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“What?” I replied, pausing to look at her.
She inspected her chipped black nail polish with a bored look on her face. “The party. The pity party. The one you’re obviously throwing for yourself.” She smirked, obviously pleased with herself. “Where are you going?”
“Anywhere except by the love birds,” I said in a mocking tone, hating every word of it. The thought of Ali and Aria together made me want to gag.
Mali let out a laugh. “You got yourself into that mess. But let me guess—instead of apologizing to them, you said something snarky instead?”
My lip curled as I glared at her. “No.”
“Liar. I can count on one hand the number of times you’ve apologized to people in your life.” She placed her hands on her hips and challenged me.
“I don’t make mistakes often enough to need to apologize,” I responded, reminding her just how well I ran my business deals. “Besides, if I doled out an apology to everyone for nothing, who would respect me?”
“Respect you or fear you?”
I paused. The Teller kids didn’t fear me. They knew me and respected me. Because I got the work done. I stood up for them. I didn’t let people get away with things. They looked to me like a leader.
But that didn’t mean I made a mistake with Ali and Aria. I underestimated one thing.
“I should have known,” I admitted, dropping my head slightly. “It’s worse than I thought.”
Malia grinned a wicked smile. “True love?”
That made me shiver and gag. “No. Teenage hormones.”
“Look, Una,” Mali said, dropping her arms and the act. “You got caught up. You wanted a loophole and found the wrong one this time. And your best friend got hurt in the process. Your plan backfired. It was bound to happen at some point.”
“Nothing backfired. I was trying to save Ali from his ultimate doom.”
“It’s not your place to do so,” she countered. The two of us could go rounds in this type of debate. We were both passionate and stubborn, always thinking our way was the right way. The only way.
“Of course it is. I know Ali. I know Aria. I know that they—”
She held up a hand, her multitude of black bracelets falling down her arm. “Don’t finish that sentence, Una. Other people’s love lives are not for you to determine. They’re not for you to intervene. You cannot predict the outcome and you cannot get involved.”
I blinked, taken aback slightly. Was she talking from experience? Whoever broke her heart really did a number on her, but we didn’t pry. If we had, we risked Malia shutting down and stonewalling us. Ali and I stayed by her side, but didn’t ask about the guy. Whoever he was really messed with her.
I sucked in a breath and let it out with a little growl. Malia just chuckled and patted me on the arm before walking away. Even though we battled like this often, we both knew when to call it quits.
And I didn’t want to be standing here talking aboutloveof all things. I needed another way to get my frustrations out. I needed to get back on track, finish the contracts I had, and find higher paying ones.
What I really needed was to get out of this prison. I was half way to the front when I realized the reason I needed more high paying deals was to get my car back.
The car I didn’t have.
Meaning I had no way of leaving school right now, ditching or not.
With an exasperated cry, I turned and headed the other direction, toward my next class. It meant crossing through the courtyard first.
I took my phone out and scrolled through the messages of the morning, groaning at one after another, when a pair of shoes appeared in front of me.
Thankfully I stopped before I literally ran into the guy standing directly in my path.
“Not you again,” I grumbled. With how my day was going, it almost didn’t surprise me that Charlie Henrikson stood in my way.
The grin on his face didn’t help my pissed off mood. Somehow, he was always smiling, and I was always upset every time we crossed paths.
“Hello to you too, you little ray of sunshine,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest. The move made his T-shirt even tighter around his chest and biceps.
