Page 37 of Perfectly Imperfect Us
I hit the power button on the coffee pot and took down two mugs.
“What kind of jerk flaunts his new girlfriend without breaking up with his current girlfriend first?” Skylar spat at my back, venom in her tone.
My shoulders hunched and I squeezed my eyes shut, guilt slamming me hard.
“Look, I know it looks bad, but there’s—”
“Looks bad? I’ll tell you what else looks bad. How about letting your new girlfriend out my best friend to the whole world? Ava trusted you, Ryder!”
I spun around, finally alert. “What do you mean? Kyly doesn’t know about Ava, so how could she ‘out’ her?”
Skylar looked stunned. “Oh, you don’t know?”
“Know what?” I was getting angry now too. What was going on?
Skylar took a step closer. “Kyly posted a picture of Ava without makeup on.”
The meaning of her words sank in slowly. My brain was scrambling to connect the dots.
“Oh crap…” I muttered.
Skylar gave me a look like I was the slowest kid in the class.
Keeping her vitiligo hidden was Ava’s biggest hang-up. And the woman I’d let come into our lives had posted about it for all the world to see. A shooting pain hit me in the chest and I knew without a doubt, Ava was hurting. All because of me.
I shoved away from the counter and stalked out of the room, nearly clipping Skylar in my haste to get to Kyly in the guest room upstairs. Skylar followed behind me as I ran through the house and threw open the bedroom door.
“Wake up and explain yourself, Kyly!” I shouted, not caring I was waking her out of a dead sleep. If she’d done what Skylar was accusing her of, there was not one ounce of sympathy in me.
Kyly groaned and tried to roll over. I grabbed the covers and threw them off her, earning myself a shriek a tantruming two-year-old would envy.
“What is your problem, Steele?” Kyly sat up, her hair matted to the side of her face like a rat’s nest.
I put my hands on my hips and took a deep breath to remain calm. “Did you post a picture of Ava last night?”
Kyly’s face stayed blank for a beat or two and then she smiled. “Oh, is that her name?”
I took a menacing step forward. “Did you or did you not post a picture you stole from me?”
Kyly put a hand on her chest, her acting skills subpar. “I didn’t steal anything and how was I to know you cared so much for this Ava person? It’s just a picture. Jeez.”
My mother most certainly didn’t decorate this bedroom in warm tones, but I saw red everywhere I looked.
“Get out,” I said flatly.
“Excuse me?”
Skylar jumped in with an evil smile. “He said get out.”
Kyly’s face turned into a sneer and I wondered how anyone thought she was pretty. “And who are you?” She rolled her eyes. “And that color red is hideous,” she said, referring to Skylar’s natural hair color that didn’t come from a box, a concept Kyly would not understand.
“Right back atcha, sister. Now get out.”
Kyly looked back at me, her face morphing into a practiced pout. “Are you going to let her talk to me like that?”
How did my life turn into this? I’d tried to do a good deed and this was the thanks I got. A psycho girl turning my life upside down.
“Kyly. You have exactly ten minutes to take down that picture and get out of here with all your stuff. I’m done helping you. Done pandering to a psychopath with zero consideration for other people’s feelings.”
