9

Lana’s POV

My heart clenched so hard in my chest that I felt like I wanted to die as I watched them walk away.

Why was Drake doing this for a girl he just met? What was so special about Nina? How could she easily get them to act that way? I was not the type of woman to put other women down but something about her screamed fake, attention seeking and bad.

I looked away from their figures in the distance and looked down at my feet. The first thing I noticed was my dirty toenails, and the dirt stained shorts I was wearing. Nina was the perfect woman for Paul and Drake and looking at how I was, they probably, especially, Drake, saw me as one of their sisters and I hated it.

I looked up to find Paul. He was nowhere in sight and the many boulders around made it hard for me to find him. I needed to speak to him about his issue with Nina. With the idea in my head, I began to look for him around the beach. Fortunately, I found him sitting on the sand with his back resting against a boulder, staring out into the crashing waves. He barely acknowledged my presence until I sat down beside him on the sand, he sighed.

“What is it, Lana?” From the tone of his voice, he did not want me near him.

“What is going on?” I asked, ignoring whatever signs he was giving me. “What just happened there and why did you break up with Nina?”

He tossed a stone away and turned his head to look at me. He stared at my face, scanning every part of my face before smirking.

“She cheated on me.”

‘What?!” I sat up with my back straight and scooted closer to him. “What do you mean she

cheated on you?”

Did she cheat on him with Drake? Because when I woke up this morning and saw no signs of him and when Paul had come to me to ask if I had seen Nina, jealousy sprouted inside of me. I refused to believe that they were together but when I had seen them walk into camp, my heart shattered and now Paul was telling me that Nina cheated on him.

“W-with who?” I muttered, feeling too afraid to speak at a high tone.

“It’s not with Drake if that’s what you’re wondering… The thing is, last month, she had sex with her ex when she went on a trip with him behind my back. It was Pope on the race team that told about it. He had seen her talking on the phone with her ex. I trailed her and indeed, she was cheating on me.”

“And you didn’t break up with her?” I asked and eyed him as if he was going crazy. He technically was for not breaking up with her.

“I chose to ignore it because, well… you know, some fans already know that we’re together. I didn’t want any drama since I was preparing for the Grand Prix.”

Paul was a Formula 1 racer and the rabid fans he had were toxic and weird when it came to him. They always had news of everything that happened to him and made sure it hit the media. I understood what he meant but taking her back was too much.

“I’m just tired of her. Well, I already broke up with her and she can go hit it with Drake, since he might have eyes for her.”

I gulped when my heart ached at his words, which made me remember that Drake was blindly falling for Nina. Now that I knew that she was up to no good, a characterless person, I had a reason to dislike her.

“Is she still with her ex?”

“No.”

I nodded. “Drake… Drake really likes her and I don’t know how to feel about this. I’m not even sure he’ll listen to me.”

Paul laughed. “I need that bastard to learn a lesson.”

My spine straightened when Paul leaned toward me with a dark look on his face. His eyes roamed my body, which had me feeling crowded in my lungs. He smirked and shifted his gaze to my face.

“It seems like we love to share women. Every woman he wants, tends to get my attention and every woman I want or have, gets his attention. I won’t blame him… we have the same taste in women but, I am slowly getting territorial. He needs to back off or shit will get serious.”

By the time he was done talking, my mouth was open. He chuckled and held my chin then closed my mouth. My cheeks flushed from embarrassment but swapped to shock when his thumb rubbed at my lip.

“I think I know the best way to set him off,” he whispered and tilted his head to the side.

I studied his face; the way his thick brows narrowed, his eyes darkened and his slightly thick lips curved into a smirk. Even though I had eyes for Drake, I always reminded myself of how much of a perfection Paul was.

I blinked out of my state when he pulled back and rose to his feet.

“We leave in an hour. Find a way to reach out to that brother of mine and his new girl and inform them about it.”

He left, leaving me with the burden of how I was going to tell Drake about the fact that the girl he liked was not who he thought she was.

+++

The drive back home was a silent one. Drake and Nina had stayed in the back seat while I stayed in front with Paul. The atmosphere in the car was so toxic and suffocating, it made me angry and jealous because Nina and Drake acted bubbly with each other. I hated Drake so much for suddenly choosing some stranger over his sibling and friend. I didn’t care if he had the right to be happy since he owed me nothing but it just hurt.

Nina was dropped first at a bus stop that would lead her to her place while the drive home became more toxic. Once we got home, the boys went to their rooms and when their mom saw me and asked what was wrong, I lied and went after Drake.

I got to his room and walked in. He was sitting on the bed, scrolling through his phone. I stopped beside him and took a peek at the screen of his phone— He was texting Nina. That set me off and I angrily took the phone from his hand and threw it on the bed. He looked up at me, pissed.

“What the fuck was that?”

“Nina’s a cheater,” I said.

He grimaced. “Are you out of your mind? Where the fuck did that come from?”

“Paul told me and she’s fooling you. You need to know why Paul easily let her go and he knows that—”

“Lana, enough!” He yelled out and stood up.

This was the first time Drake yelled at me. He had never done such before. It made my heart shatter. I took a step back in shock and It hurt even more when he didn’t even look remorseful.

“Listen to me, Lana. You may be my friend but you need to know your fucking limits. We are just friends. I respect you alot, so don’t try to make me lose that.”

I hated this.

“Why are you being like this over some girl you just met?” My jealousy, hate and anger was roaring inside me.

“Lana, leave my room.”

I waited to see what he was going to do or say but he only kept his glare on my face.

“Did I fucking stutter? Leave!”

I turned around and ran out of the room. I continued to run until I was out of earshot. I made my way to one of the balconies, this one facing the side of the house. I shut the doors and started to cry bitterly. My heart felt so full I felt like I was going to suffocate. I rushed to the couch closest to me and sat down on it. I rested against it and cried into my arms.

Why was Drake suddenly being so mean to me? What did I do? I was only being a friend to him even though I had double intentions. Paul already broke up with her so he was free to be with her but this was just too much for me to handle it. Besides, Paul said they shared women.

But what I needed to understand is why they shared women. And what had Paul meant when he said he knew the best way to set him off. Whatever those meant, I just hated Drake at that moment. He hurt me and I don’t think I would ever recover from it.

My phone vibrated in my pocket, making me wipe my cheeks and eyes. I pulled it out and saw I got a text from an unknown number. I opened the text and blinked at the content.

Unknown Number: Stay in your lane, you house rat.

Who the fuck would send such to me?