I had to hand it to her though. She knew what she was doing, and if her aim was to hurt me, it was working.

Bitch.

I looked away, and rested my arms one the side of the pool. I wasn’t sure I was going to last an entire week, but wouldn’t leaving mean that Stella had won?

Not really, I realized.

She’d already won.

She had Reid.

The water moved next to me, and I looked to the side just as Kennedy stopped next to me. Her blonde hair was piled up on top of her head and her dark purple bikini matched the dyed tips.

“You look lost in thought,” she commented. “Anything you want to talk about?”

“Not really,” I replied. “Not much worth talking about I’m afraid.”

More laughter came from behind us, and I knew it was Stella without having to turn around. Kennedy looked over her shoulder, and let out an annoyed groan. “Can she be any more of an exhibitionist? God, she’s such an attention whore.”

I didn’t say anything. I didn’t want to turn in their direction and see Stella having fun with Reid.

God, I was so pathetic. I was starting to piss myself off with the whole ‘woe is me’ routine. It had to stop.

Sadly, I could only think of one way to do that.

Cut the few ties I had left keeping me tethered to Reid.

I had to put our lifetime of memories we’d made into a box, and keep them there, at least until it didn’t hurt so much anymore.

“Just ignore them,” I finally said. “She’s not worth it.”

“Are you okay being here, Jade? I mean, with having to see them together?”

“I’m trying to be,” I replied honestly. “I can’t blame him for moving on when I pushed him away.”

Kennedy sighed, and rested her chin on her palm as she looked at me. “I understand why you pushed him away, but what I don’t get is why you allow that bitch to get to you, or why Reid allows her to dictate whether or not the two of you can be friends. I thought he was better than that.”

“She’s threatened by me,” I said quietly. “I don’t blame her. Wouldn’t you be threatened by someone who was in love with Dane?”

“That’s different,” she argued. “Stella is threatened by you because you mean a lot to Reid, and she knows that.”

“Even so,” I sighed. “I fucked up any chance I had with Reid, and now he’s moved on.”

Kennedy huffed. “Moved on my ass. He’s trying to cover up what he feels about you by wasting his time with that...thing. He’ll wake up eventually, but until then you shouldn’t allow Stella’s petty attempts to rile you up, get to you. Beat her at her own game by not playing.”

I was about to respond when Kennedy was pulled underwater. She sputtered, and spun around to slap Dane, but he dodged her hand, and pulled her against him.

“Hey Kitten,” he laughed.

“Dane, you ass, I was talking to Jade!” She tried to sound annoyed, but one smile from him and she turned to putty in his hands.

“Mind if I steal my girl for a while?” He asked, looking down at me. Dane Winters was tall, and had a body many girls had fawned over, but he was very much enamored with my best friend, which made him tolerable. Sometimes. When he wasn’t being a dick.

“Sure,” I said. “I was about to head up anyway. I’m beat.”

Kennedy pouted. “Ah really? You can hang out with us if you want? I swear Dane will behave.”

Dane chuckled, and nipped at Kennedy’s throat. “I can’t promise that, sweetheart.”

I couldn’t help but smile at them. They’d had so much to get through, and I knew they loved each other.

“It’s fine, I’ll just go up, take a shower and climb into bed.”

“See you in the morning?” Asked Kennedy. She squeezed my hand below the water, telling me she was here if I needed her.

“Of course.”

I moved back towards the pool steps, and let out a breath when I saw Reid and Stella had disappeared.

Thank God.

At least I could leave without having to see them groping each other.

I stepped into my sandals, and wrapped my towel around my body. I rounded the corner, and should have been paying better attention because my foot caught on something, and I fell onto the hard marble floor. My hands stung from the impact, and I swallowed the need to cry out by biting my lip.

“Ouch,” I muttered. I turned my head, and saw Stella glaring down at me.

“You’d better watch your step, Jade. You could get yourself seriously hurt.”

I frowned. The Hobbit had fucking tripped me.

“What is your problem?” I asked, standing up and dusting my hands off on my towel. I was quite a bit taller than Stella, so I ended up looking down at her.

“You’re my problem,” she snapped, completely undeterred by our height difference. “You keep staring at Reid, and it’s time you stopped. He doesn’t want you Jade, and you need to get over it. I saw you, at dinner, while we were in the pool. It’s pathetic.”

It was pathetic, but I wasn’t about to tell her that.

“He’s my friend,” I replied lamely.

Where the fuck was feisty Jade when I needed her?

“I made it clear that it was either you or me, and he chose me, so just do us all a favor and stay the fuck away from him. He made it obvious he doesn’t want anything to do with you, so why haven’t you caught the hint yet?”

Her words hit their mark, but they also stirred something else inside me.

Anger.

My need to protect myself.

The old Jade.

I stepped closer to Stella, sure to encroach on her personal space. “You don’t know a thing about my friendship with Reid. If he wanted me out of his life for good he would have told me himself.”

Stella’s mouth twisted and her smile turned sinister. “You poor, stupid girl. Reid feels too sorry for you to say anything, but I don’t. So here’s the deal, stay away from him, and we won’t have any problems, got it?”

I shook my head, and started to turn. “No, we don’t ‘got it’. I don’t take orders, least of all from Reid’s latest bed fly. So if I were you, I’d turn the fuck around and pretend this conversation never happened.”

I started walking away, but a sharp tug of my hair had me stumbling backwards.

“You bitch!” Shrieked Stella. I fell to the ground, hitting my elbow on the floor, and lifted my arm just in time to deflect Stella’s fist. My head hit the floor so hard my vision blurred but at least there was no way Psycho Hobbit was going to bruise my face.

“Get off me!” I yelled, deflecting another punch.

“He’s mine!” Stella’s shrill voice echoed around us. “He doesn’t want you!” She spat. She’d somehow managed to straddle me, and I struggled to keep her from clawing at my face. “He said all you were was a fuck, and that it meant nothing to him. Get it yet? He doesn’t fucking want you!”

She was lying. She had to have been. Reid would have never said anything of the kind.

Before I could tell her as much, she was lifted off my body, and Kennedy was at my side. “Oh my God, are you okay?”

“Let go of me!” Stella fought Dane’s grasp. She elbowed him in the face, but he didn’t let go of her.