Page 13 of The Book of Legends
“Is it your aunt?”
I turn to her. And the look on my face says everything. Her lips part. “Oh, Selene…”
A lump lodges in my throat. She reaches for me, but?—
Laughter erupts from the guys on the couch.
They’re pointing. One of Micah’s teammates—Seth—grins at me. He glances from Micah to me. And the realization hits him. His lips curl. “Oh, shit.” And then he laughs.
Diana follows his gaze. Her expression hardens. More laughter follows.
The voices grow louder. And then?—
Seth’s voice cuts through the music. “Yo, Micah!”
Micah groans, irritated. His head turns this way. “What?”
Seth grins. “Your little girlfriend is here.”
The world stops. Every voice—silence. The music fades.
My heart is a hammer in my chest.
“I’m not sure how she can see if she is going blind with those huge fucking glasses, but she’s here.”
The laughter explodes.
I freeze. I feel their stares drilling into me, the mocking smirks.
The knife twists deep from the betrayal. Micah told them.
Now they all know. Of all the things he could say, he told them the one thing I begged him not to.
Micah’s gaze shifts to me. Our eyes lock, and the next worst thing happens: two fat tears slide down my face. Micah’s gaze drops to my phone. His eyes widen as the realization hits that I witnessed him ignoring my texts.
He looks at the girl, then at me?—
And shoves away from her.
I turn around; Diana grabs my hand, tugging me through the crowd.
“Selene, wait!” Micah’s voice is panicked.
“Let me guess, you called him and he didn’t answer?” Diana’s voice cuts through the cool night air as we step outside.
I take a second to catch my breath, my heart threatening to rip out of my chest. “Did you know he said those things about me?” My voice comes out raw, barely above a whisper.
She hesitates a fraction before she unlocks her car. “I heard rumors,” she admits. “But I thought it was just people being assholes because they’re dicks. I didn’t know how to tell you, and you probably wouldn’t have believed me with Nicole and Stacy always around.”
I slide into the passenger seat, shutting the door, staring straight ahead, despair eating me from the inside. My vision blurs as I take in the magnitude of the way he betrayed my trust. My love. My friendship. Funny how years of friendship and loyalty on my part can be torn apart in a single moment.
One moment is all it takes for everything you once believed in to go up in smoke and for the truth to surface. For that person you call a friend to become just like the people you see as enemies. That’s the moment when you realize how truly alone you are. How the person you love and trust is not who they seem to be, and you’re trying to hold on to them, not realizing that they’re the point that causes the glass to shatter.
The engine hums after Diana fires up the car.
“My car,” I whisper.
Diana starts to answer, but then––
