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“Liar.” Sydney sounded less certain. “You could have quit anytime. I saw your face when I dropped that cash on the table! You’re damn happy to have it back. Not to mention your speed.” She jerked her head toward the bottle of Adderall on the floor. “I guess you need it to be the great Christina.”
Patrick moved toward me, and I was grateful for his nearness. “I’m not the great Christina,” I said steadily. “You’re thinking of my sister. And she’s given up that crown too.”
As if she sensed I needed it, Amelia patted me on the back. She’d never touched me before. “Props to you for being the bigger slut,” she said under her breath.
“Amelia…”
“Consider it a compliment.”
“Shewouldthink so, dating that dealer.” Sydney glowered at Amelia and Marcus. “It’s all sex, drugs, and money with you people.”
Marcus walked over to the fridge and inspected the photos. “You mean the dealer you failed to sell that half-empty bottle of Adderall back to?” he asked, examining a magnet in an off-hand way. “You should have covered your tracks better.”
“Twenty minutes later, we found her pounding on the lizard’s door with the money in this bag,” Patrick said coolly. “He was very helpful.”
“Dexter?”
Marcus scratched his head. “I’d call him more of an amphibian. He spawns in the water.”
Patrick laughed, and Sydney glared at them.
“Please don't tell me you two are bonding over this,” she said. “It makes me sick.”
“Dexter was helpful?” I was still trying to wrap my head around that fact.
“Dexter threw me to the wolves,” Sydney sneered. “They showed up and said ‘you need to come with us right now,’and he said, ‘take her.’Those were his actual words.”
“Why?”
She crumpled the empty bag and pitched it across the kitchen. “Because he still wants you! You’ve got some kind of —spellover him, and there’s nothing I can do to break it.”
“Syd.” I spoke slowly. “Are you out of your mind? He told everyone about me and Patrick. He insulted me. He doesn’t want me.”
“He's still hurt that you dumped him! He doesn't —” she bent over the table — “he doesn't care about me. I'm no one's first choice.”
“Sydney, I put you first for two years.”
She sniffled, wiping her tears on the back of her wrist. “It’s like you get everything and I get nothing! Seriously, having amazing sex with a hot guyandraking in the cash for it? It’s like other girls don’t even exist for him. Did you put a spell on him, too?”
I stared at the money on the table, then at her heaving back.
Soft footsteps came down the hall.
“There’s so much shouting.” Alexis peered at all of us, then at the bills flapping on the table. “Christina, you got it back? Sydney, what are you doing here?”
Sydney’s jaw dropped. “Alexis? What areyoudoing here?” Her head whipped from me to my sister. “Wait, does she know? Alexis, do you know what Christina’s been doing?”
Alexis looked from Sydney to the money, then at the rest of us grouped around the table.
“Yes.” She glanced at Patrick, who folded his arms impassively. “It doesn’t matter to me.”
“With your permission, Christina,” Patrick said, “I’d like to count that to make sure it's all here.” He nodded toward the scattered money.
“Go ahead.”
“Three thousand even?”
I nodded. Patrick stooped, picked up the bottle of pills, and set it on the table.
