"You're embarrassing," I muttered to myself.
"Aurora?"
I nearly launched out of my own skin. I looked up just in time to see Bianca, Sofia, and Alessia weaving through the crowd toward me in a cluster of glittering dresses and bouncing dark hair.
Oh no. No no no. Not those faces. Those were dangerous faces. Bianca reached me first and froze. Her eyes widened. Then widened more. Sofia looked between me and the crowd behind me. Alessia slowly turned toward me with genuine horror.
Three ‘oh my Gods’ reached my ears in unison. I stared at all three of them.
"If one more person says oh my God, I am going to commit violence,” I threatened. They ignored me completely. Traitors. Absolute traitors.
Bianca grabbed both my shoulders hard enough to nearly shake me. "Where is he?"
I blinked. "Who?"
Her eyes narrowed. "The Devil."
I stared at her. Sofia stared harder. Alessia looked one second away from exploding. Then all three let out tiny rich-girl screams at once. Not real screams. Tiny horrified excited screams. The kind girls made when somebody showed them engagement rings or celebrity gossip or a man with abs.
"You DISAPPEARED with him!" Bianca hissed.
"You were gone forever!" Sofia nearly shrieked.
"We thought you got kidnapped!" Alessia accused.
"I did not disappear with anybody,” I muttered. Three identical skeptical expressions. Nothing but judgment. "Nothing happened."
Silence. Then Bianca looked down slowly. "Why are your cheeks pink?"
I froze. I hated every single one of them for their excitement, because in the pit of my stomach, there was nothing but despair. "Just shut up. Please. I have a headache."
Sofia narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "You kissed him."
"I did absolutely nothing of the sort,” I said.
Bianca pressed a hand dramatically to her chest. "Our Aurora met some mysterious hot man and abandoned us."
"I did not abandon anyone,” I hissed. “You all left me first.”
Alessia looked deeply offended. "You literally vanished."
"You disappeared into a room with The Devil," Sofia corrected.
I opened my mouth. Closed it. Opened it again. "I hate that stupid nickname."
Bianca's eyes widened. "Iiiiiiinteresting."
Sofia nodded. "Very interesting wording."
I stared at all three of them with genuine fury. "Can you stop acting like something happened?"
Because nothing had happened. That’s what I was going with. But I remembered his hand around my throat. Warm fingers sliding against mine. The roughness of old scars brushing my skin. The heat of him. The way he'd looked at me. The way his eyes had changed for that tiny second when I'd guessed right. The way he'd gone quiet. The way he'd looked almost... Human.
Then I remembered him walking away. My chest tightened so suddenly it actually hurt. I realized something horrible. I wasn't angry. I wasn't annoyed. I wasn't offended. I was devastated. The idiot had just... Let me go.
No chasing. No dramatic devil nonsense. No smirk. Nothing. Like I was nothing special. Like I was just another girl. Like an hour of laughing and stupid games and looking at me like I was the most interesting thing in the room had meant absolutely nothing.
The realization hit me hard enough I physically recoiled. I wassonot getting upset. Not upset over a man.
