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“This still wasn’t the way to go about it, Lulee,” I told her, unwilling to take all the blame for this mess.
“I know, and I’m sorry,” she quickly rushed out. “I just…I knew you’d say no if I asked.”
“I’m still saying no, Lulee.”
Her face softened in understanding, though I hated how her blue eyes looked genuinely sad. However, I wasn’t the bad guy here. I’d done nothing wrong. I’d done nothing but let Saint know that I was not going to tolerate casual disrespect, no matter how minor.
“I understand,” she said softly as she stood up from my bed. “I’m really sorry, Verity. I knew that you might get upset, but I didn’t think that you’d get hurt.”
“While I am upset, it’s not anything that can ruin our friendship, Lulee,” I assured her. “I also don’t want to ruin this for you guys, so don’t worry about me.” I gave her a quick grin to soften the rebuke. “It wasn’t like I was sold on going in the first place.”
Lulee grinned back at me, but I could tell that it was a bit strained. “True,” she chuckled softly. With nothing more left to say, she gave me one last timid smile before leaving my room.
When I’d finally gotten up to shut the door, I could hear voices coming from the living room, though they’d been trying to whisper their argument.
“I’m sorry,” Lulee rushed out. “I didn’t think that she’d get this upset.”
“I told you that she’d be pissed,” Saint hissed. “I told you both that this was a shitty thing to do to her.”
“Hey, man-”
“Don’t, Cree,” he bit out. “You guys just handed her another reason to hate me. I told you that this was a bad idea. Plus, even if she didn’t already hate me, no one likes to be blindsided.”
“Alright,” Lulee muttered. “I miscalculated-”
“I’ll say,” Saint snapped.
“Hey, that’s enough,” Cree ordered, refusing to let Saint blame Lulee for this mess, even though shewasclearly to blame here. “She fucked up. We get it.”
I could hear Saint let out a heavy sigh, and for some reason, I felt it in my chest. It was Lulee and Cree that I trusted, but it’d been Saint that had argued against their shady plan. While this wasn’t anything worth throwing away my friendships with Lulee and Cree, they’d been wrong, and I felt…unsettled. Suddenly, I felt like I was being super unfair, and I didn’t like the feeling.
Over the past couple of months, Lulee had done her best to convince me that I might have overreacted to the way that Saint had chosen to deal with all those interruptions, but I’d been too annoyed to listen. Honestly, I was still annoyed. However, was I annoyed enough to ruin our last spring break together? Did I really want this…this screw-up to be one of our last memories of college together?
“Look, let’s just…let’s just go on the trip and-”
“You still really want to go?” Saint asked Lulee. “Do you honestly think that’s the best choice to make in this situation? To leave her here alone for a week, giving her nothing to do but think about how her closest friends screwed her over?” Saint let out another sigh. “She might not dwell on the anger, but you damn well better believe that she’ll dwell on the hurt.”
No one said anything for a long second, but when Lulee finally spoke, she said, “You’re right. We can’t leave her here after…after whatIdid.”
“I’m not going on this trip without you, Lu,” Cree immediately voiced. “We can…we can find something to do around here. Maybe even get half a refund or something.”
I wasn’t sure how I’d gone from being the wronged party to feeling guilty for ruining their planned trip, but that’s what I was feeling right now. I felt like I was being unreasonably dramatic, and for what? Because Saint hadn’t taken one look at me and had forsaken all others? The absurdity of it had me almost laughing at myself.
Taking a deep breath, I decided to do the decent thing and pretend that my issues with Saint Hendrix didn’t exist for a moment. Now, was I going to be able to pretend for an entire week? I had no idea. However, I was going to have my own cabin to escape to if I needed it, right?
Walking out into the living room, they all stopped talking as soon as they saw me. I felt like my heart was going to beat clean out of my chest, but I wasn’t going to let this opportunity get away from me. Like any relationship, friendships also required a little bit of sacrifice. Lulee’s heart had been in the right place, and while I had a right to be upset, she didn’t deserve the level of guilt that she was probably experiencing right now.
“So, what are you guys all waiting around for?” I asked before looking at the guys. “Thought we had a trip to go on?”
Lulee threw her arms up over her head and let out an ear-piercing scream, causing the rest of us to wince. “Whoohoo!” I choked out a strangled laugh as she threw her arms around me. “I love you, Ver!”
“We’ll see,” I muttered as I hugged her back. “You owe me, Lulee.”
She pulled back, a huge grin on her face. “I know.”
“Now that that’s all settled, can we get going?” Cree asked. “It’s a long drive.”
Lulee was all smiles. “Then let’s get going.”
