Page 107 of Mark

I drop my hand to my lap. “I have fun,” I argue, pouting.

“No, you don’t. You spent years behaving like the person Danny wanted you to be. The only time you would drop the actwas when you were with me. I’m pretty sure that is why he hated me.”

She has a point. “Speaking of Danny. He came to my room last night before karaoke.”

“Please tell me you kicked him out,” she pleads.

“Oh, believe me, I tried. The fucker came to me saying I’m the reason Esther is upset and I’m trying to drive them apart.”

She rolls her eyes, which is what I knew she would do. “He always was deluded. Wanker.”

“Yeah. And it wasn’t fun to hear that they were fucking longer than I thought.”

“What do you mean?”

“Remember the weekend I came with you to that hospital appointment?”

“For my screening?” she asks, remembering the scare she had.

“Yeah,” I whisper. “Well, he was with her that night. Apparently, he was that hurt I didn’t go to the party, that he slept with Esther for comfort.”

“I’ll fucking kill him,” she growls. “God, he made you feel like crap for the entire week, when all along, he was the one in the wrong. I even tried to get you to tell him because I felt awful I was the reason.”

I shrug. “It wasn’t his business. No one else needed to know.”

“How did you react?”

I shrug. “Normal. It’s not like I didn’t already know he was a wanker. I’m just sick of them bringing up old shit. The way they carry on, it’s like I’m the one who did them dirty.”

“I told ya, you should just reveal all the shit you know about them. Imagine how he will react to Esther sleeping with someone else, or that she, you know, lied about losing the baby that was never real in the first place. And she won’t like hearingthat he was still trying to get you back when they were together. Fucking hell, she still wears that bracelet he ordered for you months before you broke up.”

A gasp echoes behind me, and I startle, spinning around. “Esther,” I breathe, eyes wide.

“I fucking knew it.”

“I’ll let you go,” Summer announces.

“Esther,” I call out, getting to my feet. “What you heard—”

“Is you trying to break me and Danny up. I’ve been telling everyone and no one has listened, but then you go and spout off lies.” She forces out a laugh, and it sends a shiver down my spine. “Are you really that jealous of us? How spiteful can you be? There is no way he would ask for you back when he had me. Your friend may believe the shit that comes out of your mouth, but it will take a lot more than that for me to believe it.” Tears slip down her cheeks. “And how dare you bring up my loss. Who do you think you are, saying I lied about it.”

I’m not going to comment on the latter because I don’t want to embarrass her by telling her how I know.

“I’m not trying to break you up,” I remark.

“God, I hate you! I really hate you,” she screams as a sob breaks through. “I’ve been telling everyone you’ve been trying to break us up. No one listened to me becauselittle miss perfectcan never do wrong. This is my wedding, and here you are, making up lies because you can’t stand that I am happy. I’ll make them see the truth. You will have no one and you’ll only have yourself to blame.”

“I’m not lying,” I scream, before giving her my back. I grip the railing, laughing without mirth. I take a few deep breaths before turning back around, meeting her gaze. “What did I ever do to you? Seriously. When did you stop believing me or being my friend?”

“When you took the man I loved,” she yells, and the veins in her temples pulse. “You took everything from me. My friends always ended up seeing you more than me. I got good grades at school, yet our parents paid you more attention. Nanna took you everywhere, yet I was always stuck at home. Then the one guy I liked, you stole from me. Now you can’t handle that I finally have him.”

My eyebrows pinch together. “What are you talking about? You didn’t even speak to Danny at school.”

She throws her hands up. “I told you I liked him. You spent the night helping me with my hair, and then the next day, before I could even approach him, you were kissing him in the bike shed at school.”

“You never said who it was,” I whisper. I remember that night because it was one of the last good memories I have of us. We had spent the night going over what she would say, then the next day, she brushed me off and wouldn’t talk to me. And looking back, I think that’s when the problems between us started. Danny and I had been in our last month of sixth-form. Esther had been finishing her GCSE’s around that time.

“He was never yours first. And everyone here acts like he was,” she chokes out. “Take back those lies, Freya. Take them back before there’s no going back. I will never forgive you.”

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