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“We get it,” Ronan said. Declan tapped my arm, and I turned my face towards him expectantly. Frowning, he raised an eyebrow at me, and I signed him our conversation.

His face paled, and he quickly turned towards the wall.

“First I’m not allowed to talk about my breasts, and now I’m not allow to mention your boners?” I asked in disbelief.

“I’m just going to point out that our little Addie has had bare minimum human interaction,” Ronan said, a smirk in his voice. To me, he said, “I take it you’re not the most socially capable person?”

I scoffed. “I’m socially able to talk about dicks and stuff.”

“Sweetheart...” Asher groaned. “You can’t just...I mean...this is...ugh. Does anyone want to take it from here?”

“No!” was the immediate response from the other five boys.

Ugh. Calax was such a dick.

“What?” The dick in question sputtered. “Why me?”

“Because you’re my nemesis,” I pointed out. “And I just felt like thinking of it.”

There was a long pause.

“Notyourdick,” I hurried to explain, “but youasa dick.”

“Are we ever going to hear the story of how you guys became enemies in the first place?” Asher asked. There was a laugh in his voice, and I reached over Ryder’s head to slug him. I only felt moderately guilty for the action.

“Vicious,” Ryder said with a smirk.

“I’m curious about that story too,” Tam piped up. “What exactly happened?”

“Well,” I began, stretching my taut muscles. My shirt unintentionally rode up with the movement, and I noticed both Ryder and Declan’s eyes both zero in on the swath of skin exposed. Now, it was my turn to blush, and I quickly tried to compose my features into some semblance of control.

“Well?” Ryder pressed, knocking my knee with his own.

“I don’t want to talk about myself anymore,” I huffed. If there was one thing I didn’t feel comfortable talking about, it was my first meeting with Calax. I could tell from the tightening of his features that Calax felt the same.

“Does our little princess have a secret with the big bad wolf?” Ronan cooed.

“He’s more of an asshole than a wolf,” I mused.

Calax grunted. “Why do you...? Okay, never mind. Moving on.”

“Listen,” I began hesitantly. I shifted from knee to knee, and Declan put a gentle hand on my arm to settle me. Realizing that I had his attention as well, I spoke aloud while simultaneously signing. “I’m sorry if I say stuff that is inappropriate or wrong or whatever. I have never...well....I never had friends before, guys or girls. My entire life I’ve had no one. Sure, I have a spine made of steelnow, but it was forged from continuous battles I had to face alone. There was one point in my life where I was confined to my room with only my tutor as company. I don’t know how to interact with people, especially guys. If I say something wrong or stupid, just tell me. My entire life experience has been from books and television...” I trailed off, suddenly feeing silly for my impromptu confession. The world should seriously invest in a manual for these types of things: Making Friends for Dummies. Did they have something I could buy off Amazon?

“We understand, Sweetheart,” Asher said. “Nobody here is judging you, okay?”

“Except for maybe Calax because he’s your nemesis and a bastard,” pointed out Ryder smugly. I heard rather than saw said bastard hit Ryder upside the head. I couldn’t help but giggle.

“I feel like you guys know everything about me, but I know nothing about you guys,” I continued, desperate to steer the conversation away from my depressing childhood and into safer grounds. Friends ask friends questions about each other, right?

Then why did all the guys look uneasy?

“We don’t know everything about you,” Ronan pointed out. “We don’t know your favorite color or your favorite animal.”

“Or how you learned sign language,” Tamson added softly.

“Green, but not a grass type of green but a yellowish green. Kind of like Declan’s eyes,” I answered, and my mind flashed to a different set of eyes. Eyes that had haunted me for years now, but also gave me strength. The eyes of someone I once loved unconditionally and who had loved me in return. Biting my lip to keep from admitting all that, I said, “and a white tiger.”

“The third question?” Asher prompted.