Page 33 of The Prince of Broken Crowns

She presses her lips together and trades a look with Wren. “Noah doesn’t really play the big brother role with me.”

“Oh.” I study her, recalling my brief meeting with Noah while I was with River and how their interaction was flowing with so much discomfort I could feel it.

“But, anyway”—Wren clears her throat and throws me a look I can’t quite comprehend—“dinner before we hit up this little shindig?”

“Yep. Let me get changed, grab my bag, and then we can go.” Lily whisks herself into her room, kicking the door shut behind her.

Wren immediately looks at me. “Just a little warning,” she whispers, “I wouldn’t mention Noah to any of the Averson siblings. There’s a lot of messed-up history there.”

“I kind of gathered that already,” I tell her. “I’ll try to be more careful when mentioning his name.”

She sits down on the armrest of the sofa. “It’s not as bad with Lily, but Finn and River were best friends with Noah since grade school, but then Noah’s mom had an affair with their dad, which led to the divorce from their mom. And now Noah’s mom, and they’re so …”

So, it is what I suspected. However, I didn’t gather that River and Noah used to be BFFs with each other.

“That’s kind of messed up,” I say.

“For sure, but that’s the royal world for you.” Wren briefly hesitates. “Is it like this over on the northside?”

I shake my head. “No, but we have our own set of problems—drugs, gangs, violence …”

I expect her to look horrified by what I said, but she doesn’t.

“We have that here, too. I’m not sure if it’s the same as in northside, but we have drugs, cliques, and violence. It just gets covered up here.”

“It gets covered up on northside, too.” I almost tell her about the two times I was arrested and how it wasn’t my fault, but I stop myself. I don’t know this girl well, and while she seems nice enough, giving out all of my secrets to her—especially when she runs a gossip column—doesn’t seem like the best idea.

We fall silent as she receives a text and digs her phone out to check it. I decide to get up and change into sweatpants and a T-shirt, wanting to spend the night doing homework.

“I think I’m going to go work on some assignments.”

She glances up from her phone. “You’re not coming to dinner with us?”

I shake my head as the door to Lily’s room swings open. “Nah. I have too much work to do.”

Lily steps into the doorway. “No, you have to come. I want to get to know my new roommate.”

She’s wearing a blue dress, plaid jacket, and strappy heels. Wren wears black silk pants, a white shirt, and a leather jacket. Both of them are dressed fancy, at least to my standards. I can put two and two together and guess they’re probably going to a restaurant where food costs more than rent back on northside.

“I wish I could, but I need to do some assignments.” I pick up my shoes and start toward my room.

“Oh, come on,” Lily whines as she hurries after me. “Half the fun of being in college is that we don’t have to live by the standards of when we were in high school. We can go out and have fun any day we want. Plus, we have that party to go to.”

“I wasn’t invited,” I point out.

“Everyone’s invited.” She grabs my arm and starts to beg. “Please, please, pretty please.”

It sucks so bad because I believe she’s being genuinely nice, and I would love to go and make friends with her, but I can’t. Like, literally can’t afford to go. And it sucks.

“How about this? You guys go get some dinner while I do my homework, and then we can meet up after, and I’ll go to the party with you,” I offer, hoping she’ll take it. Otherwise, I might be persuaded to do something stupid. And by stupid, I mean go to a restaurant that I can’t afford and end up staring at them while they eat

Can you say awkward?

“That sounds like a fantastic plan,” Wren intervenes, giving me this look that has me questioning if she perhaps knows about my dilemma. She stands to her feet and urges Lily toward the door. “Let’s go before we don’t have time to eat.”

“Oh, fine.” Sighing, Lily trudges toward the door, collecting her purse. “But you swear you’ll come to the party?”

I nod and draw an X across my heart. “Cross my heart and hope to die.”

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