Page 119 of The Friend Zone

“I guess they wanted to keep the fact that they were sleeping with him behind my back a secret. Don’t forget that a lot of the girls you call puck bunnies are Zetas. Besides, girls who had a long-term boyfriend tended not to talk about their boyfriends’equipment.”

I never talked about my physical relationship with Topher with anyone. The vague stuff I would share when I was pressed hinted at a hot, satisfying sex life. Jagger knows firsthand how I was lying about it.

“Sorry,” he says, pulling me to his side. “I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”

I shake my head. “No, I’m never uncomfortable with you. I just realized how much I swept under the rug to appease Topher’s ego. It got to the point that I was lying even to myself.”

“We hope you feel like you can be totally open with us,” Ryker says, his tone soft. “If something with one, or all of us isn’t working, we want to know. We can’t fix it if we don’t know it’s broken.”

I know what he means. “You guys couldn’t be more different from my ex.”

There have always been two sides to Topher. The cocky douche bag who invoked the bro-code after cheating on me; who blackmailed all the people closer to me to keep me from finding out what he was up to.

But there’s also another side to my ex-boyfriend. Topher can be caring and romantic. He showed some of that side earlier tonight, when he comforted me after my speech went up in flames.

I’ve always clung to that side. That’s why I stayed with him, even when things weren’t great.

That’s why my chest feels tight, as guilt rears its ugly head. After the way our relationship ended and the way he acted toward Jagger and Cole, I should have no hesitation in throwingTopher under the bus. Something, however, is still making me feel guilty about doing what I know is right. “What do you guys think we should do with those videos? If we destroy them, Topher won’t be able to use them against anyone else.”

Jagger’s reaction is understandable. “What? Why should we destroy them? Those videos belong to Gamma’s central chapter. If we delete them, Topher will get away with breaking the biggest code of our fraternity.”

Cole backs him up. “I’m sorry, Bay, but I agree with Jagger. Topher deserves to pay for his actions. If we just deleted those videos, he would get away scot free. Again.”

I sigh, pinching the bridge of my nose as my head begins pounding again. “You’re right. I was thinking about giving him a choice. That if he resigned from president and left the fraternity, we could…”

Jagger takes my hand. “Do you really think that he would just go away? Especially once he knew that the videos were gone and we can no longer prove that he had them?”

He’s right. Topher has shown me time and time again that he’s like the Hydra. If you cut him down, another head will sprout in its place.

My ex might have some good in him, but his dark side wins out more often than not.

“Fine,” I relent. “I guess that one of you will contact your central chapter?”

Jagger nods. “Yeah. It’s getting late though and we’re all getting tired. Let’s go to bed and we’ll deal with this shit show tomorrow morning.”

I surround his trim waist with my arms. “This is the best idea I’ve heard in a long time. Ryker, could you find the painkillers in that mess on the floor?”

Ryker and Cole rush to the broken nightstand drawer with all its contents scattered all over the floor.

“Yeah, let’s tidy up a little too. This stuff’s a trip hazard if anyone gets up in the middle of the night to go get a glass of water or to go to the bathroom.” Cole says.

“You’re right, let me help you. By the way, Cinnamon,” he teases me. “You had a mini pharmacy in your nightstand.”

Jagger is walking me to the bed, but I stop to look at Ryker and Cole, still hunched over the broken drawer. “What are you talking about? I just keep a small bottle of ibuprofen in there. It’s a lifesaver when I get my period.”

Cole lifts a ziplock bag with a few medication bottles inside. “Maybe you had an emergency stash you forgot about?” he says, showing it to me.

“That isn’t mine. It must have been inside the secret compartment. Can I see it?”

Ryker shakes his head, a vaguely disgusted twist to his mouth. “Don’t tell me Topher took performance-enhancing drugs. Actually, it wouldn’t surprise me to be honest.”

My throat closes up when I read the labels on the bottles. I blink a couple of times in rapid succession, as if that could rearrange the names on the labels. “These aren’t painkillers or steroids. These are?—”

I can’t even say it.

“Baby,” Cole takes the bag from me, a worried expression on his face. “You’re scaring me. What is it?”

I swallow the bile that’s coming up to coat my tongue. “These are drugs that are commonly used to roofie drinks.” The words feel almost foreign in my mouth.

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