Page 91 of Lucy and Her Wicked Three

I have an itch to walk further, back through the park, but that would just be stalling.

It takes me less than ten minutes to reach the bar, and I'm assaulted by onomatopoeia the moment I walk through thedoors, variousding! zip! zap!clanging of the games ringing through the air. The place is packed, but even through all the noise, I can hear her.

She's like that, right? The life of the party.

She doesn't notice me right away. I sit back and wait for her to finish whatever conversation she's in the middle of, though from here, it looks more like a screaming match, given how loud the whole place is.

Covered in clinging silver jewelry, hair wild, with some feathers tucked into one of the braids, she throws her head back in carefree laughter, and that's when she finally sees me.

I give her a somber wave, then tilt my head toward the back of the room near the bathrooms, where it's marginally quieter. Her jaw tenses and she loses that carefree expression, only for a moment, before the forced, loose smile returns. She's even better at faking a smile than I am these days, and I don't envy that one bit.

"Delaney," I say, once she finally makes it through the crowd.

"Hi Lucy-bear. I missed you!"

"Why'd you do it?"

"Do what?"

Arms crossed, I catalog everything I can. She seems somewhat sober. And after our last meeting, she proved to us she wasn't delusional, she is aware of the chaos she brings. She just doesn't care.

The guys insisted on coming with me today but it's really something I needed to do alone. And after what happened with Cara, the police arresting her for assault and Mateo's lawyer pressing charges, I knew I was safe. I feel it in my bones.

This? This is just personal. And long overdue.

"Let's save us both a headache and more wasted time. I already know it was you. You're the one that wrote that article about me. Backfired again, huh?"

Her mask slips. She's angry, teeth gritting, before she shakes it off and says flippantly. "Whatever. Per usual, everything comes up Lucy."

"This is the last time I'm going to ask. I'm not going to hold Mateo back from suing you again. And if you don't stop posting lies about me, I'm going to make up one of my own about you. Only, I'll get ten other influencers with, combined, millions of followers, to join me in my crusade. I'm sorry you don't like me. I really thought we were friends. But I'm way past that now. I've let go of the hurt you caused. But if you keep up with this vindictive bullshit, the gloves are coming off."

She scoffs, but it doesn't have much bite. She watches me for a second, waiting to see if I crack. I don't.

"How'd you figure out it was me?"

"It wasn't really that hard, Delaney. Cara admitted to sending the threatening pictures to Mateo. She accounted for a lot, but not everything. There were some things only she knew." I'd let it slip during one too many mimosas at brunch once that I found Mateo at a sex club. They asked a million details and, though I didn't have much personal experience to share as I'd really been sequestered away so quickly by the guys, it was still fun to finally spill that we had a sex club right here in Port City. So Cara must have told Delaney.

But I never admitted to the girls—except for Portia, who figured it out on her own—that I'd been dating Noah and Silas in addition to Mateo. Cara just thought she was looking at pictures of me cheating.

"She told you about the sex club. But she didn't know about the polyamory. Silas recognized one of the pictures in that article you posted. He was so certain you took it. And you saw us together the last time you and I met. I assume you sent those pictures to Cara, let her draw her own conclusions, to think I was cheating on Mateo?"

"What she was supposed to do was post more pictures she doctored, of you cheating. But then she got all bent out of shape about Mateo, you didn't deserve him, blah blah blah. Honestly, I always thought he was hot and way too good for you, but she's like, next level down bad."

"I'm done, Delaney. That's why I came here. And I don't want to see you again. I don't want to have any more animosity towards you, I just… want to go our separate ways."

"Gahhhd, even after all the shit I did, you're still trying to act all high and mighty like you're better than me. Are you really too good to get down and dirty? Call me a bitch. Tell me all the things you really want to say."

I shake my head, "You really don't get it, do you? You want me to have an alter ego where I'm secretly unhinged, like you are, but I'm not. I'm sorry, Delaney. I'm sorry you're not happy with your life."

"Fuck you."

Shrugging, I turn to leave. I said what I needed to.

"Lucy," she calls out when I'm almost too far to hear, now shoulder to shoulder with rowdy drunk people playing Donkey Kong.

"For the record, I didn't know it was Cara. At first, when all this started. OMGspeaktome, the cheating pictures, she was just some random online handle who contacted me with some fake pictures of Mateo, I was telling the truth about that. I really didn't know it was Cara. When I came to your house, I did want to patch things up between us. But then you wouldn't even talk to me so I figured, fuck it. The drama sold well."

The look on my face betrays my emotions, so I don't respond.

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