Broken Gates

doesn’t mean you’re her second choice. It is possible to have strong feelings for more than one person at the same time, maybe even love two people at the same time.”

“Speaking from experience?” Jeremy asked a little too casually. I turned to look at him and I realized he was now staring at me with question in his eyes. I looked away quickly and bit my lip. Why did I feel like such a horrible person for loving both Bryn and Khol? “You can talk to me. We’re supposed to be friends now, remember?”

I gnawed on my lower lip for a few seconds before exhaling a huge breath. I began to speak while studying the far wall, unable to meet Jeremy’s eyes for fear of breaking down if I allowed myself to see pity or some other soft emotion in him. “Does that make me a horrible person?” Tears began to gather in the corners of my eyes despite my best efforts to stave them off. “I’m pregnant, and I don’t know which one of them is the father. I love them both, despite everything that’s happened, I do, I really do. And I don’t know how to handle it.” I paused and swallowed a few times trying to combat the sudden dryness in my throat. “Do you think I’m a slut, Jeremy?” As soon as I let myself utter the words out loud, it was like I’d opened the flood gate and rivers of salt water began to track down my cheeks.

“What? You can’t be serious,” Jeremy exclaimed in utter disbelief.

It was then that Jenna decided to make her entrance, and a dramatic one it was indeed. She flung Khol’s door open with such force it slammed against the wall behind it and swung back to hit her in the shoulder. She staggered more from the surprise of it but toppled over none the less and landed on her ass with a look of shock intermingled with anger etched across her face. She looked over at me and blew her bangs out of her face with a puff of exasperated breath. “What’d I miss?”

Jeremy left my side and hurried over to help Jenna to her feet. As soon as they touched, a huge smile spread across her face that left him seeming a bit dazed. I had the sudden urge to look away like I was witnessing something I had no right to, as if the look they shared was meant to be kept behind closed doors. No us yet, my ass Jeremy. I’d never seen Jenna look at a guy with the true look of adoration that she was currently giving him, lust yes, but this was definitely more than that. And like a light switched off, Jenna turned her focus from Jeremy to me and narrowed her eyes. “That’s not really a good look for you, you know? I mean if you were going to do something drastic with your hair I would have thought you’d have the sense to consult with me first.” How could I have almost forgotten? Of course my new aversion to mirrors probably helped, not to mention that Jeremy hadn’t said anything. “And what’s up with your eyes?” Jenna’s face pinched together as if my appearance physically pained her, and who knew maybe it did. Although it was probably more likely she was just pained by the fact that she thought I went and had a major makeover without her help.

I raised my hand up to touch my hair self-consciously and fresh tears spilled down my face. “I know it’s awful,” I hiccupped.

Jenna came to stand in front of me and began to study me with her self-proclaimed discerning eyes. “This is why you should have come to me, grasshopper.” Her lips twitched up into a smile. “But no worries, your sensei is here now.”

“You don’t understand. I didn’t do this to myself.” I motioned frantically at my white hair. “She did—the Queen.”

“Huh. Well, she might be a queen of something but it’s definitely not of colorists.” Ugh. What did I have to do to get her to understand?

Thankfully Jeremy seemed to be quicker on the uptake at the moment. “It’s not dyed, Jenna.” His eyes widened almost imperceptibly as he began studying me as well. “Her energy is different . . . way different. I can almost see the traces of the magic that did it. It’s permanent.”

“That bitch!” Jenna hissed. “She magically fried your hair? What the hell happened when you met with her?” And as if the words took a minute to seep into her consciousness, she whipped her head around to look at Jeremy. “What do you mean it’s permanent? Like P.J.’s hair is like this forever?”

“That’s usually what permanent means,” Jeremy retorted dryly.

Her face scrunched up into a look of pity as she turned back toward me again. “Oh, well, that’s okay. The bright side is that you can pick any color you want to dye it. You’ll have to do it more often to avoid getting white roots, but old people do it all the time so—”

“No!” I exclaimed in frustration. “It’s un-dyable! I’m stuck being a white haired freak for the rest of my very long dragon life!”

“At least you’re only half dragon so you won’t—”

A strangled sound escaped from me as I flung myself face down on Khol’s bed. “Just stop Jenna! Stop!” I screamed into the comforter. “Next maybe you’d like to bring up the fact that I don’t know who the father of my baby is!”

I felt the bed shift, a signal that Jenna had taken up residence next to me and then a moment later more movement meant Jeremy had joined her. “What happened when you met with her?” Jenna exclaimed as if I was the one antagonizing her. Typical.

“I’ll tell you what happened,” I grumbled as I rolled on my side away from her. “She turned my already screwed up life on its head. I don’t even know where to begin.”

“How about with why the hell did she fry your hair?”

I had to talk about all the things that had been going on with me and I didn’t even care what Jeremy heard, because I knew once I started talking it was all coming out. “I’m one hundred percent dragon. That’s the first thing.” The silence that clung to our little group told me I’d actually managed to shock both Jenna and Jeremy . . . a feat not to be taken lightly. “The second is that the Queen is—was actually my biological mother. She passed on her magic to me, which did this to my hair.” I tugged angrily on a few affronting white strands. “And this to my eyes.” I waved my hand in front of my face demonstratively. “By passing on her magic to me, I’m to be the next dragon Queen, but it also killed her and my father, even longer story, because of what she did. Bryn now has high tailed it for the hills because he thinks he’s especially not good enough for me now, and I hooked up with Khol because I realized I love him too. But I still love Bryn and so I’ve discovered that not only am I pregnant with a child who I don’t know who the father is, but I’m the future, or current dragon Queen, I’m really not sure, who is in love with two men at the same time, and—and—apparently I’m a slut now too!” I gasped for air having spit out everything without stopping to breathe or pause once, but it was all out there now.

“You are not a slut,” Jenna stated firmly. “Who said you were? If anyone is in this room, it’s me.”

“Jenna—” Jeremy started, but Jenna cut him off.

“Please, Jeremy, don’t try to argue that I’m not. I know what I am. And so do you. Just because . . . things are developing between us . . . well, it doesn’t change my past.”

“But—”

“No buts about it. We’re going to have to agree to disagree then. Although, I’m sure we can both say that P.J. is not a slut. Who the hell told you that anyways?” Jenna asked me again.

“Me. I told me that I’m a slut. I hooked up with Khol and I’m still involved with Bryn. I just—”

“Oh for Christ’s sake. It has to be the pregnancy hormones that are making you act all crazy. You were a virgin until after you turned eighteen years old. You’ve been with two guys. Two guys. Two guys doesn’t make you a slut, P.J.” She paused and chuckled to herself. “Unless, if you were with both of them at once, then maybe I’d be willing to reconsider calling you a slut.”

“Jenna! Of course I wasn’t with both of them at once! You know I’d never do something like that!” Which made me wonder if Jenna had ever been with more than one guy at the same time. Something I so didn’t want to think about.

Her voice took on a far away dreamy tone. “Can you imagine being with Bryn and Khol at the same time?”

“No!” Jeremy and I exclaimed at the same time.

“Talk about ecstasy overload,” Jenna finished up as if Jeremy and I hadn’t just screamed at her to stop. “Anyways . . .” She seemed to internally shake herself. And it was a good thing too, because I couldn’t help but feel just a tad violent toward her for mentally imagining a threesome on herself with the two men I was in love with. “You’re not a slut, P.J. Case closed.” She blinked at me a few times, and then another smile crept onto her face. “Wait. When you say hooked up with Khol, I’m assuming we’re talking about more than kissing or you wouldn’t be feeling so guilty. So . . . spill it. What happened?” She leaned toward me with an eager expression on her face, which caused me to stuff my face back