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“You know, it does kinda make sense though. I mean, Mason’s not wrong,” she’d mused, popping a pizza roll into her mouth as she lounged on my couch. “Your family are the fucking Hildebrands! You are on their level. Maybe they just got scared you’d send your grandparents after them if they didn’t stop being such shits.”
I’d chuckled and thrown a pizza roll at her face. Honestly, I didn’t think my grandparents had much interest in defending my reputation—they were more worried about me destroying theirs—but she had a point.
“It just kinda sucks,” she’d said as she hugged me goodnight. “If you really are being adopted by them or whatever, does that mean I have to hate you now?”
“No!” I’d assured her vehemently. “I’m not one of them. And I hate them just as much as you do. I’m just taking the little bit of peace where I can get it, like you said. They’re not my friends.”
And they weren’t.
I meant it.
Just because they were no longer actively tormenting me didn’t mean I was willing to forgive and forget all the shit that’d gone down the previous semester thanks to their unfair war on me.
But the thing was, I hadn’t realized how exhausted I was until the bullying stopped. Hadn’t realized how much it had been wearing me down until it was over.
So maybe what they were doing now was nothing more than some new kind of psychological warfare, some new way to control me and assert their dominance over the whole school, but for the time being, I would take it.
By the end of the third week of this strange new dynamic though, I felt like I was crawling out of my skin. The Princes were everywhere, so fully integrated into my life that even I was starting to have a hard time remembering when they hadn’t been there. Their voices, so familiar to me already, were permanently ingrained in my brain now.
I was starting to know their quirks, their habits. I could read the expressions on their faces—even Cole’s and Mason’s, who presented themselves to the world as closed books.
And I needed a break from it.
In Chemistry, I typed out a quick message on my phone, hiding it under the table in my lap.
ME: What are you doing after class? Shopping trip?
Her phone was on silent, but she must’ve had it out of her bag too, because her an
swer came almost immediately.
LEAH: Um yassss! Sheesh, I was thinking I really was gonna have to start hating you.
ME: Sorry. Been a little tied up.
LEAH: Ew. Please don’t tell me you mean that literally
ME: What? No
LEAH: Hey, I dunno what kind of kinky shit the Princes are into
My whole body burned as heat rushed up my cheeks, and I turned away slightly so she wouldn’t see it.
ME: *barfing emoji*
LEAH: Hmm, so maybe my friend hasn’t been body-snatched after all.
ME: Nope. Still here. So… shopping?
There was a pause as Mr. Young made his rounds through the classroom, checking in at all the tables. As soon as he walked away from mine, I turned my phone over in the folds of my skirt and smiled at the one-word response.
LEAH: Duh
After Chemistry let out, we grabbed our books from our lockers and headed right over to the student lot. My chem class was in Johnson hall, and all the Princes had their eighth period classes is Hammond Hall, on the other side of the U, so it was the perfect chance to make a break for it.
We walked arm in arm, heading between two smaller admin buildings on the east side of campus toward the student lot.
“God, I’m so ready to get out of here for a while,” Leah chirped happily, turning her face up to catch the sun. “Ever since Maggie and Dan got together, I’ve lost my best shopping buddy!” She turned to me, squeezing my arm and laughing. “No offense! You’re my second best! But you still kinda suck at it, to be honest. You like, pick up a million things and then put most of them back on the rack before you check out. That’s not really how shopping works.”
