Page 26 of The Villain

This isn’t someone who will play games with me. His mask has gone cold enough to give me hypothermia. It’s cutting me off at the knees and I’ve barely spoken to him.

“She doesn’t want to talk to you, Shade. She thinks you did it.”

I can tell that Tera is cringing as she admits it. I may not have remorse for this, but she does.

“Tell her the truth,” I focus back on the phone with a frown. I’m the one who did it. Shade doesn’t deserve to be punished for that and neither does Tera.

“I knew you wouldn’t want us going down with the ship so I tried. She thinks I’m making someone up to pacify her,” the frustration comes across clearly. Shade doesn’t say a word.

I’ll have to figure something out. She’s Tera’s best friend and Shade’s too from what I’ve heard. I’m not going to let his support walk away from him over this. I know Tera won’t but this Andi has been a ghost so far. If she needs to be a ghost permanently, I’ll make it happen.

“I know you won’t let it rest South.”

“Yeah,” I agree, thinking over my options.

Tera lets out a sigh of relief. “When are you coming over to my house?”

I lean back in confusion. “I’m not.”

“Yes, you are,” her tone turns into the motherly lecture I’m used to. “You owe and you’re not putting it off anymore. You have to meet them sometime.”

Fuck. I don’t want to meet her boyfriends. This is a recipe for disaster.

“Fine,” I mutter.

“And you have to be on good behavior.”

My lip curls. “Fine.”

“Okay,” she says in a happy tone.

I nod and get up to go prepare for this bullshit.

Shade doesn’t say a word as I walk away.

Shade

I text Andi to see if it’s bullshit.

She calls me to rant while I laugh my ass off all the way home. She thinks I did it in revenge for them leaving because the video footage is blanked for that day before it returns to normal. As if I’d be that sloppy. She should have asked Tera to at least do that for her.

But South did it without asking anyone. No risk of being banned if you don’t tell. She did it just for me.

That thought alone has stunned me since I heard it.

If seeing her in person, speaking to her, feeling her intensity shining on me like a blinding ray of sunlight wasn’t enough to convince me it’s real, this would. I didn’t want to get my hopes up in case this wasn’t what it seemed. I was banking on it being something blown out of proportion by Tera.

If anything, she downplayed it. Tera didn’t say anything about what she did to their bedrooms. The cut-up mattresses and smashed nightstands. Broken glass everywhere. The main areas weren’t touched. My things, the shirts I left behind, a pair of running shoes, pants, and the only anime I own were neatly folded and stacked by the front door. Waiting for me to drop by and pick them up.

The look on her face when Tera told her she was meeting her trio of men as payment was priceless. If she could have gone back in time to keep herself from doing it, she would have. She takes antisocial to an extreme.

But she did it. She can’t take it back. She did it for me.

I’m keeping her.

Evie is mine.

She has no idea what she’s done to me but I’m going to make damn sure she finds out.

---