“You will anyway.” She waves her hand over her shoulder. “Go on then.”
“Why don’t you ask me about my life, or—” I flick my hand up and down. “Treat me like I’m a ticking time bomb, ready to explode any second.” I watch as she backs up from the fridge, closing the door while carrying a tub of yogurt.
“Because we’re all damaged, Lilith.” She pulls open a drawer and flicks a spoon in the air. “The fucked-up ones have to stick together. The rest don’t understand us.”
I pull out a chair and slowly lower myself onto it. “Okay, but I’m happy being damaged. I don’t even think I’m damaged. I think I’m just… me.”
Maya is in front of me now, sliding into a chair. “Even better!” We both cackle out a laugh just as the door opens again and Saskia is walking through.
“Just so you know.” She drops a couple of bags onto the floor. “Val is looking for you. I told her we’re getting ready here before the event tonight.”
“About that event,” I say, looking between the both of them. “I don’t suppose either of you wants to explain the dressy attire?”
They both look between me and each other, shaking their heads.
“How do I know neither of you is covering for the other?” My eyes narrow on both of them, but I don’t care. I’m just too far into this to now ignore it.
“Pssshhh, cover for this bitch?” Maya gestures to Sass with her thumb. “We don’t even really like each other. We tolerate each other because we both happen to like you.”
“What’d you do?” I look straight at Sass, letting my hair down from the messy bun it has been in overnight.
“Hey!” Sass feigns innocence, but I don’t buy it. “Okay, fine. I lost my shit a few times over her and Killian, but it’s all in the past now.”
“Sure is.” Maya leans forward to grab the lighter on the coffee table. “Because I have a girlfriend now.”
Their bickering continues, but it dies out when my mind drifts off. “Do we know why they’re throwing a dinner party?” The words fall out of my mouth effortlessly.
“This is nothing new for Kiznitch. Our parents have parties all the time.”
Maya kicks off her Chucks, swinging a leg over the other and leaning farther back into the sofa. “It gets to be a lot, Mayhem, too, if you know what I mean…” I do know. I just don’t care.
I didn’t want to be back here, so close to Patience, but I knew if I squirmed or even made an inch of motion that I shouldn’t be back here, it would raise questions I didn’t want to answer.
Maya and Sass move around the room, pulling out their dresses and shoes. Sass dances into the room with a bottle of cognac, but I still can’t free my mind from the hold it has put itself in. It’s not until three hours pass and I’m looking back at myself in the reflection that I realize how distant I have been through this whole ordeal. Like a robot, answering yes or no questions. I can feel myself slowly cave in, the walls inside my mind piling up.
“Wow!” Sass says, bumping her hip with mine. “Pink is your color. I know, I’m sorry.”
“I hate you,” I answer softly, swiping my thumb beneath the curve of my bottom lip. Black lips and smoky eyes, I at least had control over my makeup.
“No, you don’t.” Sass dances backward in her bloodred floor-length gown. “I have weed.”
I run my hands over my pinched-in waist. My gown is tight around my upper areas and flows down to the floor. There’s a tear over my rib cage, and a slit that slides all the way up to my hip bones, flashing the fact I have no underwear on.
Shocker.
The bodice is squeezed around my breasts until they spill over the seams. I’m wearing gladiator-style heels that crisscross all the way up my calf, stopping just below my knees. “I could do with that actually.” Something in the Kiznitch air has me itchy for peace. For fucking peace.
I take the joint off Saskia and make my way into the sitting room, where my new driver, Preston, is standing with a stoic expression. He’s young. Fuckable, but young.
“Where are your boyfriends?” Maya asks, sliding into a pair of Converse that actually matches her gown. “Like, that’s what you guys are now, right? I’ve known Kyrin all of my life, and I gotta say, I’m not at all surprised by this whole situation.”
“There is no situation,” I say, placing my phone and credit card that I never use into my handbag. “We all just like having sex with each other.” I snatch the lighter off the counter and nudge my head at Preston with a small smirk. “Ready to drive us?”