Chapter 13 13
I creased my brows, feigning ignorance. “What do you mean?”
She held her other phone up to the camera so I could see the screen. It was lit up with a call notification. The name flashing there, over and over, was LOGAN.
“He’s calling me,” she said, her voice hushed. “I’m just noticing now… he’s been calling me countless times in the last couple of hours. I couldn’t answer because I had this phone on silent mode.”
My stomach dropped. Of course. He couldn’t reach me, so he was going through my friend. The anger came roaring back, cold and sharp.
I saw her thumb move, hovering over the green ‘answer’ button.
“No, don’t, Mandy!” The words shot out of me, sharper than I meant them to be.
She froze, her eyes snapping back to mine, full of stunned surprise. “Why? Don’t you want to talk to him?”
“No. I don’t want to talk to him.” My voice was flat, final.
“You don’t want to talk to him?” She looked at me like I’d just said I wanted to swim in lava. “Nah, you’re capping. You are crazy about him. You always grab different opportunities to talk to him, even when he just wants to secretly check up on you through me…”
“Look, we…” I took a shaky breath. “We’re on a break.”
“What?” Her shriek was so loud I had to pull the phone away from my ear for a second. “A break? Never!” She laughed, a disbelieving sound. “You always say you want to take ‘breaks’ when you’re mad, but you’re always the first one to go running back to him after, like, twelve hours. You’re pathetic that way, no offense.”
“Not this time,” I said, and my voice didn’t waver. I held her gaze through the screen. “Because I’ve actually broken up with him.”
She just blinked at me through the screen, her mouth slightly open. “What?”
“Yes,” I said, the word sounding hollow. “It’s over.”
I could see the questions piling up behind her eyes. Mandy and I didn’t keep secrets, not real ones. The weight of last night was too heavy to carry alone anymore. I couldn’t hide it from her.
So, I told her. It all came tumbling out in a messy, tangled heap. My stupid, hopeful plan for the anniversary gift. The walk to our VIP room, the velvet box, a lead weight in my pocket. Hearing Angel’s stupid moans. Peering through the door. Logan’s casual cruelty—“She lured me in… She’d never suspect.” The kick that broke the hinge. The punch. All of it.
Her reaction was exactly what I’d expected, just louder and more colorful. Her jaw dropped, then her face scrunched up in pure fury.
“That slimy, two-faced, dickless, sack of rancid rat piss!” she exploded, her voice cracking with indignation. “Are you kidding me? With Angel? That plastic-faced hyena? I’m going to vomit. Actually, I’m going to murder him. Slowly. With a rusty spoon!”
It was so over-the-top, so perfectly Mandy, that a tiny, painful laugh hiccupped out of me.
Then she jerked upright on her screen, her eyes blazing. “How dare that prick! That’s it. I’ll give him a piece of my mind right now.” Her fingers flew as she switched screens on her other phone, clearly about to call him back.
“No, stop!” I said, sharper than I intended.
“Why?” she demanded, pausing. “He can’t just get away with this! Not after all you did for him. All the secrets, the risks…”
“What did I do, Mandy?” The question came out quieter, tired. “Nothing. I was nothing to him. Just some easy girl he could use to pass the time until someone more his ‘type’ came along.”
“You’re not nothing, Arielle,” she snapped, her face softening. “Don’t you dare say that. We’ve been friends for almost two years, and I think it’s the only good thing that’s happened to me in a long time. I went through some real shit too, you know? Family stuff. But these past two years with you… It’s been pure, good friendship. So you’re more than you think. To me, at least.”
Her words were a balm on the raw hurt. A real, wobbly smile touched my lips. “Thank you, Mandy. But really, don’t waste your time calling to chide him. And… I already paid him back in his own coin.”
Her anger morphed into curiosity. “What did you do?”
“Well,” I paused, recalling the look of horrified shock on Logan’s face in the street. “I told him I had a sugar daddy. That I’d actually brought him to the bar to introduce them.”
Mandy’s eyes went round. “Really? No way! That’s… that’s actually kind of brilliant.” She looked around her empty room, her mind racing. “Okay, you have to come over. Now.”
“Huh?”
“Please. I’m bored alone here, and I really, really want to comfort you. I can come to you if you want…”
“No,” I cut in, shaking my head firmly. If she came to my pack, my mother would see her. She’d find Mandy’s sudden, comforting visit suspicious. If she got curious, if she started prying with that Luna intensity of hers… she could uncover the whole mess about Logan. I couldn’t give that even a one percent chance of happening. “I’ll come to you. Soon. After breakfast.”