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Heat flushes my skin, and I rub the back of my neck, trying to accept my friend’s words. It’s hard to accept help or care from anyone when each time you make yourself vulnerable, someone proves you should never let down your walls. You can’t hurt me if I have little to no expectations of you.
Shay wraps her arms around me and then stoops to speak to my belly. “Your mom is one of the strongest people I’ve ever met, and you’re both lucky to have her, but sometimes she’ll forget that, and I have to remind her to fix her crown because that’s what ride-or-die bitches do.”
“Shay,” I shout, gawking at her as I try to smother my laugh. “You don’t swear at them in utero.”
“With the mouth on you, they were doomed from the start. One thousand bucks say their first word will be fuck or bitch,” Shay jokes as she jumps up and dodges my punch before running for the door. “Let’s go get some lunch before we have class.”
I grab my bag, and we’re out the door. We talk and rib each other on the drive to campus. Shay and Eli battle back and forth with ‘yo momma’ jokes while we egg them on.
“When did we travel back to the nineties?” Reign quips.
“The same time your fashion sense did,” Shay retorts without skipping a beat.
I laugh so hard I nearly piss my pants. Reign decided to go with an ode to Zack Morris from Saved by the Bell. His hair is gelled to the gods. I don’t think a sledgehammer could ruin it.
“Who are you trying to be cute for?” I tease as he opens the cafe door.
Reign’s face scrunches in confusion. “I don’t look any different than I do every other day.”
“Bullshit,” Nando says. “You even added an extra spray of cologne before we left.”
That earns him a scowl. “The fuck I did,” Reign argues, but his cologne is definitely more prominent than usual.
“Who is she or he?” I probe, arching a brow in challenge.
We taunt him until we’re seated at our table. I’m so distracted by our fun that I don’t notice that we’re sitting three tables away from Lev, Wes, Sebastian, Owen, and Wyatt until a shrill voice announces their presence.
“Eww! Who let the trash in?” Samantha sneers.
Shay opens her mouth to say something, but I pinch her side. “Ignore her. You know she thrives on chaos.”
Shay’s lips curl, but thankfully, she lets it go.
After a few weeks of Samantha’s shit, I’ve officially decided to treat them like the guys are treating me. They don’t fucking exist.
Our food arrives, and I notice my lunch has extra servings of veggies to go with my steak.
My eyes narrow to slits. “Okay, which one of you changed up my meal plan?”
Everyone throws their hands up, signaling it isn’t them. The first time it happened, I thought it was a fluke, but every time we eat here, my order has extra dark leafy greens accompanied by the smoothie I used to drink in Colorado—chock-full of vitamins.
I make a mental note to call my dad later to see if this is his or my grandmother’s doing.
“Someone probably thinks you need to be on a diet, you fat cow,” Sam hisses.
Lifting my hand, I massage the bridge of my nose. Why must this cunt always try me?
“Oh look, it’s Sam,” I announce dryly.
“You should’ve stayed gone before you end up like your other family members. The Bradfords don’t have a place here anymore. Your entire existence is irrelevant.”
Her words replay in my head. She’s got my attention now. Too bad for her—that’s never a good thing.
Nando stands up, and Samantha takes three steps backward when she notices none of the guys followed her over here. “You might want to take that shit somewhere else, Barbie, because all threats are met with the full force of our protection. My hands don’t discriminate when I’m protecting our girl.”
Samantha yammers something else, but I can feel someone’s gaze boring into the side of my face. I turn and see Wes’s jaw locked tightly in a sneer. Lev is halfway out of his seat, and Owen has his knife in his hands. However, Wyatt is leaning back in his chair with the biggest shit-eating grin, like this is the entertainment he’s been waiting his whole life for. None of them come to her aid, though.
“Huh. That’s interesting,” I mumble to myself. Why aren’t they over here protecting her?
