My. Best. Friend.
Our eyes clash as she greets everyone with that bright, glittering smile of hers. Those pink cheeks, glossy lips, and thick eyebrows captivate any audience. Though that grin slips as she processes my face. My look of shock.Herlook of shock. It’s as ifshe’ssurprised to seeme.
In my own house!
Mabel Rose parts her lips, glances at Niklaus who has taken his seat across from me.Why is she looking at him?
“You didn’t tell me Mabel Rose and Niklaus were dating, Sapph!” Mom says, ushering mydeadbest friend to her seat next to the clinical-grade malignant narcissist.
Dating.
They’re dating.
The shock sitting in my stomach like a rock, turns to hot, burning coals.
“What the fuck?” The sound barely makes its way past my lips.
“Respondafterdinner,” Krimson whispers next to me.
Respond. Don’t react.It’s his award-winning advice when I have a meltdown. I’ve had these quick bursts of fury that get the best of me since I was five.
But how the hell am I supposed to sit here and pretend like someone didn’t just perform open-heart surgery on me while I’m wide awake?
“What. The. Fuck…” I whisper again.
“It’s still pretty new,” Mabel Rose responds to my mother. She walks with her head down until claiming the seat next to Niklaus. They exchange a look, and he pats her thigh reassuringly.
Anger lashes through me, sawing my molars together, launching a flare-up of acid reflux. I stare at them together with bulging, unrelenting eyes.
Krimson’s foot brushes mine. “You’re going to burst a blood vessel.”
My heart bucks in my chest as Mabel Rose meets my eyes again, then turns away to scratch a fictional itch on her ankle.
“Let’s hope I die of internal bleeding then,” I respond.
He chuckles.
Mabel Rose has been my best friend since starting school when we were five. She helped me wipe the saliva off my face after I moronically confessed my love for the slippery baby. She was there almost every time he made me cry. She might be the only person, other than my brother, that knows of how evil and horrendous Niklaus Demechnef has been to me.
And yet…
“So, how the hell did this cute little…thingstart between you two?” I ask with a critical smile.
“Sapphire,” Krimson warns.
“The night of your birthday party,” Niklaus answers like he’s been waiting his entire life to hit me with this one. Right in the jugular. And it fuckingstings.
My innards buckle down as I catch fire.
“Eight.Months. Ago?” I grit through my teeth.
Mabel-The-Coward-Rose doesn’t look up from her hands twisting in her lap.
I’ll gut her.
Under the table, Krimson snatches my clenched fist. He squeezes over and over again. The act makes me want to cry in his arms. My best friend has been hiding a secret relationship with Niklaus Demechnef for eight fucking months?! My mind zooms through different insignificant moments I should have caught on to. Her not wanting to talk about secret meetings with a crush she’s had for a while. I didn’t press because I figured he was ugly, and she was embarrassed. Butthismakes far more sense.
“Very good, Spitfire. And here I wasn’t sure if you were any good in mathematics.”
