Page 33 of Sunshine

She said “friend” in such an exaggerated way, I wanted to die.

“You know, Sunshine is still single.” Talia elbowed me as if she hadn’t be obvious enough the first time.

My worst nightmare unfolding before me. I shot Talia a look, but she ignored me. All through high school she had tried to help me be more outgoing with my crushes. I wasn’t exactly shy—nothing like Luna—but the thought of telling someone I liked them, and then having them tell me ‘no thanks’, made me want to crawl into a hole and die.

Sometimes Talia’s attempts worked, and I got a date, and sometimes they ended up in mortifying failure. It was bad enough in high school trying to avoid the hot jock that turned me down, but Julian was my friend.

If things were going to be awkward between us, I wanted to be the idiot who caused it.

“I’m aware.” Julian grinned, and it didn’t look strained to me. If anything, he looked amused.

“What have you got there?” I pointed at Talia’s tray, trying to change the subject.

“Cupcakes!” Talia perked up. “I brought some from our booth.”

The tray had a sticker for Talia’s bakery on the plastic top. She’d brought three trays, more than was needed for just me and my family.

“Sunshine’s also open to dating packs.” Talia nodded at me as she turned back to Julian. “I noticed you don’t have any betas in your pack yet.”

Oh, sweet monkey muffins. “Thanks for the cupcakes, Talia.”

I knew my face was bright red but if I pretended I wasn’t going to die on the spot, maybe the rest of the world would comply.

“We can’t advertise for other booths.” Raina came over, putting a professional expression on her face, and I knew we were in for it. Raina’s alpha designation had come in almost the day after her fourteenth birthday, not that any of us were surprised.

“I didn’t ask you to.” Talia frowned. “I wanted to bring some treats over. You could pass them out to people in your booth, help draw them in. Sunshine helped me with the menu.”

“I bet she did.” Raina gave Talia a level look.

I flinched. Raina didnotlike Talia. She hadn’t when we were teenagers, and she liked her even less now.

I piped up again. “Raina, it’s fine.”

“There’s a sticker on the trays.” Raina arched an eyebrow. She wore jeans and a t-shirt but still somehow managed to radiate the sort of professional competence that I needed a suit and heels to pull off.

“So?” Talia shifting her weight to her hip.

My stomach twisted. This wasn’t going to end well. No matter how this played out, someone was going to be mad at me. I snuck a glance at Julian. He was watching me, looking concerned. Great, an audience for a family meltdown.

“So that’s advertising for your booth,” Raina explained. “We do not have a business relationship, so it would be disingenuous.”

Talia looked at me. “This is a stressful day for you. I wanted to do something nice. If you don’t want my cupcakes, that’s fine.”

It wasnotfine, not by a longshot, judging by Talia’s tone of voice.

“Thank you for thinking of me,” I started, trying to figure out how to salvage this in 0.8 seconds.

Talia rolled her eyes. “Of course. Side with your cousin. I’monlyyour best friend, what do I know?”

“Can you really claim to be best friends when you’re still friends with Becca?” Ember said, glaring at Talia.

“It was a scent match,” Talia hissed. “What wouldyouhave done in my place?”

“Can we not?” I said loudly, trying to head the trainwreck off at the pass. The only saving grace was the festival wasn’t open to the public yet.

“I definitely wouldn’t have kept being besties.” Ember ignored me. “If it was a scent match, Becca should have said as much the second she saw Rob, and then the two of them should have sat Sunshine down and had an adult conversation with her. Not fucked around behind her back for three weeks.”

If looks could kill, Talia would have killed Ember. “I’m not Becca, in case you forgot.”

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