Page 11 of The Trophy

Believe me, if he knew my sister as well as I do, he’d know that she’s extremely close to resorting to violence.

Bay is usually the sweetest person in the world, unless someone hurts me. Then she’ll go big sister on your ass and make each second of those seven minutes she was in the world before I came along count. The only time so far she actually hit someone, was in first grade when this boy said I had cooties and I wasn’t allowed to play with him and his friends at recess.

Back then the tell-tell sign was the furious tapping of her foot right before she kicked the kid in the nuts; exactly how she’s doing right now as she glares at Jon.

“I know enough about your relationship to know that you never cared about Lake. All you wanted was to change her to fit into your idea of her.”

Jon shakes his head, like he always does when he’s preparing to argue a point. “That isn’t true, I?—”

“Bay is right,” I intervene. “I’m not interested in whatever you want to say to try and turn this around, Jon. This isn’t debate club. You always criticized everything about me. What I ate, how I dressed, what I read, what I wanted. You would bitch and moan until you got your way and I would change my personality to fit what you wanted. I thought I was happy but I wasn’t. Our relationship was all about you and what you wanted. From me being the one who always had to come to visit you at Princeton to make things easier for you, to our relationship being completely sexless because you wanted to save yourself for marriage.”

I should have known that he wouldn’t truly admit to being wrong.

“So this is why you weren’t happy? Because I had some real values?”

“No Jon,” I shrug. “I respected your values but I didn’t share them. When I realized that, I should have ended things, but you manipulated me so you could have your way. Even now, your values have obviously changed. I don’t even care if you slept with the girl in the photos,” I know he did by the way he lowers his gaze. “The second you decided that sex was acceptable, you sent me an unsolicited dick pic. You didn’t even try to initiate a conversation after you blocked me. You didn’t care about what I wanted or how your actions would affect me. I’m done with you, Jon. I’ve moved on.”

A sense of elation invades me when I realize that I’m telling the truth. Regardless of how things will go with Cash, Blaze and Luca, I care about them and I want to see how my relationship with each of them will evolve.

“You moved on?” Jon snorts. “Please, Lake, don’t kid yourself into thinking you’re anything more than a puck bunny. You could say you moved on if you had a boyfriend, but you’re fucking at least three guys on Star Cove’s hockey team. I might not be a jock, but I’ve been around jocks enough to know that they’re probably passing you around and talking about you in the locker room. Or did you think that dressing like Bay would instantly make you cool?”

His words hit me with the violence of the proverbial wrecking ball. I know what he wants. He’s judging me with the intention to make me feel dirty.

“Hold on a second,” I say, when the initial shock of his vitriol wears off. “How do you know I’m dating three guys on the hockey team?”

I’m pretty sure that during our last phone call, when I decided to go along with the madness of Bay’s plan, I told Jon I was seeing one hockey player. I never told him about the auction and that Bay bought me three dates.

“Oh come on, Lake,” he snorts. “As if you didn’t post your slutty ways all over Instagram.”

“Are you on drugs?” I frown. “I haven’t opened Instagram since the last time we talked. After I accidentally liked that photo and you blocked me.”

“Bullshit,” he scowls, taking his phone out of his pocket and showing me an account that looks like mine but obviously isn’t.

“What the?—”

There’s a photo of me and Cash on our first date. We’re outside my apartment and he’s opening the passenger door of his truck for me. We’re looking into each other’s eyes in a way that suggests more intimacy than two people who had just met.

There are photos of the Gamma party I attended with Blaze.

In one we’re dancing, in another we’re doing body shots.

Then there’s one of me and Luca, again from our first date. He’s offering me a bouquet of roses and tulips.

There are shots of me at last night’s game, in a Star Cove Knights jersey, cheering for the guys.

If I wasn’t already sure that there can be only one explanation for this, the # on those photos would give my sister away.

“Really, Bay?” I seethe. “#datingtheKnights, #onfireforBlaze, #reallifeprincess, #nomorekissingfrogs?”

As expected, Bay isn’t repentant in the slightest. “What? Dipshit was snooping on my social media to keep tabs on you, I thought I’d help.”

Jon’s reaction is faster than mine. “I should have known that was you! Lake would never have followed me from a different account after I blocked her. Psycho.”

Rather than showing any contrition, Bay is gloating. “Takes one to know one. I wasn’t the one who was all over my account to spy on his ex. I just gave you what you wanted. Besides, my photos are tasteful. Someone should teach you how to take a dick pic, dick. Not that there’s a filter that could make it grow five inches to at least an average size, but hey, technology improves every day, maybe there’s hope for you after all.”

I don’t even have the chance to tell Bay that this is too much.

“I should have listened to my parents when they told me not to get involved with Lakyn,” Jon seethes. “They warned me that you were identical twins and that it was unlikely that she wouldn’t be a slut like you.”

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