Page 210 of Losing Faith

Vidia forces a smile. “That’s not true and—”

“It is. You’re the idiot for believing otherwise and, Sire”—she turns her fierce eyes to him—“You’re even dumber for forgiving her after outing your addiction. Who even does that?”

“Shut up, Lisette.”

I steal a glance over at the couple, but Vidia is walking to the bathroom. I have no clue what she’s talking about, but I think all my questions about why Sire and Vidia broke up in college were just answered.

“Who’s next?” Lisette scans the room for her next victim. “Sage, just go now. Your tears are no help and take August with you.”

“I’m not—”

She quickly cuts him off. “You’re useless, August. An absolute pushover. You covered for Sire his entire teenage years because youfelt bad.” She rolls her eyes before Hazel speaks up.

“Being mean isn’t going to do any good, Lis,” she starts gently, taking August’s hand when his shoulders slouch.

“Shut the fuck up, Hazel,” Lisette starts and my jaw slightly drops at how ruthless she’s being. “I care less what you have to say than anyone else here.”

“I don’t care about what you care about,” Hazel replies carelessly. “But I do care about how you talk to my man so watch your mouth. We’re trying tohelp.”

Lisette lets out a scoff. “You know.” She tilts her head to this side. “I think this bitchy thing you got going on is just an act. You’re so much bark and no bite.”

A smirk grows on Hazel’s face. “Oh, you want to see how much bite I got?” She takes a step forward, but August holds her back. “I love you, Lis, but if you need some sense slapped into you, I’ll gladly volunteer.”

“Hey,” August speaks up. He steps in front of his girlfriend, towering a full foot over her as he forces her to look at him. “This is not what you came here for. I told you she would do this. I need your temper in check.”

They watch each other before August nods behind her. “Go find Vidia.” He leans over to kiss her and Hazel spins on her heels without a word.

“You can go too, August.” Lisette just doesn’t quit, but it’s clear now that she’s trying to get everyone to walk away from her. “You’re the reason Sire almost overdosed in that alley and—”

“Lis,” Sire warns. “Stop talking,” he bites out.

“Aww, what’s wrong, Sire?” She turns her head to the side. “You don’t want everyone else to know that you’re worse than me?” She lets out a soft chuckle before looking around the room, but not a single soul is laughing.

“You all think I’m bad now, but you haven’t seen bad because Sire is the worst of them all.”

“No one thinks you’re bad, Lisette.”

She ignores Navi. “Since we’re all sharing how hurt you all are when I’m high, let’s talk about how Sire hurt us.”

“This is about you, Lisette.”

“Stop talking!” She screamssoloud that Navi takes a step back.

“No one gave Sire an intervention when he forced August to pass a drug test for him the first time, then that second time, thenagainwhen he went missing for days and let his poor brother find him nearly dead in an alley. Oragainin college so he could sign with the Dodgers.”

Silence.

“Not a single fucking soul ambushed Sire when he said—” She pretends to think. “What was it? Something along the lines of throwing my suicide attempt in my face? No, that wasfinebecause Sire is just a mean drunk, and boohoo because his childhood was so hard.”

“Did that make you feel better, Lisette?” Sire gets up from his seat now. “I can see the oxy is nearly out of your system since you’re being a fuckingbitch.”

“Sire—”

“No, Jackson, she wants to be mean. We can play the mean game. Fuck you! You want to have a screaming match? WE CAN SCREAM!” He takes a step towards her, but August quickly steps in his way. “I already told you, Lis, be mean all you want, but nothing you say is going to stick. I’m! Not! Going! Anywhere!”

When no one says anything else, Lis walks for the door. It swings open, but Liam is there before she can take a step out.

“Wow.” She lets out a scoff before turning back to Sire. “You must’ve been really fucking desperate to call this guy.”

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