Cayden looked at me, her eyes wide. I didn't think I'd ever seen Cayden genuinely scared, but at that moment, she looked like a frightened child.

"What do we do?" she said, her voice low. There wasn't enough time to get anywhere. Cayden couldn't hide—Jaci would see her eventually. There was nowhere she could go.

We separated, sitting up a little straighter like two teenagers whose parents just caught them making out. I looked at Cayden, trying to work through every possible thing I could say.

"Is there someone home?" Jaci said.

"Hey, Jaci," I said, trying my best to act normal.

"Vina! Hey," Jace said. I heard her keys jangle and the sounds of her shoes getting kicked off by the front door. "Is there someone here? There's a car parked out front that I don't recognize... And by how good it looks, I would definitely remember a model like that."

"Um," I said, not sure how exactly to respond. I just listened to the sounds of her footsteps as she walked into the living room to greet me. When she saw me, she smiled, but then as she took in the whole scene, her expression faded a little. Her eyes drifted to next to me on the couch, her eyes landing on Cayden. "Oh... Cayden right?" she asked as she recalled Sebastian's description and pictures of her. "What are you doing here?"

I cringed internally at Jaci's lack of subtly. I understood it was probably weird to see Cayden so unexpectedly, but she could at least seem nicer to her face. I was clearly hanging out with her for one reason or another. What if Cayden and I were really good friends? It felt rude of Jaci to use a dissatisfied tone toward her and it really rubbed me the wrong way.

"Hey," Cayden greeted her.

Jaci's gaze traveled from us on the couch to the wine, back to us. "What's going on?"

"We're just catching up," I said, hoping the lie sounded believable. It was going to be hard to pass since, as far as Jaci knew, Cayden and I only knew each other through Sebastian. But it was totally unreasonable—Cayden had gone through the effort of getting me home. If anything, it would make sense that we would've become friends after that. I hoped Jaci would lean into the sisterhood side of things, I really wasn't ready to come out to her and I definitely wasn't ready to tell her about me and Cayden.

Jaci looked between us again, clearly picking up on something. "I didn't realize you two were so close."

"We bonded on the drive back that one time after Thanksgiving," I said. I hoped that my tone was forward enough that she didn't have to ask for clarification about what one time meant.

"Does Sebastian know?"

"Why is that his business?" I asked, feeling the rage building in my chest. I usually let things pass, but I was realizing that maybe I'd been a little too passive with the people in my life. Maybe I should've been a little blunter with them—or at the very least, allowed myself to feel upset over what they'd done to me. It was much easier to act like everything that happened with Sebastian never happened, but I hadn't really seen my friends because of it. They'd all pretty clearly picked Sebastian over me.

"I mean, you're his ex and she is his best friend since childhood," Jaci said. "You can't tell me you'd just conveniently forgotten that."

"Don't speak to her like that," Cayden said, stepping in.

"Maybe I should be asking you instead," Jaci said, turning to Cayden. "Does Sebastian know you're getting cozy with his ex-girlfriend? This is... a pretty big betrayal on both of your parts."

"What's wrong with you?" I asked her.

Jaci's expression softened slightly. "I'm just saying. This isn't right. I know Sebastian hurt you but is all of this really necessary? I mean, how much could you really have in common?"

More than you'd think, I thought.

"Cayden, I think you should leave," Jaci said. "I need to talk to Vina."

I sat up a little straighter, wondering where Jaci had gotten all of this from. What made her think she could suddenly talk to me like this? Had she always been this way, or was this a new development? Why was she suddenly being all protective over Sebastian, as if he didn't get physical with me? This wasn't just picking sides in a break-up—it was cutting out the person who'd been abused rather than the abuser.

Cayden turned to look at me and I nodded, telling her it was okay to leave. I didn't know how ugly things were going to get between me and Jaci and I didn't want Cayden to be involved any further. Clearly, Jaci wasn't holding anything back and it seemed like it was only going to get worse. I realized that I didn't even really seem scared by that—all of this had maybe just been a long time coming.

Cayden threw a glance my way, telling me that it wasn't the end of our date, even if she was being kicked out. When she left, she didn't even look at Jaci.

Jaci stared at me until the door closed and then once Cayden was gone, she uncrossed her arms and looked at me. "What the fuck is this, Vina? Is this why you've been sneaking around?

"What—"

"Don't lie to me," she said. "That bullshit about seeing Griffin? I had my doubts, but now that Cayden is here and I didn't even know you two were friends, I know there's more to this than what I saw today. What is going on here? Is this just to get back at Sebastian? You're not doing a great job at it since he has no idea."

I fumed, annoyed and a little embarrassed that she'd seen through my set-up with Griffin. But it seemed to make sense—I hadn't done a particularly convincing job of making it seem like I was into him. I definitely could've done more to make it seem like we really were seeing each other. "Why are you assuming this has anything to do with Sebastian?" I asked.

"Because you are his ex and she is his best friend," Jaci said. "What's the appeal of suddenly getting close with her? Doesn't that feel weird to you? Are you just using her?"

"What would I be using her for?" I asked.

"I don't know. Just to say fuck you to Sebastian?"

"That's a little hard to do when I didn't even like Sebastian in that way to begin with. You think I care enough to get back at him? You think I want to waste even more of my time on him? You are so oblivious... I mean some friend you are to not notice how unhappy I was—or how he emotionally abused me the entire time." I said and Jaci froze slightly as she blinked her eyes a few times to process what I just said. "I mean clearly I'm gay Jaci, so why would I still be out to seek some weird revenge on him? Did it ever occur to you that I actually like her?"

Jaci inhaled a sharp breath, "It's still wrong. I mean, I'm his friend—"

"And you're also my friend, unless I'm reading our relationship wrong," I said. "I mean, we met before him and you're sticking up for him? After everything, he's done?"

Jaci just shook her head. "Are you going to tell him or should I?" she finally asked. "Right now—make the decision. Us or her."

I stared at Jaci, my heart pounding in my chest. What kind of ultimatum was that? I had to give up Cayden in order to keep my friends?

Even though I was pissed at Jaci, I took a deep breath. I lived with Jade and Jaci, which meant I'd have to see them. And I really did like being around them. Jaci was probably just in a mood because I was keeping secrets from her, and putting her in a weird position over Sebastian. We'd get over it eventually.

But did I really want to? Did I really want to make amends with her?

No, a little voice in the back of my head said. It didn't even feel like a hard decision.

"Don't make me say it out loud," I said. "It's just going to hurt your feelings."

Jaci was quiet for a long time. "When were you going to tell me you were into women? Or I don't know... that you were dating him only to hide that you were gay?"

My face turned bright red, the questions completely catching me off guard. But I put myself back on my feet quickly. There was so much going on in this conversation that my head was spinning—I was sure I'd be processing it for days after. "Don't change the subject. Why do you even care about Sebastian so much?"

"He's like a brother to me—he also doesn't lie to me," Jaci said, her tone softening.

"No you can't turn this around," I said. "What makes you even think you know what me and Cayden are?"

Jaci sighed. "Because we all know who Cayden is and with the way you two were when I walked in... this didn't seem like girl talk. You've been sneaking out, you've been weird, you've been staying the night at places. I had a feeling you were seeing someone you shouldn't, but I thought it was like a professor or something, not Cayden."

"What do you even get by saying that?"

"Can you just be honest with me for a second, Vina? I mean I thought we were friends, too, but apparently not, since all you've done is lie to me since your breakup with Sebastian."

"I mean, clearly you've figured it all out on your own, so you didn't really even need me," I said. "Are you just mad that I didn't tell you? Are you mad that I didn't come out to you directly? Because you can blame that all you want, but you chose Sebastian. Why would I share a secret with you like that if I thought you liked Sebastian more than me?"

"Honestly, we all do like Sebastian a little more than you," Jaci said, the comment completely breaking me. I just stared at her like I'd been gut-punched.

"What are you talking about?"

"I mean, look at yourself. You lied about yourself for three years and you wonder why we chose someone we actually knew over you? Someone who was always present even after the breakup?" Jaci asked plunging the sharp knife deeper into my chest.

"What are you saying?"

Jaci shrugged. "I'm just... yeah, we did pick Sebastian over you. And it wasn't a hard choice."

I stared at her, unable to even comprehend where all of this was coming from. Had I just not seen it? Had I really been so shut off from everything that I couldn't tell that my own friends didn't really even like me?

My head was spinning. Clearly, there'd been pieces to the story that I'd been missing. Had I really been so wrapped up in keeping my secrets that I'd lost my sense of self?

The more I thought about it, the more I realized it was true. Sebastian had turned me into someone who was insecure, scared, and self-conscious. He would say really mean things off-handedly, yell at me constantly, and always make everything my fault. Even the little moments too. The times I was upset when he didn't seem to care. The times he would throw my emotions back at me.

I got up from the couch, realizing this was probably one of the easiest decisions I'd ever have to make. My friends clearly didn't want me and I had no allegiance to Sebastian. If Cayden wanted to leave me for the sake of her friendship, fine. But either way—I was over it. They weren't going to treat me like that person anymore. I was over being a shadow of a person.

I got up, grabbed my purse and shoes, and then promptly walked out, not even bothering to respond to Jaci.

Hi guys:) This one was really intense... How do you guys feel about this chapter? Do you think Jaci or Vina is right? What would you have said or done?

Let me know your opinions,

Weekendlustt