Interdependent (Book 2 in EBTWOG series)

Chapter 7

I watch as the numbers get closer to Trystan and Ryder's floor. Worry starts to eat at me from the inside. Storm is annoyed at me and Trystan and Ryder are falling out with their parents because of me. It feels like I can't do anything right.

The lift eventually pulls to a stop before the doors open seconds later. Trystan and his father are both missing from the room, however, their mother is still there talking to Ryder and the other guys. When they hear the lift arrive, they all look toward me as I walk out of it.

When they notice that Storm is not with me, some of the guys send me sympathetic smiles. Colton stands up and looks like he wants to say something, but Trystan and Ryder's mother says something to Ryder before coming toward me. I see Colton out of the corner of my eye fall back down onto the sofa.

"Bambi, right? Can we talk?" she requests. I hear tiny feet padding on the floor and welcome Sophie with open arms. I hold her shoulders as I try and figure out what Ryder and Trystan's mother's motives are and whether to go with her. Not wanting to make a bad impression, I agree.

"Mom," Ryder calls in a warning tone.

"What? I just want to get to know her, girl to girl. We won't be too long," she replies.

"You can bring her," she continues looking down at Sophie who doesn't look like she's going anywhere. Their mother's trying to sound accommodating and polite, her too-big lips stretching into a smile, however, her eyes don't get the message and her smile seems somewhat forced and judgemental.

Sophie tugs on the fabric of my shirt, and without taking my gaze from Trystan and Ryder's mother, I bend to pick Sophie up. I situate her on my hip, and she begins to play with the hair she can reach.

"Why don't we go out to the balcony." What kind of conversation does she want to have with me, where no-one else can hear us? I follow behind her, meeting Ryder's concerned eyes as I pass him. Now I'm worried.

She pulls the door open and steps to the side allowing me through. As I go through the door, I get a waft of her sickly sweet perfume.

"You seem like a nice girl," she says, turning to me as the door closes behind me. Her tone is trying to be as sweet as her perfume, making her pixie-like voice even higher, however, it's not working as she continues with a but. "But what are my boys to you, what are they all to you?"

I move Sophie in my arms. "They're just friends," I tell her, but as I say it I don't believe it. Are we just friends? I've kissed more than one of them, and after all that are we staying "just friends"? Friends don't kiss.

"Unlikely," she says, almost mocking me. "Which of my boys are you sleeping with? Or is it both? Have you got them both wrapped around your little finger?" I go to say something opening my mouth, but she continues, her sickly sweet tone gone altogether. "I know, I know, you "love" each other. This isn't a new thing, trust me, I've heard it all before. But, honey, it's not love, is it?" she says as if I could confide in her.

"I-" I start, going to defend myself, wanting to tell her that I don't love them, but she soldiers on not giving me the chance. A part of me, as she talks, knows that I wouldn't have got anything out anyway as I would have stopped myself. Do I love them? I don't think that I'm in love with them, but I love them for everything that they have done for me.

"We're not blind. We've seen the money leaving the account, and it didn't take us long once we came home to realize what was happening. They can be stupid with their money - they don't realize that people will use them for it. A hotel room, a phone, a bracelet to name a few. This isn't things you buy a 'friend'," she says.

"I didn't ask them to buy all of those things for me," I object, clutching Sophie tighter to me.

"Hm. Maybe at first, but you can't tell me that once they started spending the money on you, you didn't enjoy it. Who would stay in a hotel that someone else paid for if you didn't want to?"