Page 104
As the afternoon goes on, I get more and more uncomfortable. People aren’t even being subtle about looking and whispering about me. Some of them don’t even move away from the booth before they start going “That’s her,” under their breaths to their friends.
I’m used to being stared at, but not like this.
And then, of course, things have to get worse. I duck away from the booth to go to the bathroom in the community center, and come out to find myself face to face with Genevieve.
She hasn’t changed much. She still has a sleek, immaculate hairstyle, and even for a festival day she looks put together for an occasion. Her boots are new, her coat is tailored perfectly, and her eyebrows are arched just so when she looks at me.
“Well, well,” she says, and even her voice is the same as it was in high school. “I see our local celebrity has come home.”
“I am so not in the mood for whatever this is, Genevieve,” I tell her, side stepping around her to try to keep walking.
“Why not?” she asks. “Having a bad day? I can’t imagine why.”
There’s a smirk on her face that sets my teeth on edge. It’s clear she’s heard the rumors and probably couldn’t wait to come running to find me to make my day worse.
I would be pissed off at her for being her usual smug, insufferable self, but now I can’t get the thought of what she did to tear me and Ares apart out of my head. Ordinarily I would just let her mean girl bullshit go, but now I’m seeing red.
“Haven’t you done enough damage?” I snap. “Can’t you just leave me alone?”
“I don’t know what you mean.” She lifts one hand, examining her perfect manicure.
“Sure. You don’t know how you’re a liar? How you got Ares to turn against me? Did you forget about that?”
Genevieve scoffs. She doesn’t seem surprised or bothered to be called out for what she did at all. “This is your problem, Brynn,” she says. “You’re so naive that you think everything is the way it seems on the surface.”
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”
She just shakes her head. “Don’t worry about it. After all, you have plenty on your plate to deal with already, don’t you?” She waggles her fingers at me in a wave and then disappears into the bathroom.
I thought telling her off would make me feel better, but I just feel even more thrown off and upset than I did before. My stomach is in knots from everything, and I make my way out of the community center and back to the booth.
Hazel is there now, and she looks at me a little confused.
“You okay?” she asks.
“I don’t feel great,” I tell her. It’s not even a lie. “Can you cover for me?”
“Sure? Do you need-?” Before she can finish her sentence, I push away from the booth and start making my way through the crowd. All I want is to get out of here.
I practically run into Tate and Callan as I’m trying to leave. Tate catches my arms, and it’s all I can do to not rip away from his grasp.
“There you are,” he says. “We were looking for you.”
“Why?” I ask, glancing around to make sure no one’s looking too closely.
“We wanted to make sure you were okay,” Callan tells me.
I realize then that Ares isn’t with them. It’s not fair for me to be upset about that, considering I was the one who came up with the idea that we needed to keep our distance from each other here, but it still leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
Catherine didn’t see Ares with me this morning. Once again, no one knows that we were together, and so now maybe he’s using that to his advantage and staying away to avoid getting dragged into the rumors with me.
I hate the thought of that. I hate that he can just… discard this so easily. It goes a long way toward reaffirming my fear that this thing between the four of us was always just a house of cards, waiting to collapse. It was stupid of me to even entertain the thought of whether or not this could be something lasting and real because that was never going to happen.
“I’m fine,” I say, stepping away from them. “I just need some time.”
“Do you want to come back to the cabin?” Tate asks. “I can cook, and we can—”
I shake my head. “No. No, I need to be by myself for a while.”
