3RD
VEAN TARKER
76 PTS
4TH
DENDREDI PENGKU
72 PTS
I’m still on my feet, standing like an idiot, when Vendredi steps in front of me. It’s as if I’m viewing everything from a distance, suspended high above and watching everything unfold through a glass floor beneath my feet.
There are angry tears in her big, brown eyes, which is when the glass floor shatters.
“I’m sorry,” I choke out. I don’t know how to articulate it all. “Oh my God, I’m sorry, Vendredi. It’s just…Dean.” Like it’s an excuse. It’s not. But it’s my reason.
She raises her voice to make sure everyone hears. “You promised me, Seyoon. You said if Dean lost, you and I would team up.”
My stomach falls.
In the outskirts of my vision, I see the blood drain from Dean’s face.
Vendredi wipes her eyes. Her voice grows as hard and cold as her expression. She’s making the same face Amelia did the last time we ever spoke. “Know this: I don’t care about the prize money. I don’t care that you won and I didn’t. That’s the nature of the game.” She taps my sternum, her voice momentarily cracking. “I care that someone I thought was my friend stabbed me in the back.”
“Vendredi, I—”
“Save it.” She looks me up and down and shakes her head. “Joke’s on me for forgetting this isn’t the place to make friends.”
