BLUE BLOOD

24 | you don't get to judge me!

x

"Hey, Ella," I said once she picked up the call. "Happy early Birthday."

"Vesper!" She had responded cheerfully, even drunkenly, that night. "Listen. My friends are hosting a party on the island."

"What?" I asked, freezing.

"The summer manor you used to visit in your childhood. Apparently the Du Sang don't own the whole island. Such a coincidence, huh? I'm fucking excited for it, since, you know," her voice soured, "I've never been allowed to go."

"You're going tonight?"

"Yeah, it's hosted tomorrow on my birthday," Ella mumbled. "Oh yeah, don't you always go tomorrow because that's the day your mother and brother-"

I ended the call then but Ella never called back. She never bothered to.

"Pierre?" I made another call that night. "I need a plane ready."

x

"Avery!" I stumbled out of the bathroom. "Wait—fuck."

He was already making his way down the hallway and I clutched my head, fighting the ache, and hurried after him. In the back of my mind, I wondered why exactly I was going after him. Whenever I used to fight with Erik, I never bothered to run after him.

I never felt the need to.

"Jesus Christ," I muttered, ignoring how this situation looked to the onlookers. I wasn't even dressed properly. "Well, at least I never lied about being a horrible person."

It was only when I reached the bottom floor of the mansion, where the party was still going on, when I knew I had lost Avery. He always knew how to disappear.

Because of my horrible luck tonight, I bumped into the last person I wanted to see.

"When the hell did the proud and arrogant Vesper Du Sang starting chasing a guy?"

"If you walked as much as you talked, Camilla, maybe you'd stop telling me the calories my lunch contains," I snapped in response. Calming myself, I turned to her and smiled. "It's been a while. Have you still been spreading rumors about me?"

Camilla had a flute of champagne clutched between brightly painted nails. "You knew from the moment I approached you I didn't like you."

The last thing I wanted to do was to put up with her, yet, I found myself answering. "No. I didn't know that."

"Then why?" Camilla asked, as if the answer really did matter to her. "Why did you put up defenses?"

"Because," I said slowly, "I didn't want to be the next Rosalina Valia. Humiliated, dumped, voted out of her cadre... stabbed in the back by her best friend."

"Rosa?" Camilla flinched. My lips curved up coldly at her reaction.

"Yes," I murmured, feeling no joy nor satisfaction. "I guessed the moment you came up to me. You were the one who anonymously sent those screenshots to the whole academy. She left the country because of that."

"How?" Camilla demanded, stepping back with wide eyes.

"I was on a tour that day. The last person Rosa looked at was you. And it was one full of betrayal and confusion." I shook my head in disbelief. "Was it worth it? Was gaining a favor from Helen Lorani, a blue blood, worth selling out your best friend?