The Trouble with Love

❝ the only problem that i got with the club ❞

I am never underestimating Skylar ever again. Thank god I had kept up my not-knowing anything act.

"Now," Skylar said. "Do you want to hear the story or not?"

"About how fucked up the most exclusive group of teens in America is? Sure," I replied, genuinely curious now. If Skylar could fake being drunk so well, then maybe she wasn't as oblivious as I had thought she was. She had a point, when she said people tell you more when they think you're drunk. Hell, I had lowered my guard around the Elite when I thought they were drunk, because I had figured they wouldn't remember much.

Yeah, I'm never doing that again either.

Skylar laughed and rolled her eyes, then sobered up. "Well, Vanessa and Nate used to date, for one."

I blinked. "What?"

But thinking about it now, it made a little sense. Nathan did worry over Vanessa a fair bit, though I had passed that off as just the kind of person he was. Except, there wasn't much from Vanessa's end, as far as I knew.

"Yeah," Skylar said, nodding. "During middle school and most of freshman year. Then Ashton introduced Keira to Nate. And Nate and Vanessa broke up. That's when everything changed."

"Everything changed?" I repeated.

"Well Jace liked Vanessa who didn't like him back so Keira didn't like her for breaking her brother's heart-"

Wait, what? "Jacen liked Vanessa?"

"Yeah. You know, I love Keira and..." She paused, then wrinkled her nose. "Yeah, I can't say I love Jacen..." She shook her head. "It's not their fault, I guess, but ever since we all became friends, we've drifted apart."

"You guys still seem pretty close to me," I pointed out.

"Not really. Keira and Nathan are practically joined at the hip, yeah, but I think Ash knows more about his brother's girlfriend than his brother does," she said.

"Jacen said Nathan doesn't know as much about Keira as he thinks he does." I remembered him saying it when we had gone to look for Keira. Keira kept a lot of things from Nathan, that I had noticed for sure, but I had figured that was just part of her personality. She seemed like a secretive person. Yet, Ashton seemed to know where she was when his brother didn't, which was a little suspicious.

"Ash has gone all mama bear protective. Jace and Vanessa are... Jacen and Vanessa..." She glanced up at me. "Sorry, I shouldn't be dumping all of this on you."

"It's fine. I feel I don't know a lot about you guys and it's been almost two months," I told her, shaking my head. That wasn't a lie. Every time I thought I had the Elite figured out, something came up, some new piece of information, that made me revaluate everything. It made me wonder if I'd ever be able to figure out anything about them. "You're a secretive group."

"Yeah," Skylar muttered. "But at this point secrets are the only thing holding us together."

♡ the trouble with love ♡

It was still early when I got home, so Raine and Kaden were awake. They came out of the kitchen as I opened the door, straightening their clothes and mussed hair.

Yeah, there's a reason why I don't eat on the kitchen counter anymore.

"How was it?" Raine asked.

I shrugged, stifling a yawn. "It was alright. Fun, I guess. A little tiring."

"Did anything happen?" Kaden asked.