Page 7 of Evil Queen

In truth, Kyle would probably make a way better leader of The Royal Court than I had been, but I knew he wouldn’t take it if I offered it, so I kept that thought to myself. “Thanks. What about Colette?”

Kyle’s face went from indifferent to flat out depressed. “She’s, uh…” He let out a sigh. “She’s taking it hard. Like, really hard. She’s decided to step down as valedictorian and class president.”

My stomach twisted into a tight knot. “What? Why?”

“I don’t know. She was willing to talk to me, but not about very much, and not for very long. Whenever I would call to check on her, the very first thing she would ask me is if I’d heard from Cherri, and when I said I hadn’t, she would clam right up.”

“Shit,” I grumbled. “She was the one person I thought might be doing okay.”

“Yeah, me too. I don’t get it. She’s really struggling with it,” Kyle said. “I’ve asked what I can do to help, but I honestly don’t think sheknows.”

Our food came, but we both slowly picked at it as the tension of the conversation blanketed over us.

“What’s next for us, do you think?” Kyle asked.

“Damned if I know,” I said. “I don’t even know what’s next for me. I know that’s a horrible thing to say as a leader, but it’s true.” The food both smelled and tasted amazing, but I was struggling to eat much of anything because of the way the guilt over hurting my friends was eating away at me. “I am gonna make it up to all of you, though. You don’t deserve the way I’ve done things.”

Kyle nodded. “We’ll just take it one step at a time. Start with just being around again.”

“I can do that.”

“Speaking of what’s next for you…” Kyle cleared his throat. “About your mom.”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” flew out of my mouth without my instruction to do so. I’d said the phrase a dozen times or more to Nikita over the past couple of weeks as well.

“Fair enough,” Kyle said, “but I’m inclined to say as a best friend that you have to deal with it. If you don’t, it’s going to eat you up.”

“I’ve dealt with it,” I shot back. “I’m fine.”

He and I both knew that it was a lie.

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