Fae Fiefdom - M. Sinclair Page 0,19

chair behind him. Still, I was so worked up that I didn’t process either of their expressions until I was pushing out the door.

Koa had looked murderous and Bard had been so still I probably would have assumed him asleep if his eyes weren’t open. Both focused and angry at me. What the hell had I done? Last time I checked, I wasn’t the one being a douchebag that used people. Yeah, I’d caught onto the fact that Bard had asked for a ride home, so he could go hang out with them. Cool. I swallowed and made my way towards my car, very much wanting to get home.

For a moment, I was tempted to go into Kansas City. It wasn’t just Kirin that made the place memorable. If I had to have another friend, or claim to have another, it would be the two men I always met up with down there.

I didn’t think the names they gave me were their real ones. Honestly, I tried to not look into how unique they were because I just enjoyed having a drinking buddy, or two in my case. They were both bartenders at a downtown club that allowed me to drink at eighteen. Plus, neither he nor his co-worker never pulled any creepy shit, which was very appreciated.

But no, not today. Then my stepmother would really kill me. Usually, when I went to Kansas City it was on a Friday or Saturday night when I claimed to be going to a study group. Something she didn’t look into very much, thank God for that.

Once in my car, I blasted the heat and pulled away from the curb. My phone started ringing but when I saw it was Bard, I ignored it. I shook my head. I picked him up from where his father left him, and then he got home to go out with Koa and three of the most popular girls in our class. I’m not bitter. Who’s bitter? I narrowed my eyes at another call coming in, but when it popped up as Koa I almost laughed.

Sorry boys.

The worse part? This wasn’t the type of situation where I’d even been wronged. People might avoid me but no one has ever been outwardly unhappy with me, except my stepmother. Those girls? They didn’t fit the troupe of mean girl bullies and I wasn’t even forcibly excluded from their crowd. I could tell how uncomfortable people felt around me though, and far be it from me to have them suffer longer than necessary. So yeah, I was just stuck in this stupid loop of being lonely and people ignoring me.

The boys though? That was just a fucking dick move. Assholes. I shut off my phone and inhaled the spring rain through the open window. Even if I wasn’t jealous, I was still miffed. What? No hello? Yeah, that wasn’t going to roll with me. I was starting to get very frustrated with putting effort into relationships that only I seemed to care about. Senior year was almost over, and I was done being used.

I may know the score but maybe I didn’t want to play the game anymore.

∞∞∞

I hadn’t been incorrect, by the way.

My stepmother had found out about the ‘scene’ I’d caused with Kirin. Apparently, she wasn’t happy with the crowd I’d chosen to interact with. Translating into her being unhappy with his uncle who was one of the few people to not feed into her bullshit. I know they said the man was sick, but I’d heard her complain about him, and he sounded like he still had some kick to him. Hell, if you could stand up to the wicked witch I applauded even my worst enemy.

My punishment wasn’t terrible considering how bad the entire thing looked. I was in my room for the night, mind you, she had locked it from the outside, without dinner. So that sucked but I still had my coffee drink. I wished I’d eaten a larger breakfast though.

I wasn’t positive how long I laid in bed for because time stopped really mattering, my eyes were on the gilded ceiling while I tried to count the different swirls that existed. I wondered briefly if I should turn on my phone, but figured that I would be upset at what I found. Upset if they continued to call, reminding me of them being jerks, or upset that they stopped calling.

I would deal with it at school in the morning. After all, take a