Page 41 of A Girl and HER Prince
Now wait a second! It had been a mistake, but… did Deedee really think Livvy was always judging her? “I never thought you were low.”
“You didn’t?” Deedee asked. “Then why won’t you listen to me when I tell you that Venice is one of the biggest jerks out there!”
Livvy’s mouth felt dry. She had no defense for herself. How had she fallen so hard and so fast? It was like her brain malfunctioned every time she was face to face with the guy. Was he really so good at pretending to be something he wasn’t? Or was italljust part of a complicated breakup, and when it came to “he said, she said,” Livvy hadn’t known what side to take? The truth of the matter was that Deedee was right about Livvy not believing her—Deedee’s dramatic nature made it hard to take everything she said at face value.
Her guilt burned through her, especially since she’d had every incentive to accept that everything about Venice was a lie. She liked him.
Yeah, I like him a lot. This is so bad.
“So we’re going to do a little cave diving,” Deedee said. “There’s a shipwreck there, too. Achilles has been trying to sell the trip to me all night, well, in between kissing me.”
Livvy sucked in her breath at how messy this was getting.
“What?” Deedee defended herself. “He’s a player—it’s not like it meant anything. Anyway, I told him we’d go if he let me use the camera on my phone.”
“Just count me out!” Livvy exploded. She couldn’t trust herself around Venice anymore, and apparently she couldn’t trust Deedee to act sensibly either.
“No, you can’t do that!” Deedee grabbed at her pleadingly. “C’mon! If anything, you owe me now!”
“I do not!” Nothing her friend said could convince her. “First off, this was going to be a girls’ trip! And secondly…” The other part bothering her about all this finally formed words, “if—if you think that Venice is using me, then don’t you even care about me getting hurt too?”
“You’re not…!” Deedee took a deep breath. “You haven’t had enough time to really get attached, and anyway, it would do you good to unwind a little.”
Livvy stopped in her tracks. That was wrong, so wrong! “Let me get this straight—you want me to get involved with him?”
“No… but since you alreadyarethen you might as well see this through and learn for yourself how to get around a player like him.”
“Absolutely not!” Livvy shook her head violently. “Have fun on your dive tomorrow because I’m not going.” To her horror, tears sprang to her eyes. Every terrible puzzle piece was finally coming together and she felt used, used, used by everybody! She’d believed Venice was sincere when he’d kissed her—after all,shehadbeen, though wracked with guilt.
But to hear Deedee’s cold perspective on getting one over on Venice by playing around with Achilles was a harsh reminder that love was a vicious, cruel game in her circle of friends.
No, Venice never really cared about her.
Her heart dropped as the truth finally rooted itself in her.Yeah, that hurts. Welcome to Deedee’s world.
None of this would’ve ended well—her realistic side had warned her all along, though it had been temporarily silenced by Venice’s kisses. He wasn’t allowed to take a commoner seriously, not to mention he was the ex of one of her dearest friends, for goodness’ sake! Normally that betrayal alone should be enough to make her stop! But she was no different than the rest of them, and it made her shake with how selfish she’d been.
And now Deedee pleading for her to continue with this flirtation for some sick revenge went against every moral fiber of Livvy’s being. Losing such a huge chunk of her identity was too much and threw her even more into a weepy panic.
She wiped at her eyes, still having enough sense to know she wasn’t the victim here. After all, she’d been the one who first turned against her friend. And still, why did she feel so betrayed by Deedee for trying to push her into something that felt so despicable, so unimaginable?
Livvy had to stop this madness now. “I think I’d better go home.”
Deedee’s face fell. “This is your dream vacation.”
It was, but it would fast turn into a nightmare. “I’ll have another chance,” she said. Maybe in a few years when she’d saved up her money to do this on her own terms—by then, she’d be older and wiser.
“So now when things get hard you give up?” Deedee hissed. “You always do that. You let fear run your life.”
“I think that’s a pretty good survival instinct,” she snapped back. “You should try it sometime.” Now that she was sure on her course, she led the way to their hotel.
“I need you.”
Livvy’s hands clenched at that. “For what? Let this go, Deedee. I’m already over it! Venice played me too—I get how much it hurts now—and yeah, I’m a fool. I’ll accept that until the day I die, but I happen to know when to call it quits. You can’t try to get someone to like you again or get them to feel any proper feeling if they can’t or—or even change anybody in the first place—they’ve got to do that themselves. The best bet is going for a guy who’s good and kind in the first place.”
“That’s Turner,” Deedee said, catching up.
Livvy scoffed at that. “Great! Then you should go for him. The last time I checked, he was having a great time withyou.”
