Page 113 of The Puckable Playbook

I take a step toward her. Part of me wants to tell her to stay away from Zaiah, but she would see that as a challenge. Besides, I’m not scared of anything happening between them and she needs to know it.

I pull out my phone. “Should I text him to meet you?”

“I can contact him myself.”

“Pretty sure he has you blocked. Unless you’re the kind of stalker that got a different phone number to contact him. It’s cool. I’ll send him something right now telling him you want to…what exactly? Get him back? Tell him lies about me to make me look like some sort of creeper?”

She shakes her head. “Wow. You finally grew a backbone. Congratulations.”

“Yeah, turns out I had to because there are evil bitches like you in the world.” I start to type on my phone. I don’t message Zaiah. I want him to celebrate with his team, but I do text Iz and tell her SOS in the tunnels. If I can’t talk Trish out of here, his family showing up will do the trick.

“You were always jealous of me.”

I turn my head. “Actually, I think you’re right. But then you showed your true colors, and now I don’t think of you at all.”

“Come on, Nor. This is stupid.” Her eyes round, like the emoji with the sad, watering eyes, and she puts some whine into her voice. “I don’t know why you’re acting like this. We were such good friends.”

The way her demeanor switches in an instant means she’s a full-on psychopath. At the very least, she’s an amazing actress.

Thankfully, I’m not malleable to her underhanded charms anymore. I have her clocked, and she knows it. “Were we, though? I think I was just a pawn of yours, and now you’re mad that you don’t have it to play with.”

“How can you be so mean? First, you tell Zaiah about me. We were best friends. Where’s the loyalty? Then, you don’t contact me when I leave, and when I come back, I find out you’re fucking my boyfriend. And you’re saying I’m the liar? The bad person?”

Her voice has risen a few octaves, drawing the attention of a few of the rink staff. I wave at everyone who’s turned to look at us. “Hope you’re enjoying the show. This is calledsomeone throwing a tantrum when they don’t get what they want.”

Trish’s eyes flash again. Surprise this time. Disbelief that I didn’t cave as soon as she turned the tables and pretended to be the victim.

“You don’t affect me anymore,” I say, stepping closer. “I have real friends. I have a great boyfriend. I certainly don’t need your master manipulations in my life.” I stare her down for a few seconds, my fingertips buzzing. I send up a silentthank youthat I’m actually saying everything that I’ve dreamed of throwing in her face. “What made you show up, anyway? I’m sure you didn’t happen to be in the area. Did another one of your unsuspecting victims figure you out, so you decided to prey on an old one?”

She swallows. “Turns out, I still follow all of Warner’s socials. I saw your article and the social media about the team. It reminded me of what a good fuck Zaiah was, so I came back for some of that. When I went to his old room, some rando told mehe was living with his girlfriend in Knightley. Of course, I never in a million years thought it was you.”

Ha.So there’s the truth. She didn’t go to Knightley first. Zaiah was her object all along.

“To my surprise, the doormat at the desk told me his roommate’s name.”

“And you thought you’d make yourself comfortable in our apartment?”

“Oh, don’t play the victim. You fucked me over, Nor.”

“My name isn’t Nor. You’d know that if you were ever my friend, so no, I didn’t fuck my friend over. I fucked a lying, cheating, gaslighting bitch over. You were never my friend. You only used me.”

“Like a pawn.Yeah, I heard you before.” She shakes her head. “You’re unbelievable, making up so many lies about me. You had to make me the bad guy, otherwise you would’ve felt horrible for taking my seconds.”

“Don’t you dare talk about Zaiah like that. He’s no one’s seconds. He’s not someone you come back to because you remembered how good of a lay he was. Your pettiness is showing, and it isn’t attractive.”

“At least I start out attractive.”

I swallow, unable to keep the flinch off my face. Always straight to the jugular with her. “Excuse me if I don’t trust your eyesight. It leads you to terrible decisions like treating people like shit, cheating on people, using people—”

“—and in general, just being a horrible bitch,” a voice snaps.

Trish spins, and I grin when I spot Iz a few paces behind her.

She looks Trish up and down. “Look at the trash. Don’t they clean this place up?”

Mr. and Mrs. James wait near the exit. Thank God because if something awful comes out of my mouth, I don’t want them to think badly of me.

“Aww, Iz,” Trish says, opening her arms.

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