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Lewis was waiting, pouring himself another glass of scotch, the overhead light illuminating his dark skin. I couldn’t judge him in that moment. I didn’t know where to even start. But I had more questions for him, and I wasn’t one who held them in.
“I saw Addie tonight,” I said.
Lewis turned toward me with a questioning look on his face. “I didn’t see her.”
“We ran into each other when I left backstage.”
“From your expression, she must have said something characteristically Addie-like.” He patted the seat next to him. “Come sit down. Addie has been a frequent menace in my life since high school. This wouldn’t be the first time.”
I walked across the room and took the seat across from him on the couch. I tucked my legs up underneath me.
“So, what’d she say?”
“She said that you’re…obsessed with me. That you have these obsessions. That it’s like being in the sun, but when you leave them, it’s like being on the dark side of the moon. She said that I’m the latest.”
He rolled his eyes. “How original of her.”
“I wouldn’t have thought anything of it, but Penn…might have said something like that a couple of weeks ago.”
“All right. First, I do have these obsessions. I’ve told you about them. The things that I fall for and then dismiss when I start falling for something else. But that isn’t people. Those are hobbies.” He reached forward, gently stroking my cheek. “Second, that isn’t you. Never you. I might have been like that with other things, but I could never be like that with you. You’re it for me, Natalie.”
My skin heated at the words. At the easy delivery and obvious affection. But something stuck out. Addie had been right before. She’d told me to look into the crew, and I had. There were skeletons and secrets, and I’d been burned.
“I just…they made it seem like more.”
“Point-blank, Addie is jealous.”
I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. What he was saying made sense. But I couldn’t seem to forget everything else Addie had said. “Yeah, but…she said, if it wasn’t true, then I should know about Hanna Stratton.”
Lewis’s back went rigid. “She said that?”
I nodded.
“Huh.”
“Who is she?”
Lewis shook his head. “She was a girl that we were friends with in high school. She left middle of junior year. Her parents pulled her out of school for drug use, and she ended up overdosing before they could get her into rehab. It was pretty horrific at our high school.”
“But…why would Addie think that I needed to know that?” I asked in confusion.
“Honestly, Natalie, that was what made us the crew. We’d always been close. But then leading up to and eventually losing Hanna changed everything. Addie didn’t take it well, and she left the group. While the rest of us got a lot closer. It’s still the defining point of our friendship.” He sighed. “I understand why she would think someone who was close with me would need to know that, but I don’t think it has to continue to define me. Addie wanted me to get out with her, but I didn’t want to leave, and it splintered our relationship. Now, she still tries to sabotage my relationships with this kind of information. Using things that she knows about me to try to hurt me.”
I still felt like I was missing a piece, but I didn’t know what it was. I didn’t know Addie well enough to judge if she was just jealous or trying to warn me of something. Or what even there was to warn me about.
“I think you’re acquainted with someone else like that,” he said, jarring me back to reality.
Penn.
“Yeah,” I muttered.
That was definitely not a conversation I wanted to have. Not with his echoed words still ringing through me.
“Never.”
“How did it go with him anyway?” he asked.
I shook off the thoughts. “Exactly as I’d expected.”
It wasn’t a lie. I hadn’t thought it would be easy, and it hadn’t been. I hadn’t been sure he’d give up so easily…and he’d refused to. The only thing unexpected was how I’d reacted. The pulse that had shot through me at his words. Things I didn’t want to consider and definitely couldn’t tell Lewis anyway. Not with the crown sitting in the bottom of my purse as a constant reminder of us.
“Good. I don’t want him to try to get between us anymore. Like I said, I’m no longer defined by my high school relationships.” He gripped my hand. “I want you, Natalie. Just you.”
“Yeah. Hopefully, we’re both done with people throwing this stuff back in our faces,” I muttered. “Dealing with Addie, Penn, and Katherine in one night makes me never want to leave this apartment again.”
“I’m all for that. But you absolutely have to come to Katherine’s wedding with me now.”
