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Anger burns through me, and I turn to stalk away. “If this is some kind of mind game, then I don’t have time for you. I need to eat before afternoon classes.”
“No, wait!” Jane blurts out, sounding panicked. Grabbing my forearm, she stops me before I can leave. “Please, it’s not a game. We realized that we crossed a line earlier and we really are sorry.”
I glare down at her hand on my arm until she releases me. But I don’t start walking again. Instead, I cross my arms over my chest and scowl at the two of them. “After everything you’ve done to me this semester, after all the cruel things you’ve said, why would today suddenly be the thing that crossed the line?”
“Because it’s not true.” The answer is immediate. And when I look into Jane’s blue eyes, all I can see is absolute sincerity.
Next to her, Leslie nods. “Yeah, look, we know that we’ve said some mean shit to you. And part of it, we truly have meant. You are fucking terrible at sparring and obstacle courses. But…” Her eyes turn desperate as she looks at me beseechingly. “What we said today was a lie. People do like you. Carla and the rest of her housemates do like you.”
My heart flutters in an absolutely ridiculous way because I so desperately want that to be true. But the sceptic in me is telling me that they’re just messing with me again.
Keeping my eyebrows drawn down in a scowl, I demand, “Then why did you tell me that she didn’t?”
Jane heaves a frustrated sigh and rakes her fingers through her blonde hair. “Because we were jealous, okay?”
“Of what? What could I possibly have that you’re jealous of?”
“Carla.”
I blink at her in surprise.
She heaves another sigh, this one deeper and more exhausted than frustrated. Dropping her arms back to her sides, she gives me such a vulnerable look that I can’t help but actually believe it.
“Carla is at the top of our class,” Jane explains, and then slowly shakes her head as if in disbelief. “And you, who are at the bottom of the rankings, have somehow manage to become friends with her. It makes no sense. Why would she like you while barely giving us the time of day?”
“Exactly,” Leslie adds.
I stare at them. The cynical side of me tries to cling to the possibility that they’re just messing with me again, but the logical part of my brain knows that they’re telling the truth. It’s written everywhere. In their words, their tone, on their faces. They actually are jealous of my friendship with Carla.
“Okay,” I begin. Then I narrow my eyes as suspicion whirls through me. “But it still doesn’t explain why you would suddenly come back and apologize for it.”
“We—” Leslie begins, but I cut her off.
“And don’t try to tell me that it’s because you’ve seen the error of your ways and suddenly want to hold hands and sing kumbaya.”
“It’s not.” Leslie grimaces apologetically. “We still don’t like you and we don’t want to be friends with you. But, well… We realized that we had made a huge fucking mistake saying those things back in the locker room.”
“How so?”
“Because it was a lie. And if Carla ever finds out that we told you lies about her feelings for you, we will make an enemy of Carla.”
“And we really, really, don’t want to make an enemy of Carla,” Jane finishes.
The last of the skepticism and suspicion that had dug their claws into me blow away like smoke in the wind.
This I can buy.
This makes sense.
They’re not messing with me. They’re not apologizing because they have suddenly become good people. They’re doing it for selfish reasons. For self-preservation. Though to be fair, I really wouldn’t want to make an enemy of Carla either.
A sparkly feeling flows through me, making me feel lighter than I have in weeks. They were lying. Carla and the others do actually like me. They’re not faking it because I’m a Petrov. They like me.
It takes everything I have to stop a wide grin from spreading across my mouth.
Instead, I level a hard stare at the two women before me. “Alright. Apology accepted.”
Relief blows across their features.
