Chapter 24 #2
Gia sighed. “Can you just tell me he has a really small dick and no idea how to use it? Oh, and that he doesn’t believe in foreplay. That would help.”
“Sure, if you don’t mind me lying to you so soon after I met you.” Izzy shrugged, unable to hide her smirk when Gia waved her on. “Absolutely shit in bed, that guy.”
She added two thumbs down for good measure.
“And would you look at that? I’m cured.” Gia snorted. “I’ll curb my reaction next time, so I don’t freak you out again, Quinn. I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine. Really, you did me a favor and highlighted a failing in my security system. I should know better than to hang out with my back to the door.”
The sympathy on Izzy’s face reminded me she wasn’t familiar with my stellar methods of deflection. Which had gotten better, but hadn’t disappeared completely.
“You really shouldn’t have to be worried like that. I’m not surprised you are. I just…” She sat down across from me on her bed. “Today was so much fun. It makes me sad that she isn’t normally like that. And that she turned into her mother.”
My brow arched. “Huh?”
“Yeah, say what now?” Gia prodded.
“Vivian. Her mom was our school principal. One of those parents holding onto the good ol’ days by living vicariously through her child?
” When Gia and I nodded, Izzy continued, “She was everywhere in high school. On top of being principal, running detention, and unofficially supervising every club Vivian was a part of, she controlled her life. I’m pretty sure she’s the reason Vivian and Max Dread got together, too. ”
I threw my hands up. “Seriously, why does everyone call him by his full name?”
Izzy laughed. “Partly because there wasn’t a day in school that Max Dread wasn’t summoned to the principal’s office over the loudspeaker.
But mostly because wherever he went, dread followed.
It really was that simple. He was…way different in high school, and our first few years in college, compared to how he’s been recently. ”
“How do you mean?”
She arched a brow. “Oh, nothing. That one can wait until our trust poles are shorter, I guess.”
Gia snorted, piping up. “Is it that he’s hot as fuck? Was he a late bloomer? An ugly duckling?”
“Not at all. He’s always looked like that.”
“Of course, he has,” I muttered.
Gia laughed. “Okay, okay, let’s leave her floating in the river Denial and circle back to pageant mom. I want the tea.”
Izzy shrugged. “Oh, right. Yeah, Vivian’s mom was…intense. She’d call Max out of class for the weirdest things, but she was hardest on Vivian.”
“What makes you say that?”
“I just…overheard her a few times. She’d get on her case constantly, and Vivian always acted like it didn’t bother her, but I know it did.
” Izzy glanced at me. “I know they say hurt people, hurt people and all that, and I’m not excusing her attacking you by saying this.
I hope you know that. I just didn’t think Vivian would do what she did to you.
Or, I guess, I’d hoped she would pick a different path than the one she was shown, you know? ”
I didn’t, really. Or know what to say.
Sympathy prickled under my skin for her, but I rubbed it away like goose bumps. If her mom had been hard on her, that still didn’t give her a reason to attack me the way she had.
It wasn’t an excuse.
But still, the thought of her mom constantly picking her apart when mine had been so encouraging and supportive…It did make me feel bad for her.
“Yeah, that sucks.”
I left it at that.
“Anyway, I can’t imagine she’d do something like that again. I mean, you didn’t invoke the statute. Why care at this point?”
“Why’d she care so much at all?” I shrugged, struggling to keep Elaine’s big secret when it might shift Vivian’s sights and the target on my back over to Delulu Barbie’s.
“Honestly? Probably her mom. If she’d been set on Vivian winning The Quest, and Vivian faced the consequences her mom liked to dole out, I’m guessing that’s why she saw you as such a threat.”
I frowned. “What consequences?”
Izzy bit her lip. “That might require a longer trust pole on my end. It’s…brutal. I’m not sure I should share it to begin with, and if it got back to her that I did?—”
“I get it. It’s fine. It’s—Honestly, it’s probably better that I don’t know.”
Izzy touched my arm. “I’m serious, Quinn. I’m not saying any of this to justify what she did to you. I just…at the very least, knowledge is power, right?”
“Yeah, for sure. I won’t underestimate her in the challenges ahead because of it. I know that much.”
I forced a smile and tried my best to give Gia one, too.
But Gia wasn’t fooled. When Izzy went into the bathroom to get ready for bed, she pounced. “You okay?”
“Yeah, for the most part. I just—” I fiddled with the buttons on the phone. “All of a sudden, I can’t stop thinking about what I said to Elaine at the Honor Ceremony.”
“Which part?”
“About how we were both doing what we felt we needed to do to survive.”
Gia’s brow creased as she thought about it. “She still didn’t have to attack you, though.”
“I know.” I released a breath. “I’m not saying she did, either.
You won’t find me over there singing ‘Kumbaya’ and hugging her or anything.
But…with the things I’m learning.” I shook my head.
“Aside from the year without my dad, I never had to fight to survive. I never worried that my safety or security was in danger until—Well, the accident, and then that night. My parents protected me in that way, you know?”
“Yeah, of course. That’s how it should be.”
“Exactly. But now, knowing what I do about Kingston’s dad, even though there are things he’s done that some might see as unforgivable, I believe he has a good heart. If he’s just been doing what he has to do to survive, I want to forgive him. But if I do…where does that leave me?”
Gia smiled, a proud look in her eyes I didn’t understand.
“It makes sense that you’re wondering that about Vivian.
But you’ve seen pieces of Kingston’s heart, Quinn.
You have moments between you. Something real to hold onto.
And you might never get that with Vivian.
Either because it doesn’t exist or because she never shows it.
It won’t make you a hypocrite for forgiving him but not her. ”
I snorted, fighting back the emotion in my chest. “Or Elaine, I guess.”
“Nah. Fuck that bitch.” Gia laughed. “She’s a backstabbing ho who tried to hurt you and my poor bebe Landon because she was rejected. That’s not survival. It’s ego.”
“Yeah, it seems like it. That’s for sure.” I huffed a laugh, having a hard time believing what I was saying. “Vivian has always been a bitch. But, at least, she was honest about who she was on day one. I’ll give her that.”
“You may be grasping at straws if you’re saying that means she has a heart, but… your heart is in the right place for thinking about this. All things considered. I’m proud of you.”
“Thanks. And luckily, she’ll probably say something bitchy to my face tomorrow and order in the universe will be restored.”
Gia nodded. “Exactly. So, don’t lose sleep over her for now.”
I bit my lower lip, bringing up the person I feared I would lose sleep over. “What about Kingston?”
“Have you told him you want the truth?”
“Not yet.”
“So, start there. I mean, at least you’ll have some answers. And you’ll probably feel better when you do, no matter where you decide to go from there.”
I sighed, silently accepting that she was right.
“Now, I’m hoping where you decide to go is straight to P-Town, but that’s just my personal preference. Whatever you decide, I’m here for you. Your ride-or-die wingwoman, you know that.”
“You’re a meddler. That’s what.” I teased, but the thought had occurred to me, too.
She winked. “You love me.”
“I really, really do.”