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She smiled weakly. “You really mean it, don’t you?”
“Yeah. I really do. Why?”
She bit her bottom lip and cast her eyes off to the side. “Well… I was wondering something earlier.”
“What?”
“Do you feel like you need to do it because of all the guilt?” she asked, looking up at me again.
My brows furrowed. “Guilt?”
“Over all the stuff you did when you thought I wrecked Julian’s life, I mean,” she said. “Because I don’t want you to feel like that. You’ve more than made it up to me.”
“No, that’s not it. Not at all,” I said, shaking my head. “I mean, I do feel guilty. I’ll always regret saying and doing all that shit. Even thinking it. But I… well, this is probably the worst possible time to tell you this…”
“Tell me what?”
“I love you, Amerie,” I said, squeezing her hand. “That’s why I’m willing to do all of this stuff for you. Not because I feel guilty.”
Her lips curved into another faint smile. “I love you too,” she whispered, eyes shining.
I grinned and wrapped my arms around her in a tight hug, relieved my feelings were fully reciprocated.
“I really want to kiss you right now, but I won’t subject you to that,” she said a moment later, drawing back from the embrace with one hand over her mouth. “I’ll go clean up.”
“I think Addy said she has some gum in her bag. That’ll help with the taste,” I said. I glanced at my watch. “Shit, she’s been waiting out there for ten minutes. You should probably go now.”
Amerie nodded and headed over to the sink to wash out her mouth while I stayed behind to clean up the mess on the seat. The stall door swung shut behind her, blocking my view, but I could still hear everything that was happening in the rest of the bathroom.
The main door opened a minute later, and two girls entered, black shoes squeaking on the polished tiles. They gossiped about a boy they knew as they stood at the mirror, presumably fixing their hair and makeup.
When Amerie finally stepped over to the hand dryer on the other side of the bathroom, the girls switched subjects. “Oh my god, did you see that crusty yellow shit around her lips?” one of them muttered.
“Yeah. She was totally throwing up in there. I bet she’s bulimic.”
“No, that’s just what happens when you’re a junkie whore. You get sick all the time and look like total shit. I can’t believe Jensen Lockhart still—”
“Still what?” I said, pushing the stall door open.
Their eyes widened as they saw me coming toward them. “Oh,” the taller one squeaked. “Nothing. I was just saying—”
“I heard what you were saying,” I said, eyes narrowing. “I thought I made it pretty fucking clear what would happen if I heard anyone talking shit about Amerie.”
“I’m sorry,” the second girl said, eyes wide. “We didn’t mean it.”
“You’re only sorry because you got caught,” I said, voice dripping with scorn. “What’s your name?”
“Uh… I’m Ellie,” the tall one said in a tremulous voice. “And this is Clara.”
“We’re really sorry,” Clara piped up, looking over at Amerie with a beseeching expression on her rat-like face. “I swear, we didn’t mean anything. We were just joking.”
I sneered at her. “Obviously I’m not going to kick your asses, because you aren’t guys, but you’re officially blacklisted. Understood?”
If anyone at school was blacklisted by a member of the royal court, almost everyone else on campus would shun them and refuse to let them attend social events. In a town like Vanderwild Bay, where status mattered just as much as breathing, it was essentially social death.
“But…” Ellie’s eyes widened, and she shook her head. “Please, I really am sorry!”
“Too late. Now get the fuck out of here before you make it any worse.”
