Page 96 of Save Us
Wren must be the reason.
“I can’t believe this,” I gasp. “He’swhy you’ve been so weird lately?”
Ember sticks her chin up defiantly. “It’s none of your business.”
I grind my teeth so hard that they grate. Ember’s right, I know that. She isn’t accountable to me, but this is Wren, for fuck’s sake!
“I don’t give a shit who you do what with, so long as they’re a good person.”
“Stop being so judgmental, Ruby!” she retorts furiously.
“Ember…” Wren says imploringly, but she cuts him off with a rude hand gesture.
“I’m so sick of you trying to mother me. I’ve had about enough of it.”
Her harsh words make me jump. “I’m not trying to mother you. I just want—”
“The best for me?My friends’ sisters go out partying with them, but you just lecture me on who I’m allowed to meet, and who I’m not. You even set rules about who I was allowed to spend time with at Maxton Hall parties and landed me with a babysitter. Instead of enjoying the time we still have together, you’re completely patronizing me.”
I feel all the blood drain from my face. Ember’s never spoken to me like that before. Something bubbles up inside me, violent and unstoppable. “Yeah, well I’m sorry that I don’t consider the guy who secretly plied me with alcohol at my first school party, and then took advantage of my drunken state so that he could make out with me, to be good enough for my sister!”
Ember’s eyes widen. She looks from Wren to me and back again. Then she shakes her head.
“You didn’t,” she says to him, suddenly sounding vulnerable.
Wren shakes his head and nods at the same time. He raiseshis hands in self-defense. “That was years ago. Back then, I…I’ve apologized to Ruby.”
Ember gasps. “I don’t believe it!”
“I was a bloody idiot, OK? I would never do a thing like that now.”
She snorts disdainfully. “Sure you wouldn’t. And why did you get my sister drunk, may I ask? For fun? So you could pull the same move that you tried on me?”
“What did he try on you?” I ask, taking a vengeful step forward. I’m ready to push Wren out of the way if need be—more than that.
“I will never stop apologizing to you, Ruby. I am truly sorry for what happened back then, but I also truly thought that was in the past. And, Ember”—he looks intensely at my sister—“every word I’ve ever said to you was from the heart. I hope you know that.”
Ember looks at him for what feels like a minute. “I don’t know anything anymore, Wren.”
As I’m asking myself exactly what Wren might have said to my sister, Ember turns and runs down the hall, back outside without another glance at him. My stomach suddenly lurches, and I wonder if I might have just made a terrible mistake.
“You hurt her,” Wren says suddenly.
I snap my head back around and glare at him. “No, you did that all by yourself, trust me. What the hell did you do to her?”
“I didn’t do a thing. Ember and I had moved on—and she’s entirely correct. It’s none of your fucking business. Stop trying to control things that have nothing to do with you.”
“I wanted to protect her!” I shout back. “If you had anyonewho means as much to you as she does to me, you’d know what that feels like.”
Wren opens his mouth to reply, but someone cuts in first.
“Guys!” I whirl around and see Alistair standing in the hallway. His face is pale, and his curly hair is standing on end. “I appreciate that you’re rather busy trying to murder each other, but we’ve got a bigger problem on our hands right now.”
“What’s wrong?” Wren asks, taking the words right out of my mouth.
Alistair gulps hard. “Mortimer Beaufort just crashed Lydia’s party.”
James
