“But what? You decided it’d be more interesting to start trouble instead? To snoop around Thompson Farms until someoneslashed the tyres on my car?”
She flinches.
“Sorry,” I say automatically. “I know it’s not your fault, but you’re the one who told Jake actions have consequences. My family lives here. We used to live here. It’s our hometown.”
“Yourhometown.” She lifts her phone. “Look, if you justlisten, you’ll understand. This is the most messed-up?—”
I hold up a hand. “I don’t. I don’t want to get dragged into whatever weird thing you think you’ve found out, because I’m completely sure there’s a reasonable explanation for all of it.”
“There’s not! There’soneexplanation, and it’s that Thrasher Thompson is a criminal cunt and so are all his sleazy mates, including Will fucking Sharpe.”
“Bullshit.”
“It’s not bullshit. You’re just too cock-blind to see it. You never see anything you don’t want to fucking see!”
A gasp escapes me, and I wait, my eyes fixed on the road for Ada to take it back. She doesn’t.
“That’s really low,” I say quietly. “I don’t do that.”
“You do,” she snaps. “You always have. Especially when it comes to dudes.”
“What dudes?”
She places a single fingertip to her chin. “Ooh, I don’t know. How about Will Sharpe, who’s always been a flat-rate asshole? And?—”
“Stop it!” I shout, fingers clenched on the wheel. “Stop being a dick just because you’re so lost playing investigative journalist, you’re angry I can’t see things from your batshit perspective.”
“I’m not!”
“You are, and what’s worse, you haven’t thought about any of the fallout that’s coming.”
“What fallout? You mean, you not winning everyone’s hearts and minds at the reunion?”
“Yes,” I snarl. “But also,someone slashed my tyres because of you. That’s real, and new tyres are fucking expensive.”
“I’ll pay for it.”
Of course she will. Money is her apology love language.
“No,” I bite out. “You can’t just throw cash at every mess you make.”Like your parents, I think, but I don’t say it.
“Fine, pay for your own tyre. But I wasn’t done listing assholes you make excuses for. Because second on that list is your brother, who’s somehow an even cuntier cunt than Will Sharpe. And then there’s all of those dicks you were friends with at school, who you’re more excited about impressing tonight than listening to me tell you?—”
“That’s not fair! You’ve always been my number one priority?—”
“Fuck off, I have. You stood on the sidelines watching people be dicks to me. I was dying every day, and you watched it happen, and then you’d swan intothe newsagents on Saturdays and be my best fucking friend because that was easier than admitting all your mates were shit.”
Shock wraps around me in a thick blanket, numbing my limbs. “Wait. Is that what you think happened?”
She lets out a bitter laugh. “Thatiswhat happened, Cecelia.”
“Bullshit,Adalasia.” My head is on fire with thoughts. The bar. Davis. Mice. Tristan. My parents. The car. And this. This is what I’m having to deal with. My best friend’s revisionist history accusations. “I did my fucking best?—”
“Your best was fuck-all. Luckily, I didn’t expect anything from you, just like I don’t expect anything from anyone, because why the fuck would anyone ever stand up for me?”
“Because you never let anyone! Did you ever think maybe you’re mean and scary and super sensitive about everything and hard to be around?”
“I dunno, do you ever think about how you were so caught up in acting like a victim because you had a hot brother that you wouldn’t stick your neck out and help me?”
