Chapter Twenty-Three
Jude didn’t call the next day.
Or the day after that.
On the third day, Bryna couldn’t hold it in any more, and she dialed his phone number. It rang forever before clicking over to voice mail. She tried one more time. When it went to voice mail again, she left a quick message asking him to call her. She couldn’t bring herself to call again. She wasn’t going to act fucking desperate.
Clearly, it didn’t matter that he had said they would talk on New Year’s Day. He had lied about leaving Los Angeles. Why wouldn’t he lie about him calling too?
She still couldn’t believe that he had actually been at Chateau Marmont on New Year’s. She had been safe and secure in the knowledge that things with Gates were platonic and that nothing could go wrong. Then, she had been smacked in the face with this.
Her feelings for Jude were the same as when they had spent a week together in St. Barts. She didn’t know how he could feel differently in such a short period of time. Nor did she know how he could go this long without talking to her and getting clarification on what had really transpired. If she had seen him with someone else, she would have wanted a goddamn explanation.
Bryna tried to go about her normal life, but everything felt surreal with school starting again. It was as if the entire Christmas break had been a dream…and then a nightmare.
She was glad she had so much to occupy her time and keep her mind off of what had happened.
Competition season was coming up for cheer, so they were doubling practices. And Felicity wanted to start weekly meetings to discuss the charity benefit. Bryna selected three assistants—Avery, Tara, and Jemma—to ease the load. Though Avery and Tara were being weird and distant. Bryna didn’t know what that was about, but she couldn’t even bother with it.
College applications had to be turned in by this weekend, and she was trying to focus on planning out her campus visit schedule. She had already turned in her LV State application, but she still had to finish up UCLA, Stanford, Berkeley, and NYU. She kept trying to tell herself that there were more important things to do than stress about Jude, her friends, and cheer.
Later that week, after practice, she drove home from school with her mind full of everything she needed to accomplish. She parked her car in the garage and took the stairs two at a time. Just as she entered her bedroom, she saw Pace peek out from his room.
“Leave me alone,” she called before slamming the door.
As she expected, two seconds later, he was opening the door.
She plopped down at her desk, turning her back to him. “I said, leave me alone.”
“Have a good practice?”
“I don’t want to make small talk with you. I want you to get out of my room,” she commanded. Pace was the last person she wanted to deal with when her temper was on a short fuse.
Pace continued to ignore her and lounged on her bed. “You’ve been a mega bitch lately, more so than normal. Trouble in paradise?”
Bryna closed her eyes and counted to five before responding, “No. I’m just busy.”
“Well,” he said, smiling mischievously, “I came by to tell you something.”
“What?” she snapped.
“The president’s assistant at LV State called twice. She was asking for you, about some campus recruitment weekend. I told them you were considering other options and to try back another time.”
“What?” she asked, standing abruptly.
“Have a nice afternoon.”
He started to stride out of the room with confidence when she burst out laughing.
He turned and glared at her. “What’s so funny?”
“Is this your idea of sabotage?” She shook her head. “You’re going to have to do better than that. Don’t you know that my father is a fucking booster at LV State? If they hear that I’m considering other schools, they’ll be clamoring for me to come visit. Don’t want their money to dry up.”
Pace pursed his lips as he seemed to realize his mistake. He looked pissed that whatever he had planned wasn’t going to work. It was cute that he had thought he could destroy her chance at LV State, but really, that wasn’t happening.
“So, thanks for that.” She smirked and waggled her fingers at him. “You can go now.”
He seemed to consider her for a moment. His eyes bore into hers. “Well, I was going to wait for your friends to tell you, but I slept with Avery and Tara over New Year’s.”
Bryna’s mouth dropped open before she could stop herself. She quickly covered her look of disbelief. “They wouldn’t touch you.”
The laughter in his eyes made her reconsider. Her friends were kind of dumb, but surely, they had known what this would mean for them. They both knew what she thought about Pace and how it had looked for her to have him at Harmony. She didn’t exactly confide in them, but they still knew. Fuck, everyone did.
“You wouldn’t,” he said. “But they did. Both of them. At the same time.”
Just the thought of that made her want to lose her lunch.
Bryna gagged.
“Tara did some of that. Avery doesn’t have a gag reflex though. It’s amazing.”
“I don’t believe you. Just get out of my room. Now.”
She jumped out of her desk chair, charged at him, and shoved against him, trying to throw him out of her room, but he was solid. He barely moved more than a few inches.
“I will beat you at your own game, Bri. This is only the beginning.”
He backed out of her room, and she slammed the door again.
Her heart was racing. Could it be true that Avery and Tara had slept with her fucking stepbrother? Ugh! It was too disgusting to think about. Maybe Pace was only planting a seed in her mind to try to freak her out, or maybe they had really gone through with it. Either way, she had to know the truth.
She jotted out a text to her friends to meet her at a coffee spot off Rodeo under the pretenses of finding a dress for the charity benefit, and then she dashed out of her house.
Fifteen minutes later, she was seated at her favorite outdoor table with a skinny mocha macchiato in front of her.
Avery and Tara showed up a few minutes later.
Avery smiled brightly and tossed her hair. “Hey, B. No Jemma?”
“I thought we could look for dresses without her.”
“Thank God,” Tara said, collapsing into a chair.
“Mmm,” Bryna murmured. She took a sip of her drink.
If what Pace had told her were true, Jemma would be the least of their concerns.
“So,” Avery said once they had gotten their drinks, “where do you want to go first?”
Bryna folded her hands in her lap and stared at her two friends. “Probably Barneys.” She took another sip of her drink and smiled. “It’s so nice to be here with you guys. We haven’t spent any time together outside of practice since we went to X. How was your break?”
Tara shifted and glanced at Avery. “Mine was good.”
“Mine, too,” Avery agreed.
“Good. The highlight for me was going to Chateau Marmont with Gates for New Year’s.” Of course, it had really been St. Barts with Jude, but the realities of her break had nothing to do with the true purpose of this conversation. “Where were you guys for New Year’s? I haven’t heard you talk about it.”
“Uh…” they both mumbled.
They exchanged another glance.
“I was at the Harmony party,” Tara said.
“Yeah…me, too.”
Bryna nodded thoughtfully. “Gates tried to kiss me at midnight, and we got into a huge fight. Please tell me your night ended up better than that!”
“Mine was totally lame,” Tara admitted.
“Mine, too,” Avery parroted.
“Didn’t kiss anyone at midnight?” Bryna asked.
Tara flushed and looked away. Avery tried to meet Bryna’s eyes but didn’t do a very good job of it. They both appeared anxious. Guilty.
Bryna held her silence. She watched them sit there and squirm. Soon enough, they would admit it. She couldn’t believe this. The dirty whores had slept with her stepbrother. The way they were acting was proof enough that something had gone down.
After a full five minutes of dead silence, Tara broke. “I’m sorry, B.”
“For?”
“Tara!” Avery snapped.
“She should know!”
“Know what?” Bryna prompted.
“I slept with Pace,” Tara said. “So did Avery. Um…together on New Year’s.”
Bryna slowly stood from her seat and towered over her friends. “I already knew that,” she said calmly.
They both looked like they might cry.
“Pace told me.”
“What?” they both shrieked.
“That bastard,” Avery cried.
“I can’t believe him!” Tara said in horror.
“What I can’t believe is that neither of you told me,” Bryna admonished. “I had to hear it from him. And you know what? I actually defended you. Said that my friends would never touch him, and he proceeded to regale me with your lack of a gag reflex.”
The girls paled further.
“Now, I’m wondering why I did that. You two know how disgusting Pace is, and how despicable it is to have to live with someone like that. The reason you didn’t tell me was because you knew I would be pissed. Imagine how I feel now that I know you were hiding it.”
She gave them a minute to consider what she had said.
“Bri, we didn’t mean for it to happen,” Avery insisted. “We were drunk, and he was there.”
“We’d never do it again!” Tara cried.
Bryna shook her head. Ridiculous and just plain insulting. “You know how important this charity benefit is to me, and I need to make sure that it goes off without a hitch. So, you’re both off the committee.”
“What?” Avery shrieked.
Tara’s jaw dropped to the floor. “You’re serious?”
“I guess I’ll go look for a dress by myself.” She picked up her purse and smiled.
“You’re really kicking us off the committee?” Avery demanded.
“Actions have consequences, girls. You just figured out what yours are,” Bryna said.
She walked away from the coffee shop as she slid shades over her eyes and sighed. She couldn’t let people think that they could get away with this kind of shit. She was still queen after all. She had to rule her queendom with an iron fist. What had happened was out of necessity.
She wished fixing the situation with Jude could be as easy as it had been with the girls.