Page 42 of Evil Queen

“What the heck?” Kyle queried. “Did I do something wrong?”

“No.” Colette reached across and put a hand on Kyle’s. “This is wonderful.”

I pulled out my phone and tried to call Brayden to tell him to come back, but he didn’t answer his phone. As soon as his voicemail came on, I hung up and called again, but that time, his phone went straight to voicemail. Everyone was looking at me, so I shook my head and said, “Nothing.”

“He’s been telling me this stuff lately,” Kyle said. “He said that he doesn’t feel included, so I really tried to make him feel like he’s one of us.”

“I thought you did that really well,” Avery said. “I think it may be something else.”

“Me too. He’s been acting weird lately. I can’t explain it. He’s just not himself,” Alistair said.

It killed me that I hadn’t seen it. I made a quiet promise to talk to Brayden the next time I saw him at school.

“You know what I was thinking about? Nathan’s always been praised for bringing together the best students of our school for The Royal Court,” Avery said. “I think he just found the other people who are as fucked as he is.”

I started to laugh. “You know, that came up in therapy recently. My life was so fucking hard, and I think I could see that all of your lives were hard too. Kyle, you had all that shit with your parents. Nikki had shit going on with her family. Alistair had Monty. Hell, I saw Avery sitting outside all by herself while her parents all fawned over her brothers. Jaxon was a thirteen-year-old who smoked and drank, and Colette was writing novels instead of playing at the playground. I don’t think I did it on purpose, but I just sort of gravitated toward you guys. I think, deep down, I knew.”

Colette took a sip of her drink. “We’re supposed to be elite, but we’re really just rich enough to make our problems not look like problems.”

Kyle laughed. “Damn. I need to start mixing up another round of these cocktails.”

I held out my drink. “To The Royally Fucked-Up Court!”

Everyone held their own drinks up, and we toasted. Kyle cranked up the music, and we got the party going in full swing. It was the first time I had truly let myself go and had a good time without worrying about what people thought. My friends weren’t going to judge me, so I was just myself. It was the first time that I could remember being so free and feeling so accepted in my entire life.

“Maybe we’re the most screwed up kids that Postings has to offer, but at least we found each other,” I said to Kyle as I looked at my friends, who were all laughing and enjoying one another.

“That pairs really well with my cliche decorations,” he responded.

I chuckled. “Yeah. It does.”

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