I could feel my cheeks turning red.
“We picked a date for our wedding,” he added.
Kennedy opened her mouth and then closed it again. “Shut up. For this year? When?!”
I laughed. “Saturday, December 22nd.”
“This is amazing.”
“And I had a question to ask you,” I said. “Will you be my bridesmaid? Or maid of honor? Or whatever you want to be called? You’re my only one.”
Kennedy squealed. “Do you seriously even have to ask? Yes!”
Matt held me even closer.
“What made you decide to do it so close to Christmas?”
“It gives us more time to celebrate during winter break,” Matt said.
That had been the original reason. But the more we’d talked about it, the sweeter Matt’s reason was. He knew the upcoming holidays were going to be hard on me. Just thinking about not waking up and celebrating Christmas morning with my mom made tears come to my eyes. The wedding was the perfect way to keep myself from not getting upset during the holidays. And we were creating a new family. The two of us. It would be hard to be sad during Christmas when our toes were in the hot sands of the Bahamas.
“You two are the best couple ever,” Kennedy said. “Are you going to eat all of those?” Kennedy asked and pointed to Matt’s French fries.
“Kennedy, if you want French fries, you should just order them,” he said with a laugh. “Why are you always stealing mine?”
“Because I like green beans too. I just want a mix.”
Matt laughed and shoved his tray into the middle of the table.
“You gotta keep him,” Kennedy said. “He’s the best.”
“I plan on it.”
“Hey guys,” Felix said and sat down next to Kennedy.
“What were you doing talking to the enemy?” Kennedy asked as she stole another fry.
“I’m selling Cupcake my list of clients. I’m done selling.”
“Really?” Kennedy’s whole face lit up.
I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen her quite this happy. Maybe she’d finally admit she liked Felix now that he wasn’t going to be a drug dealer anymore.
I looked over at Isabella’s table and was surprised to see her sitting all alone. It was a sight I never in a million years would have thought I’d see. And I couldn’t think of a better time to go talk to her than now.
“I’ll be right back,” I said and stole one of Matt’s French fries too.
“You guys really need to get your own fries,” Matt said.
“It’s way more fun to just steal yours.” I kissed his cheek and climbed off his lap. I didn’t tell him I was going to talk to Isabella, because I knew he’d try to stop me. I’d explain it to him later. Right now I just needed to get it over with as quickly as possible.
Isabella smiled at me when I sat down across from her. “I’m not supposed to talk to you, Sissy.”
“I just need to tell you something.”
“Regardless, Daddy will be mad if he knows we spoke.”
“I won’t tell him.”
She dropped her fork on her tray. “Let me make this clear then. I don’t want to talk to you. So you should probably run along back to your boy toy.”
“Matt’s not a boy toy.” Whatever that is.
“Yes he is. You’re only with him to grate on my nerves. And you’re failing. Because I know for a fact that he doesn’t even like you. He’ll come crawling back to me soon enough. Just you wait and see.”
Fuck off. “We’re getting married.”
She laughed. “No. You’re not.”
“Actually we are.”
“You’re adorably absurd,” she said. “You’ll be gone soon enough.”
The way she said it made a chill run down my spine. “Look, I didn’t come over here to argue with you. I came here to warn you about your new boyfriend…”
She laughed. “Cupcake and I aren’t exclusive. I’m only casually seeing him to annoy your friend. You see…” She leaned forward like she didn’t want someone to overhear our conversation. “I’m going to break you, Sissy. And I’m going to do it by breaking everyone around you. I’m going to make it so that I’m not the only one that wants you out of this city. Every. Single. Person that you call a friend? Or lover? They’re going to hate you soon. I made sure of it. Starting with Matt.” She looked down at the watch on her wrist. “Tick. Tick. Boom.”
I laughed because I didn’t know what else to do. Her words made my chest hurt. And my lungs feel tight.
“So is that all?” she asked. “Because I’m in the middle of lunch and you’re making me lose my appetite.”
“Isabella, I came over here to warn you that…”
She held up her hand to stop me. “Oh, darling. No. You came over here so I could warn you. And I just did. So leave, garbage person.” She flicked her wrist to dismiss me.
I took a deep breath. It didn’t matter that she was hateful. She was still a person. And technically she was my sister. “Isabella, I know for a fact that Cupcake uses drugs to take advantage of people.”
She laughed. “I know. He was the one that gave me the idea to drug Kennedy at homecoming. He’s such a catch. Actually, the more I think about it, the more I think we should go steady. Don’t you think? Just for a while of course. Because I’ll be dating Matt as soon as you get the hell out of my city.”
I clenched my jaw so tightly that it hurt. “You’re such a bitch.” I’d texted Rob yesterday to let him know the prank was off. But this conversation really made me want to go back on that decision. How could she laugh about drugging Kennedy? What was wrong with her?
She laughed again. “Daddy doesn’t like it when we curse. I’ll be telling him about that offense.”
Damn it. I was trying to warn her. And all I was accomplishing was getting myself upset. “Just be careful with Cupcake. I don’t want you to get hurt.”
“That’s funny. Because I do want to hurt you. Which is exactly why I’m winning this game.”