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“Took you long enough,” he mumbles, not lifting his head as he scans the menu.
“Yeah, what were you guys doing? Fucking around?” Eli snickers sitting in the spot closest to the window.
My nerves tighten in my veins, but I keep my face blank.If they only knew.
“Car troubles,” I evade, tossing a thumb to my side. “This one didn’t know how to change a flat. But don’t worry, I took care of it.” I finish sliding into the other side of the booth.I was more than generous, my secret smirks screams.
The sound of Hailey’s stilted cough as she moves in beside me has my balls tightening in a torturous strain all over again.
Rory, who hasn’t bothered to open her menu, continues to gauge us. She’s doing a decent job at being discrete until her grin turns saccharine, and she rests her hand on her chin.
“Already know what you’re getting?” I ask, trying to draw the conversation away from what I can tell her mind is assuming.
Her expression only grows more telling and I curse myself mentally. We both know what Rory’s already going to get because she’s only been getting the same thing since before high school. A burger, fries, and a chocolate milkshake to dip said fries into.
“Mmhmm,” she mumbles, playing along. Her eyes glitter, and I want to hurl right into her lap to get her to stop being so overt.
I continue to keep my face placidly blank, and when she doesn’t find what she wants from me, her attention shifts back over to Hailey. “Car troubles?” Rory muses.
A squeak of a noise pushes past Hailey’s lips and I want to scrub a hand down my face because the girl has never been good at keeping secrets.
My hand strains, white-knuckling the menu until the clear plastic almost shreds in two. A lie. She kept a major one from me for years.
Rory’s ring glints, blinding me the more she spins the straw in her milkshake the waitress had just brought over.
My teeth grit. “Why don’t you take a sip of your shake?” Or I’ll find a way to shove it down your throat if you don’t drop it, my glare threatens.
“Can’t,” Rory says indifferently. “We haven’t ordered our food yet.”
I gnaw on the inside of my cheek, taking out a nice chunk, but Lil Sis doesn’t push further, and it’s mostly because I don’t allow her the opportunity. She wants to play games, fine.
I clear my throat. “Remind me, Cole, what was your limit when ring shopping again?” My tone carries a bite.
Slowly, manically, Senile Cole lifts his head in my direction. “Why do you ask?” His voice is cool, threatening.
Both Eli and I know exactly how much he spent on the dazzling sparkler on Lil Sis’s ring finger.
If Rory ever found out how much he actually spent, she’d probably skin Cole alive and tell him he was being wasteful. This is exactly why he made both of us swear on our balls not being chopped off in the middle of the night to never tell her.
“Looking at buying one for someone else?” Cole pushes, a master at shifting the topic away from him. “Will it be for the girl who you said nearly bit your dick off while trying to give you head? No. Maybe the one the school has on camera walking out of the locker room with your favorite pair of sweats on after you refused to call her back? She sounds like a winner.”
My jaw tics. This was not how this was supposed to go. We were discussing him, not my messed-up love life.
“Nah, those are all too easy.” Cole’s eyes shine with too much satisfaction as he twists this back on me. “My bet? It’ll be bought for the one who undid you more than any of the others. The one who scarred you with cuts deep beneath the skin.”
My nerves are on the verge of exploding. We were discussing the small fortune on Rory’s finger, not if I was buying a rock. I wasn’t—my brain spasms—I mean, I’m not.
“I’m. Not. Buying. A. Ring.” I seethe, shocking myself with how well I manage to keep myself composed because inside, I’m an inferno.
Briefly, I look away from the too many weighty gazes. Hailey’s equally inflamed ones included.
The only saving grace is the waitress chooses this exact moment to come back over and take our orders. Breaking up this impromptu conversation.
I order the same as my sister and afterward glance around and take in the ambience of the place. If anything, it’s appeasing my boiling blood.
The diner hasn’t changed much since we graduated. A newer generation of KPA students fills a large portion of the facility.
They aren’t in their uniforms because it’s summer and school’s out, but money reeks in subtle ways. Perfect example is the watch on some guy’s wrist as he walks by. It easily costs a quarter of a hundred grand.
