Page 41 of Evil Queen

“It’s awesome,” Alistair said.

Avery got a cocktail with aged wine because of how old-school and intelligent she was. Jaxon got something sour because he was sharp, both mentally and physically. Nikita got her widely known favorite drink, an Amaretto Sour, with a black cherry twist and coloring that made it a little darker but a little sweeter.

I got an amalgamation of expensive liquors and flavors. When Kyle slid it to me, he said, “I call this a top-top shelf Long Island iced tea because it’s pretentious, but you forgive it because it’s good.”

The smile that rose to my face was so large that it made my cheeks hurt. “Thanks, man.”

After that, Kyle started mixing a drink. It was easily the most complicated of all the drinks he’d put together and required several mixes, liquors, syrups, and a carbonated soda. When he finished, it had a shining gold hue to it. He stuck a straw in it and slid it across the bar to Brayden.

“Uh.” Kyle let out an awkward chuckle. “Not to pull a Nathan, but I think I spent the most time putting this one together. It hits your tongue with a little bit of sour, but then it’s really sweet going down. When it hits your stomach, it makes you kind of warm all over.” He shrugged. “Like you.”

Brayden gave Kyle a wide-eyed look first and then looked down at his drink. “Wow.”

“Kyle, this is amazing. Thank you,” I said.

“Did you make one for yourself?” Avery asked.

Kyle lifted the cocktail he was already working on when Nikita and I arrived. “Yeah. Kaylee made it for me. It’s a light liquor with a sour tinge to it because Kaylee says I’m a brat, but after the first sip, you don’t wanna stop.”

Avery let out a bright, loud laugh. “Oh my god! That’s so true!”

“It is!” Colette tacked on. “When I first met you, I was like, who is this guy? Then after, like, a week, I was like, where’s Kyle? Let’s hang out with Kyle.”

“It’s perfect for you,” I said.

“You okay, man?” Alistair asked, looking at Brayden. Brayden was still just staring down at his drink, looking dumbfounded.

“I’m okay,” he murmured in response. “Thank you, guys. I feel selfish.”

“Why do you say that?” Kyle asked.

“Because I know how hard these last few months have been for all of you, but for me, it’s been amazing. I get to spend time with you guys, and I feel like we’re friends. I never really thought of myself as being part of this group, more like I was just someone forced on all of you by Nathan.” He looked up at Kyle. “I don’t know what to say?”

“Don’t say anything,” Kyle replied. “Just drink.”

“I remember when Brayden first came,” Colette said.

Jaxon nodded. “Yeah. That was funny.”

“What happened?” Brayden asked.

“Well, Nathan was all up in arms about wanting to enlist a bunch of younger members so that The Royal Court could go on after we’d all graduated. A hundred kids must have come to Nathan, all wanting him to bring them in, but when Nathan asked if anyone stuck out to us, at the exact same time, we all said—”

“Brayden,” Kyle, Colette, Jaxon, Nikita, Alistair, and Avery all said in unison.

“He was just so much like Nathan,” Nikita said. “I was like, it has to be him.”

“Then he started,” Avery continued, “and it was like, huh. This kid really changes our dynamic.”

Alistair nodded. “Yeah! We didn’t really laugh. We didn’t really do a ton of stuff as a group. Just the Christmas party and Nathan’s birthday, but then this little twerp comes along and wants to do everything together, so what do we do? We fucking do everything together.”

“Cherri,” Avery started, and everyone went quiet. “Cherri could not stand you.” She laughed. “But I remember one day, she comes up to me, and she just lets out this exhausted sigh and says, ‘Ugh, thank god for Brayden.’ It was so confusing to me because she didn’t like you, but I guess you’d been there and prevented her and Nathan from getting into a huge fight, and you didn’t even mean to.”

“Yeah,” I said. “I remember that. Vividly. It was right before we broke up at the end of junior year. We’d been fighting more and more. It was mostly because of Ms. Abrams. We were in each other’s faces, and tension was rising, and then Brayden just waltzed in the room with Cocoa in his arms. He was elated that he finally had a puppy, and he didn’t even want to show me. He wanted to show Cherri. It wasn’t like we could fight with Cocoa and Brayden sitting on the floor all…cute.” I sputtered out a burst of laughter. “The rest of the night was really good.”

“Maybe you didn’t see it,” Kyle said, “but you’re one of us.”

Kyle and Brayden looked at each other for a little bit, then Brayden got up from his stool. He rushed off toward the door and bolted through it, and a few minutes later, we heard his car starting in the distance and driving away.

---