“I did, but I also saw you right before that asswipe threw a tantrum. You were already upset.”
I exhale and look at my face in the mirror. My eyes are ringed with red and there’s still a smear of mascara across the bridge of my nose. I wipe it again and my hair shifts, revealing the poorly concealed Devil’s Mark under my ear. Quickly, I pull my hair back over it, hoping that people can’t see the other, less visible marks he’s left on me. I confess, “I overheard some gossip about… well, someone I know. And it bothered me.”
He snorts. “Gossip? Why are you letting gossip bother you? Do you know how much bullshit goes around this place? None of it is ever true.”
“But Sydney said—”
He barks a sudden laugh. “Sydney said?” I nod and he shakes his head. From here, I can see the Devil’s mark that someone—Georgia ostensibly—gave to him. “Come on, you were her friend, weren’t you? I know you know her better than this. Definitely don’t listen to a word that comes out of her mouth, because trust me. Nothing she says is even remotely based in reality.”
This is Sydney’s reputation, and Sebastian’s right. No one understands that better than me. But the thing most people don’t get about Sydney is that her lies are always full of little truths. He notices my hesitation and runs an anxious hand through his hair.
“Look, did she ever tell you what went down between the two of us?”
I frown. “You and Sydney?”
He groans. “First, there is no ‘me and Sydney’, but yes, we had a brief... situation.”
It’s not like Sebastian to hedge, he usually tosses everything out there for the world to see. “What kind of situation?”
He twists the ring on his finger. “It happened last year—a few times. We’d end up at the same party, drink the same shitty beer, get a little high, make out a bit. Some…other things.”
“Oh, Sebastian. No.”
“I know! Stupid fucking move, V. So stupid, but I was drunk, high, and definitely horny.” He holds up three fingers. “The trifecta of bad decision-making.”
I wrinkle my nose. “So what happened?”
“I blew her off—big time. Total dick move.” He shrugs. “But then I started hearing all these little rumors. Shit about how things went a lot further than they did. Stuff about us fucking, and then actually dating.”
“Did she get the wrong impression?”
“Not a chance. I was clear—crystal, fucking, clear.” He gives me a level look. “She’s a clinger, V. Stage-five. She doesn’t always take no for an answer, and if it suits her, she’ll create a situation that resembles fantasy more than reality.”
I nod, feeling a little better, but then I circle back around to what I’d overheard her say to Fiona.
“She said something that—”
“Is this about Reyn?”
I whip my head toward him, eyes wide. “What? Why would it have anything to do with Reyn?”
He raises an eyebrow. “Now who’s not telling the truth? I know about you two.”
My mouth forms an argument that my voice can’t seem to vocalize. Instead, I deflate, wondering, “How?”
He lifts a shoulder. “Intuition. That, and the fact I saw you two leaving the Preston House the other night after your B&E. I forgot my key in my car and saw you two getting into his Jeep.” I try to think back about that night—but my mind is a foggy void of anything that happened after I sucked him off. Sebastian happily fills me in. “You were holding hands and well, let’s just say guys don’t kiss a girl like that unless he likes her. A lot.”
I groan, slumping against the counter. “Please don’t tell—”
“Your brother? Yeah, no worries. I like a fight, but overprotective brothers who are also quarterbacks? Not the one I’d pick.” He tilts his head. “Is that what this is about? Reyn? Did Sydney say something about him?”
I try to swallow, but my throat feels like sandpaper. “She said that he… that they…” I can’t quite get the words out of my mouth. The image is hard enough. “That they were together.”
He rolls his eyes, pushing a loud ‘pshh’ from his lips. “Total bullshit. I’m talking free-range, cage-free, locally-sourced, one-hundred-percent organic bullshit. I might not know him that well, and I’m not saying guys aren’t assholes, because we are.” A flicker of guilt crosses his face—possibly thinking about his confession of hitting that girl. “But Reyn? Nah. Take it from someone