he did. “I gotta say, Nikita, this is unexpected. You’re great and all, but—”
“No,” I cut him off. “I couldn’t say no more if I wanted to. Those are for you and Cherri. It doesn’t have to be romantic. I know it won’t be easy, but try to convince her to go. Have fun and be normal. We’ll leave you alone. I swear.”
“Aw, thanks. I’m the techie between us, so I can convince her to go.” He chuckled and slid the tickets into his bag. “Anyway, was that it?”
“No, uh, I wanted to ask about Cherri. Does she… Does she still have feelings for Nathan?”
Sicily recoiled. “No offense to him, but Cherri never had feelings for Nathan. Seems to me that he never had any feelings for her either.”
“How do you know that?” I asked.
“I mean, I saw Cherri with Deon, and they…” He smiled. “I’ve never seen anything like it. And I saw you and Nathan together. You guys are pretty great too. I think it’s obvious that you two are much better for each other.”
That made me happy, but I kept a straight face. “Do you know how long she’s gonna hold this grudge against him for Deon and the rape?”
That took Sicily by surprise. “The rape? What are you talking about?”
For a moment, I thought I’d stuck my foot in my mouth. I’d just naturally assumed that Cherri, or maybe even Deon before he left, told Sicily about what happened. “Um.”
“Are you talking about when he attacked her right before Deon left?” he asked.
“Oh.” I let out a sigh of relief. “Yes.”
“Oh. Yeah, Cherri isn’t holding a grudge about that. At least, I don’t think she is. I think he’s the one of you she’s least mad at. All her rage comes from losing Deon. It has nothing to do with that attack. She told us straight-up that it wasn’t like Nathan to do that to her. She said he wasn’t in there when it happened. She knows Papa Loche has him fucked up in his head.”
“I’m shocked. I thought she was holding that against him. She’s mad at him the least out of all of us?”
He nodded. “Yeah. She knows how caught up he was in everything. Yeah, he asked you all to take her and run, but it’s because you guys listened that she got so upset.”
That gave me much more to think about than I thought it would. If Cherri wasn’t holding Nathan’s attack against him, then why was I?
22
Nathan
Kyle had just about made it to his car when I slipped into his path. The roll of his eyes was the only acknowledgment I got as he side-stepped me and continued to his car. I didn’t try to stop him, but I followed behind him, and as he unlocked his car to climb in, I climbed through the passenger’s side door.
Kyle let out a large sigh. “Nathan.”
“Okay, okay, okay, look,” I replied. “I don’t expect you to talk about anything you don’t want to talk about, but—”
Kyle cut me off. “I don’t want to talk about it. Please get out.”
I nodded. “That’s fair. I told you I wouldn’t make you talk about it if you didn’t want to, but I’m your best friend, and I really wish you’d talk about it just a little bit because that was shocking to me.”
“What part?” Kyle asked.
“What do you mean?”
“What part was so shocking?” Kyle crossed his arms and looked at me, awaiting my answer with a serious but anticipatory gaze.
Was he just trying to get me to admit to something without asking outright? “Um. Well, you asked Brayden to prom at lunch.”
“Yeah.” His expression remained unchanging. “That was shocking?”
Suddenly, I felt like maybe I’d been a shitty friend, or rather, maybe I’d been a shitty friend in a way that I didn’t realize had been shitty. “It was. Should it…not…have been? Did I miss something, being self-absorbed like usual? I realize that’s a thing lately.”
Kyle rolled his eyes. “No. You didn’t miss anything.”
I wasn’t quite sure what to do with that answer. I at least hadn’t been a shitty friend in that regard? Kyle and I had been friends since long before I formed The Royal Court. He hadn’t dated many people throughout our friendship. He was with a couple of girls in middle school and then Avery for our freshman and sophomore years, but he’d never shown any interest in men. Not that I had an issue with that, but I would like to think