Page 75 of Vicious Desire (Fallen Royals 4)

We both needed a distraction from our lives.

I rub my eyes. “Our public arguments, the banter. We both lived for it. He was sweet in private. Charming. He made me think he cared.”

“What happened?”

I can’t talk about it—not without breaking down. Puffy eyes from crying isn’t a good look on me, and it’s one I sported for too many years while Mom was sick.

I shrug and glance away. “He lied.”

We get ready for the party. It’s the recharge my body needed, because no one understands me quite like Margo. I watched what she went through and what she overcame. We synced immediately at the beginning of school last year, even though I’m a year younger.

The doorbell rings, and I automatically set down my eyeliner and move to answer it. It’s only when my fingertips graze the doorknob that my fear suddenly spikes.

There are two narrow panes of glass, one on either side of the door, and I peek through one. Part of me expects a boogeyman-like person. But instead, it’s just Parker.

I open the door and raise my eyebrows. “Hi.”

“Hey.” She shifts. “Um, Skylar said I should meet you here if I wanted to crash the dinner.”

I almost ask why she’d even want to go—it’s just a dinner for the cross-country team. The goal is to carb up before race day, and we have to be at the school at the crack of dawn to get to the meet for start time. Yet, I know in the back of my mind that Margo is going, which means Caleb, Liam, and Theo will be accompanying Eli.

I can use all the backup I can get.

I step back to let her in.

She holds up an envelope as she comes toward me. “This was on your car.”

“Oh.” I take it from her and flip it over. It has an “R” written on it, but that’s it.

Shoving it into my pocket, I lead her upstairs.

“Margo, this is Parker. Parker, Margo.”

Margo sets down the dress she had pulled from my closet. I recognize it as the black one from the masquerade ball last year. The mask is tied to the top of the hanger.

“Nice to finally meet you,” Margo says. She shakes Parker’s hand. “I’m glad Riley’s had someone to keep her company when I couldn’t be here.”

Parker smiles carefully. The underlying message is clear: She’s my friend.

I filled Parker in on everything that happened in the years since I last saw her, including my friendship with Margo. And likewise, Margo is familiar with Parker’s and Skylar’s names. She never really met Skylar last year, though.

We avoided each other.

And now we’re… friends?

Better than enemies, I guess.

But I didn’t expect Margo to seem like she wants to tuck me behind her.

She knows she’s always going to be my number one, right?

Maybe not.

I eye the black fabric now lying on the back of my chair. “Why were you looking at my old dress?”

The one that my mother nearly had a heart attack over when she saw the price. We aren’t exactly rich—although we sure do fake it well.

“I was thinking about prom,” she says. “And how last year—”

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