Royals

Chapter 37

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Twenty-four days.

That's how long it had been since Black Friday; it was the 23rd of December.

I hadn't done much. In fact, my life had been one huge routine consisting of waking up, being driven to school by Bailee, doing homework, eating dinner, watching Netflix, taking a shower, and then going back to bed.

Aside from school, though, I hadn't really gone out. I skipped the past three weeks worth of parties and cotillions. The only other time I left the house was to pick up a carry-out meal for dinner or to play in the snow with Anastasia.

Speaking of people, perhaps I should explain how nearly every single one of my friendships fell apart.

Let's start with Lillia Clandy. We hadn't spoken since we were forced into the smoothie shop in the middle of the night, twenty-four days ago. Although, the past twenty-four days had sucked, never once did I run away or so much as touch a bottle of alcohol.

So, I pretty much fulfilled my half of our deal. But, I couldn't force her to befriend me.

Next we had Joseph Blanzata. The last conversation we had was about whether or not I would meet him at Central Park.

Considering he hadn't tried contacting me, I knew it was safe to assume that he was upholding his part of our arrangement. I suppose he truly meant it. Perhaps I had lost him forever.

Jacob Adonuski. Jake didn't hate me, which was good. He was the only one of my original best friends who had seen me in the past twenty-four days. Sometimes, during the evening, he would come over and watch a movie with me. Other times, he would drop off a plate of cookies that his mother cooked for my family. Although it was clearly out of pity, I appreciated the effort.

Whenever he would come over, he wouldn't say much, and I wasn't oblivious as to why. I put him in a tough spot. He was still great friends with Lillia and Joey, who were both actively overlooking me, and I wasn't exactly best friends with his girlfriend.

I didn't really know what I did to Marietta that made her hate me. Perhaps Jake told her nasty things about me while he was mad at me. Or maybe Brandon talked to her about how poorly I treated him. Either way, she avoided me at all costs.

Next up: Brandon Rambly. He hadn't spoken to me directly, but I heard plenty about him. Ever since those few texts from Thanksgiving, I hadn't heard from him. I wouldn't be surprised if he deleted my number.

So, how did I hear so much about Brandon? Well, get ready for the plot twist.

Ashlynn.

That's right, Ashlynn Jacobs, my best friend from school. The conversation where I found about this went a little like this:

"I'm so sorry to hear about your breakup with Brandon," Ashlynn sympathetically said to me the first day after Thanksgiving break.

I stared at her blankly. Yes, it was true: I had been spilling information to her, but I hadn't told her about my breakup with Brandon.

"Hmm...I don't remember telling you about that," I frowned, throwing my last notebook in my locker.

"Alright, you caught me!" she divulged, sighing and watching me with a worried look.

"How'd you know?" I asked, a surprised look etched onto my face. I wasn't angry with her, just curious.

"Brandon told me," she confessed, chomping on her nonexistent pinky nail.