Page 141 of Driftwood Daffodil 2

Veda never talked about what happened that night, but I’d always had my suspicions that she was drugged. Rita and her used to go out every weekend, and I hadn’t seen her touch a drop since.

“Don’t worry.” I gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze. “I’m careful.”

Kind of. There was the whole bonfire incident, but Gio got me out of there. I still had no idea why he did that.

“Anyway.” Veda shook off whatever she was thinking about and changed the subject. “How is school?”

“Well, I go to school with the asshole trio, so it’s a daily game of survival and paranoia.”

Especially when two of said trio weren’t in school.

My eyes dropped back down to my phone.

Still no text from Gio. He was definitely up to something. Come on, since when was he too busy to torment me? What was he doing? I had an idea about what Atlee was doing. Or should I say who? Not that I knew who it was, nor did I care. I just knew it had to involve a girl. Although, it could be a guy. I’d heard things. Mind you, that was Memphis gossip, but still.

“Every school has assholes.” Veda sighed. “Do you remember Bennet Torres?”

Bennet was the typical jock jerk, which was totally forgettable in my opinion. Honestly, if it wasn’t for his cousin Noah, who went missing in Florida a couple of years ago, I would have no idea who he was.

Veda hung her head and gave it a shake. “I can’t believe I went out with that guy.”

I could. She was a cheerleader, he was a football player, and they were both popular. Wasn’t exactly like trying to mix oil and water. Gio and I, on the other hand…

“Some people just don’t belong together.”

Veda cocked a brow. “Are you talking about someone in particular?”

Yeah, he went by fuckface and told me to be good this morning. I’d been analyzing those words all day. Telling me to be good indicated that he thought I’d have a reason to act out. Not that it took much. I got Memphis grounded last month because he got the last helping of Maw Maw’s gumbo. Be polite to company my ass.

“Nova,” Veda grabbed my hand and dipped her head to look in my eyes. “What happened last weekend?”

My eyes narrowed. “It was a normal weekend.”

Why would she think it was anything else?

“Are you sure, because you looked pretty shaken up when you came home?”

No, I was pissed off. There was a difference.

“Don’t worry Veda, some strange man didn’t corner me in a back alley.”

Pretty sure Gio would kill anyone who tried to corner me anywhere. There was an odd comfort in knowing that. I didn’t like it. Nothing about Gio Mancini should be comfortable.

“It’s just that you haven’t been acting like yourself lately.”

That made me pause. My sister had no idea who myself was. She barely paid attention to herself.

“Why are you here, Veda?”

The only place Veda relaxed was in her room. She rarely came into mine, and she certainly didn’t sit down on my bed.

“I don’t know.” She shrugged. “We haven’t talked in a while and I thought it would be nice.”

Nice?Did she have a different recollection of our childhood? It was odd if we got along for more than a day. Veda was the princess. I was the annoying one that rolled around in the mud. I loved her–she was my sister–but blood was all we had in common.

“You, want to talk to me?”

“Is there something wrong with wanting to know what’s going on in your life?”

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