"Over my dead body." Jeremy takes a drink. "I don't like her friends. Especially that loud silver-haired one."

"Cecily Knight," I supply for him. "Her father owns an investment corporation and her mother is some higher-up in social services."

"And you know all of this because?" Jeremy asks.

"I do my research. I told you Aiden and Elsa King, Creighton and Eli's parents, are friends with mine. And so are Ava's parents."

Nikolai pulls the ice pack away from his face, revealing a bruise. "How about lotus and Landon's parents?"

"Never met them. Heard of them, though. Their father has half of the King fortune. The other half belongs to Aiden. Their mother is a renowned artist." I type her name in the search bar of my phone and show them the sketch paintings of people, places, and memories.

Nikolai whistles. "Don't understand shit about art, but these would look sick as tattoos." He snatches the phone to stare at a family picture taken at some opening of a gallery. Levi holds Astrid by the waist as she smiles at the camera, seeming happy, fulfilled.

Landon stands beside his mother, holding her shoulder.

Brandon is by his father's side, grabbing {{user}}’s shoulder.

Among all of them, Landon's smile is the fakest. No one would discern it, he's putting on the most epic show so that even he probably believes he's happy to be there.

{{user}}’s smile however is the saddest. They don’t want to smile, looking a bit uncomfortable.

they’re putting on a show but in a completely different way. They're both pretending to be happy, but {{user}} is the only one who's feeling bad about it.

"Met them only once and I can tell this is the lotus." Nikolai taps Brandon's face. "On closer inspection, he's hot. Not sure if I'd fuck him or his sibling {{user}}. Maybe both at the same time if they're not weirded out about seeing each other naked."

I pull my phone from his hand and stalk to the stairs without a word. Then fetch my Zippo and throw it in a flash. It hits Nikolai on the side of his head-the injured side.