Page 20 of The Consequence of Loving Me

I remember the first time I laid eyes on that imperfection. My hands had twitched at my sides, practically begging to grab a paintbrush to get to work.

“What is this?” she asks, staring at the piece a moment longer before carefully setting it back on the white nightstand.

I barely hear her, my mind too wrapped up in memories with the person that imperfection belonged to.

“Nothing,” I respond, too tired and numb to tell her the story behind the painting.

Surprisingly, Lily lets me skirt away from her question. She continues her trek around my room, picking up random things as she goes. “Oh my god, you went to a True Minds concert?” She stares greedily at a pair of concert tickets I have tucked into a corner of my full-length mirror.

“Yep,” I respond, touching the substance on my face to see if it’s completely dry yet.

My face feels like I’m on my twentieth round of Botox, it’s so numb. No matter how hard I try, I can’t move any of my features. I realize I have to keep the gunk on my face, though. Because when I pull my finger away, I notice a hint of green on it, meaning it’s still wet.

“I would literally give my left tit to go to one of their concerts!” she cries, her eyes going wide as she stares at me.

“It kind of sucked,” I reply, going back to perusing my Instagram feed.

My fingers stop on a photo of someone from my past. If I was a nice human being, I would like it, maybe even leave a comment, but I don’t. Instead, I stare at her for a moment longer before continuing to scroll.

When I look up from my phone, Lily is peering at me with a look of betrayal on her face, like she might be reconsidering her statement of us being friends.

“I’m going to pretend you didn’t just say that,” she whispers, carefully putting the tickets back in the corner of my mirror like they were the most fragile items on this Earth. “I literally begged my dad to fly me to one of their stadium shows so I could see them. Unfortunately, none were close enough for him to let me go alone.”

“You didn’t miss much.” I throw the white comforter off me and retreat out of my room and into the basement bathroom. There, I turn on the water and leave my fingers under the sink to test its temperature. When it finally warms up—which takes way too long considering Lily is still snooping in my room—I wash the green gunk off my face. I’m just finishing up wiping all the water off my face when footsteps come barreling down the stairs.

I consider quickly slamming the door and hiding out in here to avoid the one person who makes that much noise in this house, but I decide I’m too interested in seeing the famous banter between Lily and Aspen.

“Veronica!” Aspen singsongs, blocking me from leaving the small bathroom.

“Ass hat,” I sweetly sing back to him, ducking under his arm before he can capture me in there alone with him.

Lily walks out of my closet, with one of my black corset tops wrapped around her body and over her actual outfit. “How do you get into this thing?”

She’s still fiddling with the ties that run all the way up when Aspen comes into my room and whistles.

“Damn, little sister,” he begins. “What are you thinking putting that on? You wouldn’t even be able to keep that thing on because your boobs are so small.”

Just like Lily had done twenty minutes prior, Aspen comes in and sits his ass on my comforter like he owns the place.

What is up with these people thinking they can barge right in and sit on my bed?

I narrow my eyes at him, sending him a look that hopefully conveys—loud and clear—that if his feet touch my bed, I will get my heels out and beat him with them again.

Lily purses her full lips, her perfect eyebrows drawing together on her forehead. “Please, Aspen.” Her hands go to grab her perky boobs underneath the corset. “Let’s not pretend you don’t fantasize about these puppies every time you jerk off.” She jiggles them in her hands, and I watch with piqued interest as his eyes zone in on them.

This is going to be so much fun to witness.

A few moments later, Lily’s back in my closet and Aspen is rubbing his eyes, muttering something under his breath.

“You okay there, bud?” I ask, leaning my hip against my dresser.

“Sure thing,” he responds, continuing to rub his eyes like he just saw his grandmother naked. “Just trying to scrub that mental picture out of my brain. Absolutely disgusting.”

I shake my head, damn well knowing he thought that little show was far from disgusting.

Lily comes out of the closet, a stack of clothes in her hands. “I’m going to borrow a few things from you, Veronica. Sound good?”

I want to argue with her, but I know I have way more clothes than I actually need.

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