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“Oh, my biscuits. Is that why you werepettingall of us?”
Ugh. I hoped she’d forget about that. “Guilty.” I sighed. “He wanted to tell you, but I wanted to wait until we knew that you had repaired your relationship with him.”
Amy smacked my arm. “That’s even worse! He wanted to tell me, and you wanted to keep lying?”
“When you put it that way . . .”
“What other way is there?”
How could I explain it to her? “You’re still so fragile after everything that happened with your family. I didn’t want to upset you.”
“Try again.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m stronger than that. You know it.”
WhydidI keep it a secret? She was right; she was strong. She left her family and stood by Lucas’s side, knowing full well what it would mean. Now that she pushed me, the truth slowly revealed itself. “Maybe I just wanted something that was for me. Scott helped me work through the hard things going on in my life. But if we went public, we’d have to deal with your parents.” I poked her side. “And you.”
She huffed. “And rightfully so. I still can’t believe he was seeing you right after telling me to stay away from Lucas.”
I didn’t think I could get her to understand. Not yet, at least. Things were still fragile between the two of them.
I sat up and gave her a big hug. “I’m sorry, Amy. I didn’t want to hurt you. I thought if I told you, it would become a bigger deal than it was. It wasn’t anything, I promise.” I swallowed my true feelings, burying them deep down where they wouldn’t come up and betray how sad I really felt.
She leaned her head into my shoulder. “I don’t know. Is that why he finally called me and apologized? You even said he wanted to tell me about you guys. And what about that donation to your studio? It doesn’t sound like nothing.”
“Don’t remind me about that,” I said. “I had no idea he did that until tonight. But it doesn’t matter now. I told him I need space. I don’t think we can be together anymore.”
“Seriously? After all that?”
“Exactly. ‘All that’ was way too much. He keeps putting himself in other people’s business, like he did with you and Lucas. I don’t need someone to take care of me.” I rested my head on top of hers. “But you’re my best friend, Amy. You matter the most. I’m so sorry for lying to you. Can you forgive me?”
She lifted her head and peered into my eyes. “I guess so.”
A light knock sounded on the door. “Everything okay?” Lucas called.
“Come on in,” Amy said.
He opened the door and shifted his eyes back and forth between Amy and me. “This looks dramatic.”
“It’s fine now,” I said. “She figured out that I was seeing Scott behind her back.”
“Yeah, I got an earful on the car ride home,” he said.
“What happened after I left?” I asked. Did I even really want to know?
Amy stood up and walked over to Lucas, wrapping her arms around his waist. “It was really weird. Scott was super upset when he came back inside, but Blake kept trying to rub up on him like a cat.”
I shuddered. I didn’t need to harbor any more bad feelings toward Blake, but she kept giving me reasons to dislike her. She really was just like an obnoxious housefly that you couldn’t swat, no matter how hard you tried.
“Did you know that she was related to Ethan?” I asked.
Amy shook her head. “I had no idea. She lived in LA, so we never met her. I wasn’t friends with Ethan growing up, so I never knew about his extended family.”
I nodded.
Lucas cleared his throat. “So, um, how do we feel about Ivy and Scott dating now?” he asked Amy. Poor Lucas, trying to keep up with Amy’s family drama.
“It doesn’t matter,” I said. “I broke up with him. We weren’t that serious.” I needed to tell that to my heart, which felt like it was breaking into a million pieces.
“Oh.” Lucas said. “But you must have been important enough to him that he had a change of heart towards Amy.”
