The words were quiet, a snake hiss in my ear smothered by the kitchen’s rowdy noise.
“What?” I asked, blanching.
Jade shrugged and repeated, “How do you know?”
I didn’t know what to say. I stared at him, mouth agape like an idiot before heat flooded my cheeks. I rubbed my face aggressively as if it’d smear the stupid blush away.
“Fuck off,” I said halfheartedly. I was too distracted by his comment to put any bite into it. “Poppy’s not...”
But I couldn’t finish my sentence. Jade was right. HowcouldI know? Poppy was his own person with his own wants and needs. Just because he was soft and sweet didn’t mean he wasn’t a complete being with desires.
A sudden memory popped into my head, causing my temperature to skyrocket.
I needed to get the fuck away from Jade and his bothersome probing before I strangled him to death.
“I’m going to help Cobalt,” I muttered, then stalked off before Jade could get another word in.
Dinner was,shockingly, fine.
I was terrified it’d be awkward, or that some people—Aurum, for example—wouldmakeit awkward. But he decided to behave, so the night went off without a hitch. The wildest thing that happened was that Poppy asked me to sit next to him. I assumed he’d want to sit with his gaggle of friends, but he invited me instead. It felt nice to be chosen.
I managed to ward off Jade’s intrusive comment until after dinner. But like slow-acting snake venom, it returned with a vengeance.
As everybody dispersed, I milled around the kitchen uselessly. Poppy was still chatting with his buddies and I didn’t want to ditch him, so I drank juice from the fridge and stared at the wall while pretending not to eavesdrop. Their conversation was mostly fluff about how happy they all were to spend time with Poppy, and how they needed to make plans to hang out.
The longer I listened, the more I realized something. They spoke to him like he was here forever now. Like he’d bypassed all the Dragonfate Games bullshit and gone straight to the finish line. Like he was finally a member of the family.
My heart flipped.
Is that what they all thought? Was that what theywanted?
Had I just been a fucking nuisance this entire damned time by refusing to participate in the Games?
I wanted to drag my fingers down my face. Hell, I didn’t know what to believe anymore...
“Sorry, Viol,” Poppy greeted suddenly.
I nearly spilled my peach juice. “Shit.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you!”
“N-no, you’re fine,” I muttered, abandoning the glass on the counter. “I was just... spacing out.” I cleared my throat. “What were you guys chatting about?”
Poppy smiled. “This and that. I caught Rorik up on... Ah, never mind.”
I forced myself not to grimace. If Poppy was recounting his story to his friends, it was only a matter of time before Rorik found out the whole truth. In that case, I wondered how Rorik felt about our shared past being aired in the open. I wondered if it would rekindle his distaste for me.
“Anyway, I didn’t want to leave you standing here all by yourself,” Poppy said. “Are you, um, going to bed?”
I snorted. It was barely eight in the evening. But then I felt stupid when I realized he’d asked that out of courtesy. His real question was:What will you do now? And what shouldIdo?
“Don’t go back to the hotel,” I ordered.
Poppy blinked. “Huh?”
“It’s still early. Just stay here and chill. We can hang out.”
Holy shit, every word that came out of my mouth sounded more and more cringy. Was I fucking stupid?
