“Because we’re going out. You’ve sat and festered for far too long.” Edel walks towards me, cupping me under my arms and yanking me up. Her eyes are level with mine.
“Yes, I get you’re hurt. It’s been blow after blow.” She sighs, her hands on the top of my arms. “But you need to stop feeling sorry for yourself. Fuck Maria, you don’t need her.”
I go to speak but she shakes her head.
“Look at your followers, you have a great team around you who can help push this book out there. I believe in you, Athena, and I believe that Opal Bloom is going to make an epic come back. When she does, Maria is going to be wishing she kept you on.”
I swallow.
“Also,” Anaïs pipes up, “Royce is bloody miserable.”
Nora nods. “He really is.” She looks to Anaïs and Edel. “He lost his winning streak as well today.”
My heart stills for a moment. I couldn’t face watching him race. “Oh,” I say; it’s all I manage, looking down at the floor.
“Mm,” Nora says, her eyes flicking back around the room once more.
“Shower.” Edel points up the stairs, tugging on the sleeve of my jumper and I stamp my foot. “Oh, grow up, Athena,” she grumbles, pulling onto me again and I give in. I would never win against her anyway.
Clipping half my hair up,I am dressed in jeans and a tight-fitting tee. The girls are taking me for dinner at a local Chinese and I am eternally grateful. I haven’t eaten since the day Royce told me to go home. His cruel words circle my head on repeat.
“This is the real world. You can’t just magic up words and make everything okay.”
“Go home.”
“And I mean home. I’m done with all of this. It’s over.”
It’s over.
It’s. Over.
My heart weeps inside my chest and I place my palm over it to make sure it’s still beating. He tore me up in a way I never expected. We were good but this was the problem, we were so new to all of this, living in each other’s pockets. Neither of us knew how to deal with an issue like this.
Sighing, I spray my perfume and reluctantly make my way downstairs where the girls are waiting for me.
“Look at you,” Nora cat calls and I blush.
“Stop.” I wave her off, and Edel laughs; Anaïs is texting on her phone.
“Ready?” Edel asks, walking towards me as she links her arm through mine.
“Not really,” I admit, grabbing my keys from the small hook by the door and waiting on the pavement for Anaïs and Nora.
“I wantto know who Nora’s mystery man is,” Anaïs pipes up and Nora’s cheeks burn red.
Edel looks at me and I shrug.
“What are you going on about?” Nora laughs and my eyes ping pong between the two girls.
“You know what I am on about.” Anaïs points her fork at her best friend.
“I really don’t.” She shakes her head.
“Whatever then.” Anaïs sighs, stabbing her fork into a dumpling and biting half of it.
“So…” I try and change the subject. “Any jobs going at Saint Onyx?” I half laugh, half sigh.
“Not at the moment.” Nora gives me a sad look. “But you don’t need a job, because like Edel said, we’ve got your back.”
