Page 66 of Muse (Fighting Fate)

I caught sight of her standing by a group of girls that were sitting in the sun, then looking closer, realized it was Amber and the other girls who’d come to Aspen with us. I knew they usually sat with the guys, so I was a little confused to why they were sitting somewhere else.

“I’m going to go say hi to Amber and the girls, okay?”

Jace looked over at the group and frowned. I could tell he didn’t want to give up his time with me, but he nodded anyway. “Okay. I’ll catch you a bit later then.”

The girls all looked up at me and smiled when I walked up.

Amber laughed. “And here’s the girl of the hour. Can I shake your hand? I’ve been waiting for someone to take Melissa down since our freshman year.”

I smiled shyly and folded myself down on the grass beside Kaeli. “I didn’t really say much. I just called her on her bullshit.”

Amy shook her head. “Yeah, Kaeli was just saying how she and Kacey just made it all up about being with Jace.”

“And Violet…”

Jessica laughed. “Poor Jace.”

Amber rolled her eyes. “Yeah because Jace is bound to be upset some girls made up stories about how great he is in bed.”

“I wouldn’t say upset, but he was annoyed,” I said quietly.

Kaeli nodded as she swallowed her bite of food. “Yeah, but that was only because he was worried you’d be upset.”

The three girls stared at me. “So you and Jace are really together?” Jess asked.

Shit. I hadn’t thought about what I’d say if someone asked me point blank. “Uh…can you ask me again on Monday?”

They continued to stare at me for a few more seconds, grins spreading across their faces. I plucked a blade of grass out of the ground and stared at it. “So why aren’t you sitting over there with the guys?” I asked, trying to change the subject.

Amber groaned. “I couldn’t stand one more second with the skanky squad. It’s hard to eat your lunch when you constantly have a little bit of vomit in your mouth.”

I glanced over at the table and saw some brunette chick reach up and touch Jace’s hair. Even from where I was sitting I could see the scowl on his face. He swatted her hand away, but she just laughed and leant closer to him, showing off her cleavage. “Yeah, I see what you mean.”

A few squeals broke out and a couple of girls climbed up on the table. I didn’t know what they were doing, but Aiden was in fits of laughter. It actually made me smile.

“Speaking of skanky…” Amber said, looking over Jess’ shoulder.

We all turned to see what she was talking about and saw Melissa strutting out onto the green with her clones.

I looked away because I didn’t want to stir up trouble by making her think we were all talking about her.

“By the looks of things, she’s moved on to her next victim. Poor Brendon,” Amy said, although she sounded far from sympathetic.

I glanced back to see Melissa all over one of the football jocks. Poor Brendon indeed. Unfortunately, Melissa chose that moment to look up and when she saw me watching her, her eyes narrowed into slits and her mouth formed a rude word.

“Jesus,” Jess said. “Did you see that? What a bitch.”

I raised one eyebrow in a ‘what are you going to do?’ type gesture and sipped on my drink. I refused to get into it.

“You’re so much better than her. In every way,” Amber said, obviously pissed on my behalf. “She’s so full of self-importance.”

A hollering from the guys table, followed by raucous laughing drew our attention again. The guys were high fiving each other happily while a couple of the girls walked away, throwing glares back at them.

“Is anyone going tonight?” Amy said, still watching the guys.

I drifted off

in my own thoughts while the girls started talking about all their plans for that weekend. Jace and I hadn’t actually talked about trying to catch up after their gig. I wondered if he would want to. I certainly wouldn’t be opposed to the idea.

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