She arched a brow. “Oh, nothing. That one can wait until our trust poles are shorter, I guess.”
Gia snorted, piping up. “Is it that he’s hot as fuck? Was he a late bloomer? An ugly duckling?”
“Not at all. He’s always looked like that.”
“Of course, he has,” I muttered.
Gia laughed. “Okay, okay, let’s leave her floating in the river Denial and circle back to pageant mom. I want the tea.”
Izzy shrugged. “Oh, right. Yeah, Vivian’s mom was…intense. She’d call Max out of class for the weirdest things, but she was hardest on Vivian.”
“What makes you say that?”
“I just…overheard her a few times. She’d get on her case constantly, and Vivian always acted like it didn’t bother her, but I know it did.” Izzy glanced at me. “I know they sayhurt people, hurt peopleand all that, and I’m not excusing her attacking you by saying this. I hope you know that. I just didn’t think Vivian would do what she did to you. Or, I guess, I’d hoped she would pick a different path than the one she was shown, you know?”
I didn’t, really. Or know what to say.
Sympathy prickled under my skin for her, but I rubbed it away like goose bumps. If her mom had been hard on her, that still didn’t give her a reason to attack me the way she had.
It wasn’t an excuse.
But still, the thought of her mom constantly picking her apart when mine had been so encouraging and supportive…It did make me feel bad for her.
“Yeah, that sucks.”
I left it at that.
“Anyway, I can’t imagine she’d do something like that again. I mean, you didn’t invoke the statute. Why care at this point?”
“Why’d she care so much at all?” I shrugged, struggling to keep Elaine’s big secret when it might shift Vivian’s sights and the target on my back over to Delulu Barbie’s.
“Honestly? Probably her mom. If she’d been set on Vivian winning The Quest, and Vivian faced the consequences her mom liked to dole out, I’m guessing that’s why she saw you as such a threat.”
I frowned. “What consequences?”
Izzy bit her lip. “That might require a longer trust pole on my end. It’s…brutal. I’m not sure I should share it to begin with, and if it got back to her that I did?—”
“I get it. It’s fine. It’s—Honestly, it’s probably better that I don’t know.”
Izzy touched my arm. “I’m serious, Quinn. I’m not saying any of this to justify what she did to you. I just…at the very least, knowledge is power, right?”
“Yeah, for sure. I won’t underestimate her in the challenges ahead because of it. I know that much.”
I forced a smile and tried my best to give Gia one, too.
But Gia wasn’t fooled. When Izzy went into the bathroom to get ready for bed, she pounced. “You okay?”
“Yeah, for the most part. I just—” I fiddled with the buttons on the phone. “All of a sudden, I can’t stop thinking about what I said to Elaine at the Honor Ceremony.”
“Which part?”
“About how we were both doing what we felt we needed to do to survive.”
Gia’s brow creased as she thought about it. “She still didn’t have to attack you, though.”
“I know.” I released a breath. “I’m not saying she did, either. You won’t find me over there singing ‘Kumbaya’ and hugging her or anything. But…with the things I’m learning.” I shook my head. “Aside from the year without my dad, I never had to fight to survive. I never worried that my safety or security was in danger until—Well, the accident, and then that night. My parents protected me in that way, you know?”
“Yeah, of course. That’s how it should be.”
