“What are you, my mother?”

“You must really be lonely if you want me to be your mother.” He shakes his head with a mocking edge. “I’ll hit you up when I consider adoption.”

“Dick.”

“At least I use mine. Yours is filing a lawsuit for human rights violation.”

“Did I hear something about a lawsuit?” Ronan lunges at Aiden from behind in a bro-hug that the latter tries to escape. Ronan is like an octopus, though – the type that never lets go of their victim.

“Knight’s dick is filing a lawsuit in search of his balls.” Aiden’s expression remains neutral as he says that.

I narrow my eyes on him as Ronan laughs, then stops. “But why are they searching for them? Wait a second, mon ami. Did one of the girls give you something? I told you to wrap it.”

Aiden smirks. “Oh, I’m sure he did.”

“Fuck off, King.”

“What? What happened just now?” Ronan stares between me and Aiden. “You’re hiding something from me again, aren’t you? I swear I’m the one who’ll be filing a lawsuit for neglect at the supreme court of friendship.”

“That doesn’t exist,” I say.

“Friends?” Aiden searches around him. “Who?”

As if someone pushed Ronan’s buttons, he launches into a long monologue about how he’s always left out and that we’re triggering his abandonment issues – the same speech he uses to lure in girls and have them suck his dick to ‘loosen him up’. Girls always fall for the vulnerable act he pulls off so well.

Out of the four of us, Ronan gets the most pussy, but not the best, because he’s like a fucking bus. Anyone is welcome.

Also, he’s fine with sloppy seconds or thirds or even one hundredths.

Told you, he’s a fucking bus.

As he talks, I’m tempted to punch him in that aristocratic nose he’s so proud of, break it and watch blood ooze from it. He wouldn’t be able to defend himself either, because he doesn’t know how to punch, and he hasn’t been in underground fights as I have. Aiden wouldn’t save him either, because he simply doesn’t care.

Two reasons stop me from taking action. One, we’re in Elsa’s father's house, and both Ro and I would be murdered by our fathers for starting shit in Ethan Steel’s house; he’s like a new emperor around here.

Two, and most importantly, if I hit him, the reason behind it will be as clear as day.

No matter what he does, it won’t get to me.

I’ve already formed a thick armour around me and no one will get through it, not even Ronan’s deliberate antagonising and his staged selfies.

And I know they’re staged, because as much as Ronan acts like a clueless little shit, he’s in fact a fucking fox. Why do you think he pretends to be supportive to girls? It’s his sure way into their knickers.

Still, I hit his side harder than I should.

“Ow!” He clutches it. “What the fuck was that for?”

“To shut you the hell up. What are you doing here anyway?”

“I come to visit Ellie all the time.”

“Elsa,” Aiden grits out.

“Ellie is better, la ferme, King." He watches me up and down. “What are you doing here? I heard you drove my Kimmy.”

Aiden’s focus turns on me as if he’s waiting for me to say something similar to what he’s just said.

That she’s Kimberly, not Kimmy.

And she’s not his and never will be. Not now, not fucking ever.

But I don’t say that. I have no right to fucking say that or anything remotely similar. Besides, Ronan is like a dog searching for a bone, the moment I give him a reaction, he’ll latch on it and chew me out.

Not in this life, arsehole. Fuck you very much in French.

“Too bad that’s none of your business.” I grin.

“Both of you can leave now.” Aiden snaps at the stairs. “Your presence is no longer needed – not that it was in the first place.”

Ronan launches on another argument about how this isn’t Aiden’s place and he can’t kick us out, then he goes on to remind him that he still can be Elsa’s fiancé if he chooses to because of two fathers’ agreements and whatnot.

I’m vaguely listening to them at the beginning until I spot Kimberly’s form retreating down the hall. She didn’t see us, and if she heard us, she doesn’t show it, appearing focused on her task.

She can’t be going for Kir since she has to take these stairs to do that.

Aiden is threatening to break Ronan’s nose, and his dick if need be, and while I’d love to stay and watch that show, my feet lead me away from them.

I leave my friends behind without as much as a word. They don’t even pay me attention as I tiptoe down the hall to where Kimberly disappeared.

The only thing at the end of it is a guest bathroom. The sound of running water comes from inside, but there’s nothing being washed since there’s no interruption of the water flow.

Which means it’s only used to camouflage another sound.

I know, because Kimberly always fucking used to do that when she cried in the bathroom on her own after her mum ignored parents-teacher meetings.

The fact she didn’t use the bathroom in Elsa’s room also means she’s hiding something.

What on earth would she hide from her best friend?

I push on the bathroom’s door and it opens with a slight squeak. My feet are silent as I close it behind me and stalk to inside.

What I see makes me pause. The tap is running, but as I expected, Kimberly isn’t anywhere near it.

Her small frame is perched in front of the toilet as she empties her stomach into it.

But that’s not what gives me a what-the-fuck-are-you-shitting-me moment.

It’s when she pauses heaving, sticks her forefinger in her mouth, and then vomits again. She does it a few times more until she’s dry heaving.

A red-hot rage takes hold of me at the view of her in that position.

The pieces of the puzzle all fall into place now.

It’s because she ate those avocados. Now, I know why she always disappears after lunch, why I never see her eating with Kirian.

She said Ronan and Elsa see her, but she couldn’t be any more wrong.

She doesn’t even see herself.

Not like I do.

I see her when she’s a mess, when she’s fake, when she forces herself to laugh and just be there.

I see her even when she refuses to fucking see herself.

I’d hoped that the moment I was out of here and stopped fucking seeing her altogether, it would be all over, but this is a lot worse than I initially thought.

There’s no way in fuck I’m going to let her be invisible to her own self. Not even if that costs me in the long run.

She had to fucking push me off the edge, and now that I’m falling, I’ll drag her down with me.

I straighten and place my hand in my pocket. When I speak, my voice is low and deadly calm. The same calm before a lethal storm. “What the fuck are you doing, Kimberly?”

6

Kimberly

“What the fuck are you doing, Kimberly?”

The voice coming from behind me might as well be a bomb. Otherwise, why would I feel like I’m being detonated to pieces?