You Will Be Mine (Forever and Ever #7)(38)

He shrugged. “No. I don’t think so.”

“Well, if you made a promise to your best friend, would you ever break it?”

“No.” He said it without any hesitation.

“What if it was the best thing for them?” I pressed.

“A promise is a promise.” He sucked on his straw even though his cup was empty. It made an annoying slurping sound.

“Can you knock it off for a minute?” I snapped.

“What?” he said, offended. “I’m trying to eat. It’s not my fault you’re moody.”

I rubbed my temple because he drove me crazy sometimes. “If Cayson made you promise to keep a secret, but that secret was hurting him, would you still do it?”

He shrugged. “He’s never asked me anything like that before.”

“Hypothetically,” I said.

“I don’t know.” He sucked the straw again and made the same annoying sound.

I snatched it away. “Knock it off.”

He grabbed my soda and drank that instead.

At least it wasn’t making a noise.

“Why are you asking?” He put the drink down when it was empty.

Should I tell him? I promised Skye I wouldn’t say anything, and I hated the idea of betraying her trust. But my gut was telling me to come clean, to take the hit and do the right thing. How could I live with myself if my two best friends walked away from each other? How could I sit by and watch Skye cry all day and night?

“Trinity, is there something going on?” Slade directed his full attention on me.

I knew Skye would hate me if I confessed her secret. She would never trust me again. Our friendship wouldn’t be the same. And I wouldn’t blame her for feeling that way. I was the one person she trusted with this, and now I was going to go against my word.

Slade studied my face, concern coming into his features. “Why are you being so cryptic? If there’s something going on, you can tell me. But don’t expect me to read your mind.”

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. When I felt calm, I opened them again. “Okay, I need to tell you something.”

He scooted closer to me and rested on the edge of his seat. “You want to have a threesome?”

I gave him a look of hate. “Slade, I’m being serious.”

“Oh, sorry. What?”

“Skye…didn’t actually cheat on Cayson.” I watched his face when I finished my sentence, looking at his reaction.

Instead of relief or surprise, he was just confused. “What?”

“Skye didn’t cheat on Skye. That was all a lie.”

His eyes narrowed. “But I saw her with that guy. I walked in on them.”

“It was staged,” I said simply. “We paid the guy to play the part and I tricked you into walking in there. If Skye just told Cayson she cheated on him, he wouldn’t believe her. So we had you do the dirty work.”

He slowly leaned back in his chair and his mouth was wide open. He seemed speechless, completely caught off guard. He leaned forward again to speak but shut his mouth instead. “I…what?”

I gave him a moment to process it.

He finally found his voice. “Why the hell would she do that? Is this some sick joke?”

“No,” I said immediately. “She needed Cayson to go to Stanford. The only way she could get him to go was if she broke his heart.”

He rested his face in his hands and sighed. Then he slowly lowered his hands. “That is the most fucked up shit I’ve ever heard.”

“I know…” I was guilty and I knew it.

“Do you have any idea what he’s been through?” His eyes burned in hate.

“After being around Skye, I can imagine…”

“No,” he snapped. His eyes bored into mine. “It’s totally different. Cayson thinks she betrayed him and their entire relationship. He’s been questioning everything ever since. The guy is a damn mess. It’s not the same thing at all. If Skye thinks she knows pain, she’s wrong.” He shook his head, his jaw clenched tight. “I think I hate her even more now.”

“Don’t say that…”

“It’s true. This is worse than cheating on him. She put him through pain on purpose. Who the hell does that?”

“She did it so he would go to Stanford. If anything, she was selfless so Cayson could keep his dream.”

“What’s the point of him having his dream if he’s totally miserable?”

I didn’t have a response to that.

He covered his face again. “Fuck, I can’t believe this…”

I stared at the table.

He ran his fingers through his hair and sighed. “Why are you telling me now?”

I grabbed the wrapping from the straw and fidgeted with it in my hands. “Because I can’t stand to see Skye like this any longer. And I can only imagine how Cayson must feel. They should be together, not going through the worst pain possible apart.”

He stared at me, still pissed off. “You want me to tell him.” It wasn’t a question.

I nodded slightly.

He stared out the window.

“Don’t you think he’ll be happy?”

He laughed in a sad way. “It’s been three months, Trinity. That’s a long time.”