Revelation | ✓

Chapter 32

Thank you, Ryder and Jack, for adding even more shit to my metaphorically full plate. Not only do I have to deal with the issue of the whole save-Vae-before-some-mysterious-and-dangerous-and-obviously-fatal-thing-happens-to-her plan, keeping up with my parents, keeping up with my friends, hiding the plot that Jack and Ryde had cooked up, and now the whole boy issues thing.

Never in my life have I ever had boy issues. Never. No guy asked me out. No guy has ever even glanced at me. Why the hell do I have attention from not one, but two guys now?

"Vae." Maiya snaps her fingers in front of my face. "Vaaaeeee."

I shake my head back and forth. "Huh?"

She clicks her tongue, shaking her head at me. "Vae, Vae, Vae. Are we throwing a pity party? Or are you lost in your little love triangle?"

The other girls ooooooooooh. By "other girls" I mean Maiya, Milla, Celeste, Destiny, Hope, Truth, and Karma.

"Love triangle? What?"

Destiny, Hope, and Liberty share a grin. "You know, the love triangle you have with our cousin and that other guy." Hope says.

"You know, the hot one that's unfortunately too young for me." Destiny inspects her black-painted fingernails. "What's his name?"

"You mean Jack?"

"Mmhmm. That one." She smirks, still inspecting her nails.

"He's not too old for me." Karma, their younger sister, leans over the table and grabs some nail polish. We've never really been friends, Karma and I. She's a year younger than Ryde and used to be a total bitch. According to Ryde she changed since she was shot in the head by her ex-boyfriend and almost died. Her dark brown hair brushes against the table.

Celeste rolls her eyes. "As if he'd give up Vae. I mean, look at her."

I reach around Maiya and smack her in the back of the head. "Real funny, Cel."

Maiya shakes her head at me. "Oh, come on, Vae. The two are obviously obsessed with you."

"With protecting me." I say. "They treat me like I'm their little sister."

"Alright, I am not having this argument with you again." Maiya snaps, uncapping a bottle of dark purple nail polish.

"Again?" This comes from Destiny, Hope, and Karma. Truth is silent, painting small white images on her night-colored nails.

I like Truth. She looks just like her sisters, Destiny and Hope, with hazel eyes and light skin. The only reason I don't add the dark brown hair is because her hair isn't dark brown. She'd dyed it a midnight blue a long while back and let it grow halfway down her back, unlike her sisters- Hope had chopped hers off and the shoulders and Destiny hacked off hers at her chin and bleached some of it to lighten the color. It's grown out to about halfway down her neck, now, and that's as far as she's going to let it get.

Two of the triplets exchange a look.

"Stop that." Karma demands, looking up from painting her nails a pale, lighter-than-cotton-candy pink. Her mouth tilts up in disgust as she goes back to painting her nails. "How many times has Mom told you to use your words?"

"How many times has Mom told you to use your words?" Destiny mimics her in a mocking, snobby tone while adding the finishing touches to her black-and-hot-pink manicure.

Karma looks up and gives her sister a death glare. No wonder Zeke and Shauna named her Karma.

Destiny seems completely unfazed by her sister's silent threats. Destiny is one of the people that set up the zipline over the chasm- before Tori had it shut down- and was the first person to test it. She's Dauntless to the core, and doesn't let anyone forget it- not even her sisters. It's one of the reasons why she's so respected among the Dauntless.

"I think that looks good. What do you think, Hope?" She holds out her left hand, and her sister leans over to inspect them.

"Nice, sis. But you missed a spot right there." She points to somewhere on her sister's nail and goes back to her own. Hope's, from what I can see, are pretty cool- tiny black and dark purple beads completely covering her nails.

I'm not bothering to do mine. If it won't help me protect myself and the people I care about, what's the point?

Maiya only really forced me to join them because we haven't had the chance to hang out much. She knows how much I hate this girly crap.

"So Hope. Shane didn't come?"

I look between Milla and Hope. "Shane?"

"Shane Carlier. Hope's boyfriend."

"Ex-boyfriend." Hope says, clenching a fist around the edge of the table. "I had to dump him." She forces it out through gritted teeth.

Destiny turns to look at her sister, her eyebrows low over her eyes. "Did he do something wrong? I'll kick his ass if he did."

Hope shakes her head. "No, Des. Everything was fine. There was nothing wrong." She sighs. "I'm just...pissed that I had to break up with him and that he couldn't come with us and that I couldn't tell him."

"After this is over-" Milla stops, watching Hope shake her head.

"No. I saw him on the cameras. He's...with someone else." She swallows hard, her eyes red. She looks...well, hopeless. "It sucks, because he said that I was the only one that he'd ever want and now... now he's with some bad-dyejob bimbo."

Destiny doesn't like to see her sister like this. "You know that Aunt Lynn had to leave Kirsty there too. She had to break up with her."

"This is different." Hope snaps, her voice thick. She sniffles. "Shane's twenty-two. I should've known. I shouldn't be so screwed up about this." So he's five years older than her. I know that they've been dating for a while- much to her older brother, Cameron's distaste- and I knew that he was older, but I wasn't aware of just how much older.

She sniffles again and then goes back to paying attention to her nails. Destiny nudges Truth. "What's up with you? You usually at least make an effort."

Truth just shrugs and keeps painting her nails. She doesn't seem inclined to answer her sister. Destiny groans and looks at me. "Don't even try screwing around with boys, Vae. They're nothing but trouble."

And don't I know it.

A/N: I just did a love tester thing for these guys (I know I'm weird) and here are the results:

Vae & Ryde- 99%

Vae & Jack- 60%

Hope & Shane- 72%

Wow. Even Hope and Shane are better off than Vae and Jack haha. We'll see how this goes....