Covet (Clann)

heartache no matter what, and she might not believe me or appreciate it if I said anything anyways.
    So I stayed out of it. It was Tristan’s mess to clean up, not mine.
    But I felt sorry for Bethany all the same. What girl could resist those smiles of his, the way he laughed or touched the small of your back while leading you into a room, how he tilted his head down closer to you when you talked to him…
    When the dance was nearly over, I told her I was going to go start the cleanup process in the dance room. She nodded without speaking to me, busy screwing the lid back onto a giant plastic tub of pickles.
    The cavernous back room was dimly lit by only strobing, color-changing lights on the stage. A fog machine working overtime in one corner to fill the dance floor with billowing clouds of smoke that clung to my ankles as I skirted the dancers. Even at a distance I could tell the dessert table by the wall was a wreck, littered with empty soda cans and food cartons. Might as well start cleaning there now and get a jump on things so we could all go home quicker after the dance ended.
    But before I could reach the table, my friends spotted me and grabbed my arms.
    “One dance!” Carrie yelled over the near deafening music and the crowd. “It won’t kill you!”
    They tugged me into the center of the dance floor as a song was ending, and I wondered where Ron was. Then a fast-paced country song began, one that I recognized as Anne’s favorite, and we shared a grin. The lyrics were infectious as the male singer sang about life going from bad to worse and walking through Hell. All four of us wound up singing the song at the top of our lungs while shaking our butts to the beat.
    For three brief minutes, I let it all go…the stress, the sadness, the loneliness and missing Tristan all the time. I pushed it all to the side and pretended I was just a normal girl jumping around and singing at the top of my lungs with my best friends in a barn in the middle of nowhere.
    And man, it felt good.
    But all too soon, the DJ announced the last song of the night, and it was a slow one full of heartbreak and longing. My cue to beat a hasty retreat.
    I moved over to the dessert table by the wall to do my job, grateful there was always work to turn to for a distraction. But then out of the corner of my eye I saw Ron walk over and ask Anne to dance. She agreed, and I couldn’t help but stop cleaning and watch them. They were so completely and thrillingly cute together. It was like watching a romantic movie, only more intense because they were both my friends and I so desperately wanted them to be happy together.
    Then I saw Tristan and Bethany swaying together, her cheek pressed to his chest, his chin resting on top of her head.
    The same way he used to hold me.
    As if he could feel my stare, Tristan looked at me, squinting under the moving lights over the dance area. Despite the darkness of the area where I stood frozen, our eyes met.
     
     
    TRISTAN
    The collar of my prince costume tightened like a noose around my neck, and my hands were sweating inside the too-tight gloves. Why had I ever agreed to wear this thing?
    I jerked the gloves off behind Bethany’s back and stuffed them into a pocket in my slacks, then unbuttoned my collar one-handed. But I still felt like I was choking.
    I couldn’t do this anymore.
    That look in Savannah’s eyes, so filled with accusation, was like being slapped awake.
    Not to mention Bethany had her arms wrapped around my waist tightly enough to squeeze the air from my lungs.
    What was I doing?
    All these months, all the signs had been there, and I’d been too messed up over getting my heart ripped to shreds by Savannah to see how I was breaking someone else’s.
    Bethany was head over heels for me.
    I’d believed we were just friends and that Bethany understood that, too. I should have broken my personal rule about reading others’ thoughts and checked hers to be sure we were on the same page right from the start.
    Both Emily and Savannah were right. They’d tried to warn me, and like an idiot I hadn’t listened.
    Bethany was a great girl and a good friend. But I could never feel for her the way I still felt about Savannah, even if trying to fight the Clann and the council was hopeless.
    Even if we could never be together again, Savannah was the one. She always had been, and she always would be.
    I looked down and found Bethany staring up at me, her eyes shiny with tears.
    She knew. Somehow,