A single eyebrow raises as she uneasily replies, “Sure?”
“Is it true that you hooked up with Eddie the night Amber and he last broke up?”
She doesn’t even try to hide her smile. “Absolutely not. You know how much he repulses me.” But then her smile twitches. She’s lying.
“Don’t lie to me, Pippa. I have it on good authority that you slept with Eddie.”
Pippa picks at her nails, refusing to look up at me. “And if I did? What’s the big deal? They broke up. That means he was single, and open season for anyone to move in.”
“Pippa, that’s horrible! You know how she feels about Eddie. How could you do that to her?”
Her head snaps up. “How could I do that to her?” She rises to her feet. “How about what she did to me, Poppy? Eddie was mine first.”
“But you told her you were only friends.”
She throws up her hands. “Come on, every girl knows that when their friend says that, it means she’s into him. I had dibs on Eddie, and she swooped in and stole him from me. If anyone is the victim here, it’s me.”
Pushing my glasses up my nose, I glare at her. “You’re always playing the victim, Pippa. But it’s never your fault. Eddie is Amber’s ex, which means he’s off limits. You should’ve never seduced him.”
“What makes you think I seduced him?”
“Because I know you. I know what you did to Amber that night in Las Vegas, and what you did to Eddie the night he slept with Jinafer.”
She marches across the room, her hand whipping across my face before I can stop it. “Is that so? And what exactly did I do, sweet sister? Tell me. Enlighten the class with your bullshit.”
A tear streaks down my cheek as I try to numb the sting with my hand. “You drugged them.”
She smirks. “I did no such thing.”
“I have proof,” I argue, marching over to the painting on the wall. The one of the three of us in Cabo. It’s also the one that has a secret compartment on the side. My own personal treasure box that’s concealed to the naked eye. Pushing in the side, the little hide-a-shelf pops out, revealing the last few tabs of the drug I created in my chemistry class to help with anxiety and stress. I never meant for it to harm anyone. It was mostly to help ease the stress of finals week. I just didn’t anticipate that it would have the strange side effect of memory loss and heightened sexual attraction as well. The tab is kinda like ecstasy, but technically a lot worse.
“You stole my stash,” I argue. “You’re the only person who knows about my little addiction and what I created. I should’ve never told you about them. Now look what’s happened, you’ve used it on our friends. I had capsules missing on both the days Eddie and Amber cheated on each other.”
Her arms cross in defiance. “It’s not my fault you have a drug addiction, Poppy. Don’t blame your baggage on me.”
“This is just like you, Pippa! It’s why Eddie will never be interested in you. You never take responsibility for your actions, push blame on everyone else, and gaslight everyone into believing you're some kind of saint. You need to tell Amber about you and Eddie, and come clean about the drugs you used on both of them.”
She scoffs. “I will do no such thing! And neither will you.”
She grabs a metal candlestick from off the coffee table and threatens me with it. “If you tell them, I will hurt you, Poppy.”
“Do you realize how crazy you sound, Pippa? I think you need some serious help. Something’s not right up here,” I tell her, tapping at my head aggressively. “How are we twins but so darn different? You’re psychotic! Unhinged! You manipulate people to do your bidding, and when things don’t go your way, you threaten them and try to gaslight them into believing your lies. I’m your sister and you’re over here threatening me with a candlestick like you’re playingClueand about to kill me in the library!”
“Which is why you need to keep your damn mouth shut, Poppy. I may love you, but I will shut you up if I have to. Eddie is mine. He doesn’t want Amber anymore. He just wants me.”
“Then why is he bringing Amber home right now, and not out with you?” I motion to the window where Amber just pulled up with Eddie.
Immediately, her nose is pressed to the glass, fogging it up as she huffs out angrily. “What’s he doing?” she screeches. “Why are they together?”
She whips around to face me. “What the fuck happened tonight?”
“The date was bad and her date tried to assault her. Next thing I knew, Eddie, Rich, and Wesley were there and yeah… we just ended up hanging out with them.”
The rage in her eyes was crazy. She literally looked like she could spit flames. “I can’t believe this!” she screams, tearing at her hair. “How can they do this to me again?”
“They love each other, Pippa. When are you going to accept that?”
“Never!” she rages, throwing the candlestick and narrowly missing my head. “When she comes through that door, I’m going to give her a piece of my mind!”
