Page 177 of Revenge Puck

Instead, another wave of tears wells up and spills over before I can stop it.

I feel so stupid.

Stupid.

“How long?” I whisper, staring at nothing in particular. “How long has everyone known but me?”

Blaire stops pacing mid-step. “Please. Donotgive those morons this much credit. From the way it sounds, your brother and Aaron have been brooding around the arena like cavemen and keeping this shit to themselves. I don’t think men gossip the way we do.”

Not true.

But I don’t point this out to Blaire; I know when to bite my tongue.

Honestly, I haven’t seen her this angry since her ex-boyfriend, Carter, changed the Netflix password on her, pre-breakup, and she was cut off from free streaming. She drafted a nasty, biting two paragraph text before dumping him.

This is worse.

She is nuclear.

She plants her hands on her hips and glares out the sliding glass door like Aaron’s face might materialize on the balcony. Or my brother’s.

“I am an idiot.”

Declan was right; I am naïve.

“You arenotan idiot, Juliette Lillian Kennedy.” She says it so firmly I want so badly to believe her. “You were operating under the assumption that the men in your life weren’t complete lying fuck bags.”

Fuck bags?

That’s a new one.

I swipe at my cheeks again. My skin feels tight from all the crying I’ve done…

“Hey—sweetie, no—listen to me.” She comes over and goes down on her knees in front of me, taking my hands in hers. “Your brother didn’t tell you he slept with another man’s girlfriend. That’s on him. Aaron didn’t tell you he walked in on it and was petty about it. That’s on him. None of this is your fault.”

Logically, I know this.

“Look at me.” She squeezes my fingers. “You think that man was faking everything? Sounds exhausting.”

“I don’t know,” I admit, and that’s what hurts the most. “That’s the problem.”

I feel like I know nothing about anything.

“I trusted both of them,” I whisper.

Blaire nods. “I know you did.” Her mouth curves into a sneer. “Honest to god, I want to bury that man.”

She is not referring to Aaron.

I know her well enough to know she means Declan, her arch-nemesis since we were teenagers.

“Although, in his defense—and you know I loathe defending him…” Blaire sucks in a deep breath like it physically pains her. “He probably thought he was protecting you by not telling you.”

I tilt my head. “He was protecting himself so I wouldn’t know he can’t keep his wiener in his pants.”

“That too.” She nods solemnly. “And was it necessary for you to say wiener at a time like this? Couldn’t you say the word dick?”

“No.” I let out a lukewarm laugh. “Wiener feels more humiliating.”