Page 42 of Frenemies

“I’m sure you’ll survive.”

I huffed and slumped back against the headboard of my bed. The suffering I’d endured these past few days was horrific. We had to shower in the dorms, which meant I couldn’t do my nightly skincare routine. Now I had a pimple on my cheek. A freaking pimple!

“Listen, Sweetheart. Why don’t you take my card and go to the spa or get your nails done? If you want to compete for Miss Miami, you gotta keep a smile on your pretty face.”

“Are you going to come to the pageant?”

“You know I can’t,” I could hear the annoyance in his tone. “I’ve got a town to run.”

I didn’t even want to do the damn thing, or the other seven pageants he insisted I compete in growing up.

“Don’t I always make sure you have the best outfits and a nice new car to drive in?”

Typical.

I rolled my eyes.

Why would he pay attention to me when he could just buy me off? Don’t get me wrong, I more than enjoyed the perks, but he could’ve come to just one of my dance recitals.

Didn’t he know how hard I worked to get to the top of my class? There was still blood staining my first pair of ballet slippers. Why couldn’t he see me?

‘She’s just a girl’.

“I bet you wouldn’t let a son live in substandard housing.”

He groaned, “I don’t have time for this.” Then he hung up.

I threw my phone and screamed while kicking on the bed. First Chase, always Tanner, and now Daddy. Was it asshole week? I tried to keep my head up after my last encounter with Chase, but I could barely find the strength to pull myself out of bed.

I told myself it was because everything had gone to shit. The house had no hot water, and fires were breaking out all over Miami—which everyone was talking about.

Even Ava was being weird, obsessing about some old troll doll she saw in a shop downtown. She spent the last three days trying to hunt down the person that bought it. Then Riley called me to see how Chase was doing.

Perfect little Riley Adams. Everyone wanted to protect her. Her father didn’t blow her off. He came down here to help take care of the person threatening her life. Not only that, but he was working with someone he hated—who would never show him gratitude or any kind of thanks.

Did he complain about it or tell her he didn’t have time? No, he happily put his life on the line for his little girl because she was his first choice.

I was no one’s.

Micha should’ve been with me—that’s what our social standing dictated. Even he chose her. I was just something to play with in the meantime. Everything that boy wanted me to do, I did. And still, it wasn’t good enough.

He couldn’t care about me because he already loved her. He was just too dumb to see it. It wasn’t that I wanted Micha to love me, but a little appreciation would be nice.

I thought I’d get that from Chase. Instead, he was pushing me away because I wasn’t his first choice either. That was Sam. Don’t get me wrong, I felt horrible for what happened to his wife and son, but they were gone.

I wasn’t. I was right here, willing to put his broken pieces back together, but because of what happened to them, I was being punished.

He wouldn’t open his heart because his first choice paid the price for their love. I knew what I was getting into, and so did Sam. All he needed to do was look at me just once like I was the only person in the world.

Like how he was looking at Sam in the picture I found in his house. I didn’t want to replace her, no one ever could, but I could be his new forever.

I wanted to be his forever.

“Great,” I muttered and slapped my hand down on the bed to grab a tissue. “Now I’m crying.”

Sniffing back a sob, I whipped away the tears trickling down my cheeks. What the hell was wrong with me? This was the third time in as many days that I’d cried.

That in itself proved how screwed up things were. I did not break down, yet here I was, wallowing in my bed for the second day in a row. I blamed Chase for this.

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