Page 307 of Filthy Elites

She nods sympathetically. “Sounds about right. He’s not a good person, Aubrey. He and Anae are two peas in a pod, and she’s definitely not a good person. She’s sick.”

As easily as all of this spills out of me, I’m at war with myself as far as believing it. I still don’t want to. I want my illusion back. I want Dare telling me I’m his and he’s mine, and I want it to be true.

“You’re sure you can’t hang out? We could go to your place if you want,” she says. “I’m supposed to go over to my friend Parker’s for dinner, but she’ll understand if I can’t make it.”

I shake my head. “No, I can’t. I wish I could. I really do want to be your friend, I think you’re great, but I have family stuff right now that takes priority and pretty much swallows up all my time. Unfortunately, I just don’t have time to be a good friend right now.”

“So?” She shrugs. “My friendship doesn’t come with a minimum time requirement. Just because you’re busy doesn’t mean we can’t be friends. Shoot me a text whenever you feel like it or need to talk. If you have time to hang out, cool. If not, no biggie.”

I crack a smile. “If you’re not a sapphire, this school has no business sorting students into houses.”

She grins. “I am, actually.”

“I figured.” At our school, the sapphire house stands for kindness and friendship. “I’m an emerald,” I tell her.

“How funny. I must be drawn to the courageous. My best friend Parker is an emerald, too. You know what?” she says, like a light bulb just went off. “Dare’s onyx. Those onyx guys are always bad news.”

“Wisdom and loyalty, myass.”

Hannah laughs. “I’m pretty sure they’re the school’s equivalent of Slytherin, they were just too afraid to say that.”

Even though I felt—a bit dramatically—like I’d never smile again five minutes ago, I find myself smiling, too. “Fucking Slytherins.”

“I’m a total Hufflepuff, I can’t hang with Slytherins,” Hannah says, shaking her head.

I shake my head, too, a little in awe. I’ve never had a friend with energy as pure as hers before, but it’s addictive and oddly uplifting. “My head feels so much clearer when I’m around you. Every time I see you, you clear the Dare fog. Maybe you should move in with me so I can get back to making good decisions on a regular basis.”

Hannah cracks a smile. “Don’t tell him that. I ran into him at my house when he was over visiting Anae, and he followed me to the kitchen to grill me about you.”

My heart stalls. “He did?”

She nods. “He wanted to know if we talked about him.”

My eyes widen. “What did you say?”

“I didn’t tell him anything. I’m not his spy. Anyway, before he wandered off, he told me I’mallowedto be your friend. If he knew I helped clear your mind about him, he’d change his mind. And I know you probably think you’d never let him tell you who to be friends with anyway, but believe me, when Dare wants to get something done, it gets done. He probably wouldn’t go about it in a straightforward way where you’d see what he’s doing, he would just find a way to turn you against me so it seemed like your decision. He did that with one of Anae’s friends he didn’t like. She lets him play, but not with her friends. So he fucked one of them. Anae went for her so hard, she had to leave school.”

My eyes are stuck roughly the size of dinner plates. “What?”

She nods solemnly. “Be careful with him. He’s tricky.”

“When you say she lets himplay…?”

“He’s allowed to fuck other people as long as she knows about it and gives it her blessing.”

My stomach sinks.

My chest cavity seems to shrink, making breathing nearly impossible.

“He… didn’t tell you that,” she realizes belatedly.

“No, he sure didn’t.”

And there have been alotof times he probably should have.

What the hell has been the point of torturing me and letting me feel like a terrible person for liking him when, apparently, he’s in some kind of open relationship?

And why would he leave a relationship like that?

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