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“Do you have any idea how awful it is to be hated?”
Her silence and narrowing gaze pierced me.
“To have everyone looking at you with disgust in their expressions, to hear the whispers behind your back?”
Louise’s eyes flew wide. “Yes. Yes, I fucking know that too well.”
Her aggression took me aback.
“Welcome to my world, Kat,” she said bitterly. “Those rumors? They’ve been circulating about me for months. I thought if you, my so-called best friend, shared some of the burden, maybe they’d let up on me a little.”
Her confession lit my insides with roaring flames, disbelief turning into fury.
“The difference is that I didn’t go to his room. You actually did! How could you lie like that?”
“Why are you making a big deal of it?” Her shoulders hunched up.
I was stunned by her lack of consideration and thinking only of herself. Selfish bitch.
“Besides, no one needs to know the small details,” she went on.
That was the last straw. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, how easily she shrugged off the stress she’d put me under. I was seething with rage, my hands wringing the sponge, water dripping on my shoes.
“That’s it, Louise,” I snapped. “We’re no longer friends. And don’t ever talk to me again. Don’t even look at me. As far as I’m concerned, you no longer exist.”
She stared at me with an amused expression, as if she was calling my bluff.
Fuck her!
With a huff of frustration, I tossed my dishrag into the sink and stormed out of the kitchen, leaving a stunned Louise behind.
“Kat,” she called out after me, but her whiny voice made me walk faster away from her to reach my room.
My chest squeezed, my head blaring with angry words. She had me so riled up, I found myself pacing in my bedroom until I could no longer stand it. So, I grabbed a change of clothes and decided I needed a hot shower to calm the hell down before I popped a nerve vessel in my temple.
Hot water ran down my skin but failed to wash away the savagery of my emotions or the betrayal. As the water drummed against my back, I willed my mind to go blank, but her admission sat like a boulder on my mind.
Dried and dressed in sweatpants and a loose tee, not bothering with a bra, I padded back into the kitchen, needing to get things off my mind, or I’d never sleep.
When there was no sign of Louise, I sighed. She did finish cleaning the place.
Coffee was my usual cure-all, and tonight was no exception. I brewed a fresh pot, the familiar aroma flooding the room and soothing my frayed nerves. My gaze landed on two cupcakes sitting innocently in the fridge, their colorful pink frosting a promise of delicious comfort. I snatched them up with my large cup of coffee and made my way into the hallway, not feeling one bit guilty. Then I headed into the library.
Surrounded by the quiet, comforting presence of books, I tried to direct my thoughts toward the pile of homework assignments on my computer, but my mind kept drifting back to Louise’s betrayal. I munched absentmindedly on one of the cupcakes, trying to drown out my mind with the sweet vanilla cake. I booted up the desktop computer, noticing it was well past midnight. Nighttime was when I did my best work.
The wooden floorboards groaned. I glanced up to find Father Bridge stepping into the room, a shadow cast over his handsome features. Short, deep-brown hair, tanned skin and those piercing grey eyes landing on me. He wore his sexy, dark-framed glasses once more, which were fucking sexy as well.
My heart beat faster, louder, in a wholly different way. Something about his mischievous grin resembled a devil ready to claim me as his own.
“Father,” I said, my voice shaky. “What are you doing here so late?”
His lips quirked in a half-smile as he sauntered closer, his presence appearing larger and more dominant, leaving me curious how he managed to maintain those muscles straining against the sleeves of his robe.
“I could ask you the same.”
“Couldn’t sleep.” I shrugged, licking a crumb from the corner of my mouth. “I wanted to get some studying done.” I pointed to my computer with my chin, then noticed the stolen cupcake I hadn’t eaten yet.
He made his way to the chair beside me and without hesitation, sat down. He studied the cupcake and collected it, taking a huge bite before I could stop him.
