Page 68 of Little Do You Know

Penelope and I tried to stay active all weekend as I showed her around Greensboro. It wasn’t as much fun as it would have been if we’d gone home last weekend, but it was good to push Sebastian to the back of my mind.

I tried to convince myself that I imagined Sebastian and Vera, but the flowers he left on my bed with an apology on the card told me I hadn’t. I threw them away in the kitchen trash can so Sebastian could see exactly what I thought of his apology.

“What’s on the agenda for today?” Penelope asks, and I look up from my computer.

“I have class in a little bit; we could get lunch after?”

“Sounds like I get to nap until you get back.” Did she not sleep last night? I didn’t feel her wake up at any point, and I would have known, considering I was awake most of the night. Penelope smiles at me. “Lia, I love you, but you are the most difficult person to share a bed with. You tossed and turned all night.”

“I’m sorry, I have trou—” I start apologizing, and she interrupts me by laughing.

“We shared an apartment for a year and a half. I know exactly what your sleep habits are like. You don’t need to apologize; I’m only saying I’ll nap while you’re gone.”

My cheeks flush with embarrassment, and I nod. “Thanks, Pen. I appreciate it.” My restlessness has only worsened since breaking up with Sebastian, and while I’d typically roam at night, I don’t want to run into him.

“Do you want to talk about it?” she asks cautiously while I look through the fridge for some fruit.

I grab the small box of strawberries, opting to play dumb. “Talk about what?”

“What happened between you and Sebastian?”

I rinse them off in the sink while avoiding her gaze. I’ve avoided discussing it this long, but Pen leaves for France in two days. “He had sex with Vera.”

Penelope’s silence communicates the same shock I felt last Friday when I found out. I finally understand what Vera’s ulterior motive was. She wanted Sebastian fucking Walker to herself, and I posed a threat to that.

She’s jealous that I’ve had his attention. Vera said kissing Bash last time was a lot more fun. It explains everything. It’s why she pinned the party on me and has gone out of her way to make him more upset with me than he already was. Vera might not have known why he was upset with me, but she had no problem stoking the fire.

“When? I’ll kill him,” Penelope says firmly.

I smile as I look up to gauge how serious she is. Penelope’s short hair is pulled from her face, and she looks angry enough to murder Sebastian. “I guess it was last summer. He said it meant nothing to him, which doesn’t make me feel any better. It explains the way Vera’s been acting the way she has.”

“We can’t kill her for being a bitch, but we can kill him for being a guy. I say we start with a throat chop to render him useless, and then we cut his balls off. Then we’ll see how he feels about his manhood,” Penelope thinks out loud. I feel like this is the part where I should tell her that if she’s going to kill him, telling me her plan changes it from second-degree murder charges to first degree.

I can’t help but laugh. “Penelope, we’re not doing that.”

“Lia, he doesn’t need his balls for survival. Are you sure we can’t go down that road?”

“Unfortunately, yes, I’m sure. It’s not like he cheated. Sebastian just…he screwed up. I don’t know why he fucked her, but I don’t enjoy thinking about what led up to it. He’s the one who told me sex can never be just sex.”

“Are you okay?” Penelope asks.

“I will be. I feel stupid,” I admit, pulling my hair up into a high ponytail. “I told him about Louis.”

Her eyes widen in surprise. We never ever speak of that night. I don’t like talking about how I broke Louis’ nose by throwing a punch exactly like Owen taught me to do, how I felt small and afraid in the apartment with him and his friend because they refused to leave until I threatened to call the police.

Penelope came home to find me crying and cleaning everything obsessively. I told her what happened, and she hugged me and tucked me into bed. Then, I told her I never wanted to talk about it again. She listened, and it was exactly what I needed.

“How much did you tell him?”

I bite my inner cheek hard enough to draw blood. “Enough, but not everything.”

“If things ever get physical, just make sure you don’t break his nose. It fits his devastatingly handsome face,” she teases, trying to lighten the mood. Penelope doesn’t question why I told him, although I suspect it’s because she already knows.

Before I found out about Sebastian and Vera, a part of me was falling for him. Fast and into the deep end without checking my surroundings first. I’ve known him forever, and being with Bash made sense. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean that we’re right for each other.

I don’t know how to feel anything other than hurt because I thought he understood me.

“It is a pretty face, isn’t it,” I muse, opening my computer again to a picture I took on my birthday at the beach.

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