Ruthless knight

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 di

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 a

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.” 

She’s also clearly trying to assert her dominance because she feels threatened now that she’s not the only female in her brother’s life, but that’s another issue entirely. 

Dylan chews on her thumbnail, pondering my statement. “I can’t believe she thinks doing something like that would work.” 

It’s on the tip of my tongue to point out that it is working since she’s so riled up about it, but I go with something more constructive instead. 

“She’s trying to plant creepy seeds that will end up putting Jace in the awkward position of having to choose between you and his baby sister. But you’re right, it won’t work. You guys are rock solid.” 

 “It still doesn’t change the fact that it’s a really fucked up thing for her to do.”  

I stifle the urge to remind her that the Covington siblings are the epitome of fucked up. 

“I’m not saying it’s right, but she’s probably jealous Jace left. Co—the asshole who shall not be named—isn’t exactly brother of the year, and from what you’ve told me, their father is a piece of shit and barely acknowledges them. Jace is the only stable person in her life. Heck, he’s basically her father figure. Him leaving undoubtedly feels like losing a parent and a sibling all over again.”  

 “Shit. When you put it like that, I feel kind of bad for Bianca.” Her face falls. “I’m not trying to take Jace away from her. I’d never—” 

“I know that and Jace knows that. Eventually Bianca will too, and she’ll stop trying to sabotage your relationship. For now, just hang in there and hide your underwear.” 

She smiles. “Thank you. I feel like I just had the world’s best therapy session.”

“I’ll send you my bill in the mail.” 

We both look up at the same time an administrator declares Bianca the homecoming princess and tries to place a small crown on her head.

Shooting her an irritated glare, Bianca dismisses her and puts the crown on herself.

Dylan looks around. “Jace said he went to talk to Cole, but Cole’s been up there for a while. He should have been back by now.” 

“Maybe he’s down there taking pictures?” 

 “Doubtful.” Looking at her phone, she mutters a curse. “Col—sorry, thou who shall not be named—and Jace got into an argument and he’s been sitting in the car.” She pops a quick kiss on my cheek. “You okay if I leave?”  

I wave a hand. “Of course. In fact, I should get going too. Elijah needs to leave work early, so I told him I’d come in and close for him—”

And I’m talking to myself, because Dylan’s already trudging down the stairs.

I’m happy for her and all, but there’s a small part of me that resents Jace. 

Not only is he her boyfriend, he was her best friend long before I was. 

Which means he’ll always come first. 

And there’s a small nagging voice in my head taunting me that I’m never going to know what it feels like to be someone’s first priority. 

People around me stand up and clap and I glance at the stage just in time to see the homecoming king and his queen get crowned. 

They look so perfect together. Like something out of a fairy tale. 

I hate that deep down—below all my layers of fat, false confidence, and self-pity—I’d give almost anything to know what it feels like to be pretty and thin like Casey and to have Cole Covington look at me like I’m the most beautiful thing he’s ever laid eyes on.