. Her tan covered the whole thing - no bikini top in the tanning bed for her. Her ass did have tan lines, right along her panty line. But it looked like she'd come across a thong bikini earlier this spring that she really couldn't get enough shots off. She was at a pool somewhere, and it looked indoors

Taylor Stern might be the queen bitch of the senior class, young and desirable and cocky well past the point of fault. But as long as my Serenex was in her system, I could knock her over with a feather. I may or may not be able to control what she did tomorrow, but right here, right now, for once in her miserable life, the little bitch was going to do as I said. "Do you need me to help?" I pressed as she kept hesitating. "No," she said quickly. "No, I got it." Last semester, I'd realized she was copying vocab quiz answers off of the boy next to her. She'd denied it, of course. While most students would acquiesce to a deserved rebuke at having been caught cheating red-handed, this was Taylor Stern. She'd never admitted guilt, even after being assigned two nights' detention for her persistence in lying about it. Even tried to suggest the honor roll student might have been copying off of her. So I'd whipped up a second version of the quiz, one just for her, visually similar enough to

Deep breaths. Deeeeep breaths.So that wasn't working. The garage door creaked shut behind me. And behind that...The night was almost perfect aside from that. Mid-sixties, a gentle breeze to keep the mosquitoes at bay, crickets chirping, stars shining. It was the sort of night that made me miss my childhood, camping out in the woods by my parents' house, my friends and I pretending to be trailblazers braving the wilderness, yet conveniently in range to restock our supplies of junk food and flashlight batteries. Then, the worst thing I'd ever done had been hiding around the corner on the stairs and scaring my sister so badly she'd peed her pants; the hardest decision that had lain before me was whether or not to join band once we started middle school.Oh, what a difference a couple of decades and a canister of black market neuroinhibitor made.With a sigh, I made for the garage. My car was in the driveway now, the Stern girls' in the garage. I prayed nobody had seen her in the short