All That Glitters (Unfamous Series, Book #2.5)

Ch. 7 | Soul Ties

 “She did what?” Fontaine gasps, taking a seat around the dining table in the communal student kitchen. It’s the Wednesday of our first week of lectures at Brompton University and Fontaine and I have returned to our dorm to find out that Rio and Carmen had a huge fight with Sky. “She slept with Bless and Nathaniel? Are you serious?”

My mouth falls open; “No way!”

“Yup! Rio clapped off her face for it,” Carmen snickers.

“You didn’t!” I gawk at Rio, who is sitting at the far end with her head hanging a little lower than usual, looking as if she’s half ashamed for hitting Sky, but not completely remorseful about it. I wouldn’t have pegged Rio for the type of girl to physically lash out at anyone; from what I know of her so far she’s a little lost, but she’s a nice girl. If  I could pick one of us who would be most likely to hit someone, I’d pick Fontaine -she’s the wild card. I guess you never really know what someone is capable of until you come between them and what they love. It’s no secret how much Rio still loves Nate, even if she spends most of her time bad mouthing him. Sky knew better.

“Oh yes she did!” Carmen replies in a comical ghetto fashion accompanied by the obligatory finger snap and ratchet neck roll. “Sky said the wrong thing, and KAPOW! You shoulda seen it Yosh, the connect was so correct. I wish I could have filmed it, it was a Worldstar moment.”

“You’re so bad mind,” Fontaine chuckles shaking her gold and copper curls as she pulls out her rolling papers, a half empty packet of American Spirit tobacco, and her grinder. I fetch a bottle of wine from the fridge and pour the first mug full of the bubbly rose tinted liquid for Rio -none of us had bought wine glasses with us to campus and weren’t that fussed about getting  any for the time being as mugs held more alcohol anyway.

“What did she say?” I ask curiously handing it to her.

Rio smiles gratefully at me and takes a desperate gulp that craves some form of temporary mental oblivion. She closes her eyes and visibly relaxes as the intoxicating liquid unties her internal knots. “Basically how I’m a beg, and that Nathaniel was right fucking me over for Georgia.”

“Sky said that?” I frown. I’m an Aquarian, we’re big on loyalty. In my mind, if you decide to develop a relationship with people, you should act accordingly and try your best to do right by each other and Sky is all the way wrong for this.

“Yeah; she’s been hanging with Georgia and her lot, init. She’s not one of us anymore…not she never really was.” Rio pauses for a less demanding gulp of her wine. “I know I shouldn’t have slapped her, I feel awful about it, but at the same time I don’t.”

“Honey you have nothing to feel bad about, I would have done the same thing,” Fontaine says throwing a huge bud of Thai into her grinder and sealing the lid. “She’s supposed to be your friend; she has no business messing with Nate or Bless, especially when she knows full well what the situations are between all of you.”

I nod in agreement and pour everyone else a mug. “So where is she now?”

“Can you believe the dirty bitch is out making plans to move to Georgia’s dorm? Fucking Judas!” Carmen growls.

Rio’s face is set in a contemplative frown, a look that she often has when she thinks nobody is looking. I put my arms across her shoulder and give her a sympathetic squeeze, “Are you okay Ri?”

She reverts back to her less tortured expression, “I’m trying to be, but it’s just so fucking hard. Nathaniel makes everything so fucking hard!”

“Maybe you should talk to him about it, let him know how you feel.”

“I did -he’s such an asshole! He reacted like I had no right to be mad. I get that in theory I shouldn’t be mad because we’re not together, but…how can I not be?”