“Yeah. I tutored a bunch of the popular kids, and they treated me better whenever I made fun of people, so I complained about how full of yourself you’d become. I didn’t think it would do any damage. I wasn’t intending for any of it to get back to you or hurt you, but I guess it did.”
“When was this?”
She shrugged. “I’m not sure. Sometime in the beginning of tenth grade. I only remember because right after that, a couple of them talked about taking you down a notch.”
I laughed nervously but my heart began to beat like I needed to get away. I clenched my fists, wishing I had something to crush or throw or punch. “Do you remember who?”
“Yeah. Vicky Carson and Meghan Watts.” She frowned. “I felt real bad about what I’d done, but I convinced myself you deserved it. I should have told you at the time. I’m sorry.”
“Thanks for telling me now. I probably did deserve it.” I wanted to be angry about all of that, but she’d only proved that Vicky had lied to me the other night, or maybe she’d forgotten the truth. Either way, it was a relief to have my memories validated, to expose the gaslighting.
“Then by junior year, you seemed to be doing okay anyway, so no harm, no foul.”
“You thought I was doing okay junior year?”
“Weren’t you? All I ever heard was what a ladies man you were. Someone told me you’d kissed every girl in the school.”
I hadn’t heard that one. It was one of the nicer ones. “And you believed that?”
“Well, you never kissed me, so either I got offended or knew it was a lie, but you didn’t seem bothered by your reputation.”
My stoicism had fooled someone at least. “I just knew it was useless to try to fight the bullies by that point.”
“I didn’t know you were unhappy. I guess that’s what school is, huh?”
“I just wish I’d made different choices. I really missed the old gang, and I missed playing in the band. I wanted to reach back out, but I figured you all hated me. Like everyone else.”
“Well, I guess you just wanted to try out being someone new, and I made sure you never could. Can you forgive me?”
“Let’s call it even.”
She exhaled. “Thanks. That’s real gracious of you. I’m glad we got this chance to clear some things up. I didn’t realize how much I needed to get that off my chest.”
“You have no idea how much it means to me that you did. I really needed to get a different perspective to make sense of my own history.”
All this time, everyone in my life, all the people I’d carried, they were just as human as me, fucked up in their own way. Another burden lifted from my shoulders. It felt like I’d been standing in the rain for years, and suddenly there was a break in the clouds.
Liz gathered her things. “I need to be going.”
I stood to follow her out, but when I turned toward the bar, I saw Elizabeth, and the sun came out.
“Hey, Liz. Could you stay just one more minute?”
Chapter Thirty-nine
Elizabeth
“You do assist the storm.”
The Tempest
Evan grinned at me, and for a heartbeat, I forgot I was mad. Boy, he was good. Did he have a harem of women he conned with that puppy dog smile? What if I hadn’t come here tonight? Would I have sailed along naïvely believing I was the one?
I crossed my arms and stood my ground. For once in my life, I was going to speak up for myself, demand some answers.
To my horror, Evan pointed at me and directed hisother womantoward me, and Kyan kept cackling behind the bar. Was he in on this?
Oh, my God. What if they were a polycule, and I was being groomed to be their fourth? For the record, I fully supported throuples and other arrangements, but if I was going to join a foursome, it wouldn’t be with freaking Kyan. Chelsea and Bas would top that list.
