“Well, I’m not a celebrity.” Alex shakes her head, crimson staining her cheeks. “But Daniel’s basically a Kardashian.
He’s just famous for being rich and good looking.”
Cara loops a friendly arm through mine and tugs me closer as we continue walking. “What’s going on with you, Sienna? Anyone you’ve been eyeing? Or are you looking to nab your new roomie to yourself?”
“Yeah. No way.” I almost scoff at the absurdity. Kayden and I barely even get along, and every time I open my mouth he looks like he wants to put a drill through his ears. “I’m taking a long hiatus in the love department,” I proclaim.
“Wait, why?” She scrunches her face in confusion.
And then I tell them what happened. When I’m finished, we’ve touched down on the main campus, which is already teeming with students getting to their classes. It’s almost noon, so there are more of them than usual. We bump into a few students as they stride past us, but Cara and Alex have shut themselves off from their surroundings, still trying to process the news.
“I can’t believe it. What a couple of backstabbing assholes,” Cara gasps, her mouth falling open in horror.
“And your sister. What kind of sister would do that?”
Honestly, I’ve been asking myself that question. And so far, I’ve come up empty handed.
“What are you going to do about it?” Alex injects.
“I figured making both their lives a living hell would be a good start,” I say dryly.
“I’m with you on that.” Cara nods at me and gives my shoulder an encouraging squeeze.
I turn my head to face her, sending her an appreciative smile. But as soon as I do, I catch sight of the very last person I want to see right now.
Shit. On. A. Brick.
Every muscle in my body locks up.
“What?” Cara whirls around in the direction I’m looking and her body tenses. “You’re kidding me. That’s her?”
I nod wordlessly.
Beth is sitting on the bench a couple of feet away from us, her fingers tapping nervously against the textbook resting in her lap. When she notices me, she wedges the book between her arm and her body and immediately launches to her feet.
“Crap. She sees you,” Alex says worriedly as Beth moves toward me with careful purpose. Clearly she’s been waiting to catch me today. She knows I always take this path to get to my exercise physiology class. Alex continues to tug on my shirt a little too hard, whispering, “Crap! She’s walking straight toward you!”
“Alex, shut up. We can see that.” Cara jerks Alex away from me and toward her instead. “You need backup, Sienna?”
I shake my head, my eyes still zeroed in on Beth. “No.
I’ve got it.”
“Good.” Cara breathes a sigh of relief. “‘Cuz the both of us suck at being in a fight.”
“Go.” I give them a tight nod. “I’ll catch up with you girls some other time.”
Sensing that that’s going to be the end of our conversation, Cara and Alex retreat. I can’t tell if they’re still watching by the sidelines, and to be honest, I don’t really care. All I care about right now is figuring out what I want to say to Beth.
Do I even want to say anything to her? If I really wanted to, I could leave her hanging here and haul my ass to class so I don’t have to bother with any more of her excuses.
But before I can even make a concrete decision, she’s already right in my face.
“Sienna.” She exhales, her wide eyes pleading with me before she can even get the apology out. “Can we please talk?”
“No,” I say flatly. “You lost the chance to do that when you fucked my boyfriend.”
“Please,” she begs. In all the time we were growing up, I’ve never seen her this distraught before. Momentarily, I feel sympathy for her, for what appears to have been an agonizing few days for her, just as they’ve been for me. She looks like she’s lost a good amount of sleep, if the crater-sized dark circles rimming her eyes are any indication.