Page 60 of Stay for Forever

“And spicy,” Ashlyn adds.

“Lilac and I are perfectly happy being Kool-Aidless.” I motion to Lilac who blushes and glances away. “Have you drank the Kool-Aid, Lilac?”

She squirms. “Of course, not. I don’t even understand your metaphor.” She’s lying. Lilac never squirms and she always looks directly at whoever she’s speaking to.

“What Kool-Aid have you been drinking?”

Aspen’s hand squeezes mine until I cringe from the pain. “We’re not here to discuss Lilac’s liaisons. We’re here to discuss why you won’t give Maverick a chance.”

“Yeah.” Ashlyn bobs her head in agreement. “I thought you agreed to get over the stupid kiss already.”

I pry Aspen’s fingers from my hand before shaking it out. My bookish sister has more strength than I realized.

“I did get over the kiss. We even talked about the kiss and how he would handle publicity stunts in the future,” I admit.

“Then, what’s the problem?” Aspen pushes.

The problem is I’m not a priority in his life, but I have no desire to tell her how stupid I felt this morning when he ignored me for his fans.

“Why don’t you let this go?”

“Ha! Have I seriously ever let anything go in my life? I still give this one,” she points to Ashlyn, “shit about her spying on Lyric and me when we were teenagers.”

Ashlyn groans. “Are you never going to let it go?”

“See?” Aspen winks. “I never let anything go.”

“If I tell you what’s going on, will you leave me alone?”

“Of course.”

I point to the mirror above my dresser. “Your fingers are crossed behind your back.”

She shrugs. “It was worth a try.”

“You might as well tell her or we’ll be here all night,” Lilac says.

“I know.” I sigh. “Fine. Mav and I agreed to begin a relationship this morning.”

“Yeah!” Ashlyn cheers.

“Not so quick.” Her hands fall and she motions for me to continue. “When those fans came, he left our table and went with them without a backward glance. I waited fifteen minutes and he ignored me the whole time. It was embarrassing.” I grab a pillow and bury my face in it.

“Okay.” Ashlyn rolls off the bed. “I understand.”

I lift my head. She does?

“Wait!” Aspen shouts and Ellery grunts next to me. “You’re done? No more questions? No more interrogation?”

“Yep.”

Aspen stares at Ashlyn for a moment before nodding. Great. They’re concocting some scheme. Leave me out of it. I’ll hide out at the Wildlife Refuge until I figure out what to do about Mav. It’s not like I can think about anything else anyway.

“Are we done here?” Lilac asks but doesn’t wait for an answer before stalking out of my bedroom.

Ashlyn and Aspen link arms before following her.

“Wait!” I shout after them. “Aren’t you going to take Ellery with you?”

“Leave her be,” Aspen shouts back. “Cole said she hasn’t been sleeping well. He’ll be happy to hear she’s getting some rest.”

“Why does her rest have to be in my bed?” I ask but my front door slams and they’re gone.

Whatever. I roll to my side away from Ellery. I hope she doesn’t snore.

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