Page 27 of Sinful Storms

Identical shocked gasps came from them both, and I would have smiled if the situation wasn’t so dire.

“I’m surprised, but I’m also not surprised. Now I know why you wouldn’t tell me who gave you those marks on your throat,” Quinn said finally, and I lifted my head to glare at her. Her humour instantly died away when she saw the misery that was no doubt written all over my face.

“It—it was supposed to be hate sex. Just a thing to get it out of our systems—I don’t know, I wasn’t thinking clearly. I just…it’s messed everything up because I remembered, and ithurts.”To my horror, my voice cracked on the last word, and Quinn and Elena moved closer instantly. Quinn gripped my hand while Elena gently squeezed my shoulder.

“Why does it hurt?” Quinn asked softly. “Tell us. It’s not good to keep it bottled up.”

My vision was going blurry, and I hated Tristan even more for having this effect on me. This wasn’t who I was. I didn’t cry over boys, especially not arrogant ones who I meant nothing to.

I went to wipe at my eyes, but Elena pulled my hand back. “Wait. You’ll smear your eyeliner.” She fished a tissue out of her bag and handed it to me.

When I’d composed myself as much as I could, I began. “I don’t know if either of you know this, but Tristan’s parents are my godparents.”

They both gasped again, visibly shocked, but after a second, Quinn’s eyes widened. “Wait a minute. Now I think about it, I do remember Knox or maybe even Tristan mentioning something about that years ago. I’d completely forgotten until you said because neither of you ever bring it up.”

Quickly nodding, I rushed to continue before they could start asking me questions. I needed to get through this as quickly as possible and then hopefully never speak of it again.

“We both like to pretend they’re not my godparents. You know, since we prefer to be in each other’s vicinity as little as possible. Anyway. Long story short, I stayed with his family one summer when we were eight and my grandma was in hospital with pneumonia. Tristan and I became…close, I guess. After that summer, I only saw his parents intermittently, but I stayed friends with Tristan. Then when he hit puberty, it was like he had a complete personality transplant overnight. He was—” I paused, trying to articulate my thoughts. “—a little teenage version of how he is now, I guess. There was no room for me, notthat I would have wanted there to be, because I didn’t like the arrogant, superficial person he’d turned into.”

It was safer to hate him. That way, I couldn’t get hurt again. I couldn’t allow myself to think about any other alternative. Even though I could barely admit it to myself, the truth was it had hurt me so badly when he just stopped talking to me all those years ago. When he showed me I meant nothing to him.

Quinn nodded. “I can see how that must’ve been difficult. Did you ever speak to him about it?”

“Did his parents ever say anything?” Elena added.

“We stopped speaking unless it was to insult each other. His parents…no. Like I said, I only ever saw them intermittently after that summer. They’re nice enough people, but they’ve always made it clear that they pity me, and I hate that. It’s like they feel a sense of obligation as my godparents, so they offer to pay for things for me or whatever, even though I have the money my parents left me to pay my way through school. Now, my godmother’s even offering to set me up with people. She wants to arrange a good match for me for my future.”

Elena’s lip curled. “Rich people.”

“Yeah.”

“Not all rich people,” she amended.

“No, not all of them. Anyway, that’s kind of irrelevant to the whole Tristan thing. Even if there was a world in which Tristan wasn’t Tristan and we still got on with each other, we’d never be allowed to have a relationship—” I cut myself off, seeing Quinn’s brows arch. “No, I do not want a relationship with him. Never, ever. My point is that in the world of my godparents, they’re up here, and I’m down here.” I lifted my hands to illustrate my point. “In their eyes, Tristan belongs with someone on the same level as him, and I’m just not quite there. You know, since I don’t have the illustrious pedigree.”

“This is giving me flashbacks to my parents all over again.” Quinn slumped back in her seat with a huff. “We should be able to love who we want to love. End of.”

“Yeah.”

“Okay. So you slept with someone who used to be a close friend and who you’ve been at odds with for, what…five years now?”

“Something like that.”

Quinn nodded. “And his parents don’t think you’re suited or whatever.Andhe makes a habit of sleeping around…although you have your fair share of fun, too.” When I nodded, she smiled at me before delivering a dagger straight to my heart. “And you like him, but you don’t want to like him.”

“What?” I stared at her.

“Aria. You two have so much sexual tension, it’s?—”

“—enough to make us all go up in flames,” Elena finished. She seemed to be trying very hard not to smirk, struggling to keep the sympathetic expression on her face.

“Please, no.” I groaned, burying my face in my hands again. They were both so wrong.

“Tristan’s a good guy underneath it all. I know you don’t think so, but he is. Honestly.” Elena rubbed my arm. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t trying to make light of your situation. I don’t like that this is upsetting you. But I do agree with Quinn. You like him, and I know a little bit about being attracted to someone you really don’t want to be attracted to. Remember how Knox and I hated each other at the beginning?”

“And how Roman threw me in the lake?” Quinn added. “Believe me, he spent alotof time making that up to me.”

“I don’t want to know.”

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