As if everyone doesn’t already know who the King and Queen of RHA are.
Rolling my eyes, I turn my attention back to my friend. “I can’t be the only one who thinks this is ridiculous.”
“I know. Usually sophomores don’t get nominated for homecoming princess.”
I have no idea what she’s talking about. “Huh?”
“According to Bianca, the homecoming princess is supposed to be a junior, and the one” —she makes air quotes— “’the queen’ anoints to take her place after she leaves. Sophomores are usually duchesses or some crap, but apparently Casey threw a fit and fought for Bianca to be on the ballot for it.”
It’s only then I notice Bianca standing on the other side of Casey. “Damn. You’re more in the know than I am, and you don’t even go here anymore.”
This time, Dylan rolls her eyes. “Trust me, I don’t want to be, but Bianca came over last Friday.” Her lip curls. “And then invited herself to spend the night.”
Wow. To be a fly on the wall during that sleepover.
At first, Dylan tried to be understanding of Bianca’s hatred toward her and gave her time to come around, but six months later she’s reaching the end of her fuse.
“Judging by the murderous look in your eyes, I’m guessing it went really well.”
The murderous eyes in question narrow. “Every time Jace tried to kiss me, Bianca would make a noise, knock over her glass of water, drop something, or sneeze obnoxiously.”
“As far as Bianca goes, that’s not so bad.”
She holds up a finger. “That was only the start.” She turns to me. “You know how gory movies really freak me out?”
I nod in understanding. Truth be told, I find it hysterical how she covers her eyes and ducks her head like a five-year-old at the first sign of blood splatter.
“Bianca insisted on having a Saw movie marathon,” she continues. “I figured I’d be fine because I could just hide behind Jace during the gross parts, but nope. She stole him.”
“What do you mean she stole him?”
“I mean she literally hijacked Jace and used him as her shield.”
A laugh flies out of my mouth. “Wow.”
Annoyed, she huffs. “Right? And it’s not like I could complain because she’s his little sister. Although…” Her expression fills with disgust. “Never mind, it’s super weird and I’m probably overreacting.”
Dammit, she can’t do that to me.
“Come on, Dylan. You can’t leave a girl hanging like that. It’s in the best friend handbook. If you have good gossip or a conspiracy theory, you have to share it.”
“Fine.” She shudders. “But don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
“Duly noted. Now spill.”
Picking up her cup of hot chocolate, she takes a lengthy sip. “She walked in on us while we were in bed.”
“Oh, God. Don’t tell me she wanted to sleep between you two like a little kid because she was scared.”
Her expression sours. “I wish.”
When my eyebrows shoot up, she whispers, “She walked in while Jace was going down on me and we were about to have sex.”
My mouth drops open. “Oh.”
“We thought she was asleep in the spare bedroom.”
“That’s…why would she do that?”
She shrugs. “I have no idea. After we scrambled to cover up, Jace asked her why she didn’t knock. She claimed she did, but he was so busy he didn’t hear her. Then she said she was feeling sick because of the dinner I made and Jace needed to take her to the hospital for food poisoning.” She punctuates the air with her finger. “For the record, there was nothing wrong with my spaghetti.”
I believe her. “You make awesome spaghetti.”
She chews on her bottom lip. “I do, dammit.” Her voice lowers a fraction. “The thing is, I distinctly remember locking the door when we turned in for the night because I was…well, you know.”
“Feeling frisky.”
Her lips twitch. “Yeah, Grandma. Or as us crazy kids call it these days, horny.” I start to laugh, but her face turns serious. “I swear the brat picked the lock and specifically chose the moment I was about to come to barge in.” Blowing out a breath, she closes her eyes. “But that’s not the worst of it.”
My stomach sinks. What else could the girl have done?
Dylan swallows hard, looking all kinds of uncomfortable. “The next morning, after she made Jace stay up with her half the night for her fake food poisoning, we woke up to find her making breakfast for us.”
“Oh. Well, that’s not bad.”
“Actually, it was pretty terrible. However, it’s what she was wearing while prancing around my kitchen and cooking for my man that really ticked me the fuck off.”
“What was she wearing?”
“Remember our Victoria’s Secret trip with Oakley?”
How could I forget? Oakley leading us through racks of bras and panties and telling us what guys liked while flirting with all the workers and trying to guess the bra size of every girl we passed…was memorable.
“Yeah.”
“She was wearing the silky blue teddy I bought.”
Holy shit. “Whoa…that’s…”
“Fucking weird.” Her nails dig into the Styrofoam. “When I asked her why the hell she was wearing that, she said she found it hanging up in the laundry room and didn’t think I’d mind because she puked all over her pajamas and Jace told her to borrow something of mine.”
“Why would Jace lend—”
“He didn’t,” she snaps. “He said he gave her one of my old concert t-shirts and a pair of sweatpants.” Her brows furrow. “Ever since that night, I’ve been wracking my brain trying to come up with a logical, non-creepy explanation for her behavior.” She looks at me. “If anyone can make sense out of this and talk me off the ledge before I cut a crazy bitch, it’s you.”
Yeah, I’ve got nothing.
“Come on, Sawyer. I need you to tell me I’m overreacting, and my boyfriend’s sister isn’t trying to steal my boyfriend.”
I can’t, because best friends don’t lie to each other.
“Well,” I say slowly, searching for a ray of light in this mess. “How did Jace react to all this?”
What Bianca is doing is disturbing enough, but it would be a whole lot more disturbing if Jace was…reciprocating.
She thinks about this for a moment before she answers. “He didn’t seem to catch on to what she was doing during the horror movie. But he was definitely annoyed when she walked in on us, and he looked completely grossed out the next morning when he saw her. In fact, after he dropped her off and came back, he told me I had to either burn my teddy or torch his eyeballs if I ever wanted his dick again.”
Lovely. On the bright side, she has nothing to worry about on Jace’s end.
“That’s good.” A thought occurs to me. “Unless...”
“Unless?” she squeaks. “No unless…what’s unless?”
Dylan’s a smart girl, I’m surprised it didn’t occur to her. “I’m pretty positive Bianca doesn’t want Jace. I think she’s doing this to screw with your head so you’ll break up with him.”