Page 11 of Evil Villain (The Royal Court)

“Please stop doing what you’re doing,” I said.

“You know, that’s funny you say that, because whenever I wanted Cherri’s honest opinion about something, I’d get her drunk first,” Avery said. “That makes so much sense now.”

“I noticed that potty mouth too over the course of the past six months,” Alistair said.

“Not just the past six months,” Colette said. “From when Deon first came back. She was throwing f-bombs like they were sprinkles.”

Then everyone erupted into laughter. It was Nathan who noticed first how I was staring at the interaction in confused shock, and he smiled at me. “Cherri, relax. We know that you’re not the same person you were when you were in The Royal Court before.”

“Yeah.” Avery wrapped an arm around my shoulder. “We want to get to know the real you, so don’t hold back, okay?”

“Okay,” I said. “I’ll admit, I’m struggling with how to… I don’t know, just fucking exist right now.” Sicily did a knowing nod at me, and it was only then that I realized that I swore. I was about to apologize, but then realized that was the exact opposite of the point, so I didn’t. “It’s not likenoparts of me from before were parts of who I am, but I was the more princessy version of myself.”

“You were who you were when it was just you and Sicily, right?” Colette asked. “This isn’t any different. Be with us how you are with him.”

I snickered. “That seems like the quickest way to get you all to fucking hate me.”

Kyle chuckled. “I am so here for Cherri dropping ‘fuck’ at seven in the morning.”

After that, breakfast wasn’t as uncomfortable as I expected it to be. We exchanged stories about how things were for all of us during the second semester of school, and heard the other side of the stories of my nasty fights with Colette and Nikita. Even though I easily could have come off looking like the shit-head I was, they told the stories in sympathetic ways that made me feel better, and it really changed the way I saw both women.

I didn’t get much of an apology out before they stopped me. Everyone was desperate to put the last semester of our senior year behind us, which I was more than happy to do.

“So… how long before we can go talk to Brayden?” I asked. “I don’t want to rush us or anything, but Deon’s still out there and he could be in trouble.”

“Whenever we’re ready,” Kyle said. “I told him I want to see him today, and he agreed, so we just need to decide where and when.”

“Is… um…” I had a specific question I wanted to ask, but I wasn’t sure how to ask it. “Will it be okay?” That wasn’t quite what I was going for, but Kyle’s lips flattened into a line as if he understood what I was trying to ask.

He nodded at me. “It’ll be fine.”

“Then, can we go soon? Within the next hour maybe?” I asked.

Instead of responding, Kyle simply pulled out his cell phone. He only needed to hit a couple of buttons, and then he brought the phone up to his ear. After a few minutes, he said, “Hey.” There was a strain in his voice, but a warmth that was almost unfamiliar from the typically resolved, even-toned man. “How’d you sleep?” It almost felt awkward to just be listening to the conversation, but everyone sat there without saying anything, so I did the same. “Well, it’ll get better, I promise. Hey, can we meet up soon? Maybe in like an hour?” He looked over at me and nodded then said, “Okay. Let’s meet at the park by school. Okay. See you soon. Bye.”

“Just a few of you are going, right?” Colette asked.

“That’s best. It’ll be good if Nathan’s there, and then Cherri obviously, and me,” Kyle replied.

Colette crossed her arms. “I feel like we’re not helping enough. What should we do?”

Sicily slowly raised his hand. “Uh, I could use some help.”

“Really?” Avery asked. “How?”

“Well, it’s like I said yesterday, I have to manually check like a million pings to try and find which phone Deon called from. It’s not hard to learn. If the rest of you were willing, I could show you and you guys could help me check pings.”

“Oh wow! That sounds interesting,” Avery said. “I’m in.”

“Yeah… Interesting. Sure.” Sicily let out a chuckle. “If that’s what it takes for your help.”

Jaxon looked over at Colette. “I amnotsitting in front of a computer all day.”

Colette giggled and petted the back of his head. “That’s fine. You just keep me from going insane.”

He let out a sigh and a nod. “I can do that.”

“Alright, those are the teams then,” Nathan said. “The three of us will go to Brayden, Nikki, Colette, Alistair, Avery and Jaxon, you all stay and help Sicily.”

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