Page 124 of Vengeful Princess

“Yeah. I need a night away from here.”

Something in her voice caught my attention. She’d been seeing Michael since the bonfire party, and as far as I was aware, she liked him. Had something happened?

“Has Michael upset you?” He seemed like a decent guy, but in my experience, that meant nothing. Dar being a case in point.

Speaking of…

When I glanced sideways, I noticed him sitting with three girls at a nearby table, flirting up a storm. He caught me looking and smirked before pulling a blond in for a heated kiss. The girl’s friend giggled and shuffled closer, sliding her hand up Dar’s thigh.

The sight of him with two, no,threegirls, made me feel queasy. What had happened to him? He was never that guy.

But it was none of my business, so I dragged my gaze back to Eden.

Eden was my friend. She deserved my undivided attention. If Michael was fucking her around, I’d sort him out for her.

Permanently.

“You’ve got that look in your eye,” Eden observed. “I’m not sure I want to discuss Michael with you while you’re feeling murderous.” She picked up a pink frosted donut and shoved half of it in her mouth.

The frosting matched her hair. It was kind of cute. Pink was a happy color. I needed to be more pink.

“I thought you two were all loved up?”

Eden sighed dramatically while the blond sitting with Dar climbed into his lap and began sucking his face off. Frankly, it was disgusting. Definitely a food safety violation. I could tell from the look of disgust on Eden’s face she agreed with me.

“Gross,” she muttered with a shudder. “I hope he knows Paris caught genital warts over the summer.”

Eww. Yet another reason why I needed to quit looking at or thinking about Dar. He was dead to me.

“Come on, stop prevaricating. Tell me why Michael isn’t ‘the one’ anymore.”

“Ugh, fine.” She sighed dramatically again. “He’s done nothing wrong.” I waited while she ate another bite of her donut. “It’s just that he’s too… nice.”

“Too nice? What’s wrong with nice?” I was no expert on guys, but surely nice was better than Grade A asshole?

“Nice is good, but it’s also boring, ya know?”

“Um, OK?”

“Michael keeps texting me. Like 50 million times a day. He says I’m beautiful and perfect, and he’s already talking about how many kids we’ll have.”

“And that’s not what you want?” I assumed not from the way she almost choked on the words.

“God, no. I want to fuck around and have fun!”

“Then tell him?”

She shoved the rest of the donut in her mouth, chewed, and then swallowed. “I’ve tried! He acted all butt hurt and thensuggested we go on a date night. Somewhere romantic!” She groaned and rested her head on the table. “So I told him I was busy… with you.”

“Ohhhso this is why you want a night out?”

She looked up, fluttered her lashes, and half-smiled. “Yeah.”

I shrugged. “Sure, if you want to go clubbing, I’m down for that.”

I wasn’t much of a clubber, but the thought of letting loose for a night appealed. Maybe some time away from campus would help me get my head together. Torrance wanted me down in London soon, and I couldn’t afford to be distracted when I next saw him.

He’d know if I was hiding something, so I needed to be on my A game.

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