Chapter 12

Arya Stark POV

I can't believe Sansa didn't say anything when Margaery said she liked Gendry. I mean, I know I'm not exactly his first choice, but I thought Sansa would be on my side at least for this and try to do something. I didn't want to get angry at her, but I also didn't feel like arguing with her about it.

I walk into my room after fencing on Saturday, and Sansa is doing her hair and makeup in front of the mirror. "Hey," she says to me without turning around.

"What are you so dressed up for?" I ask.

"Margaery's Halloween party," she responds. "That's tonight." Oh, right. She starts to walk out of the room to go downstairs.

"Can I come downstairs with you?" I ask her.

"We're picking Gendry up on the way there," she says. "He's not here." I just look down, she knows me too well.

"Arya," she continues. "I'm sorry about what happened with Gendry and Margaery, but I really don't think there's much I could have done."

"I'm not mad at you, I just wish I wasn't treated like a child so much. I wish I was older."

"Trust me," Sansa says after a pause. "You don't. I would kill to be your age again." She hugs me and heads downstairs.

I don't believe Sansa. I want to grow up so badly. I don't want the responsibilities of adulthood, but I want to be free. I'm tired of people looking down on me and acting like I don't know how to take care of myself. I want to be able to go where I want and date who I want. I feel like all my age does is hinder me from that.

Daenerys Targaryen POV

We arrive with Gendry and Sansa at Margaery's house for the party. Gendry is going to look so out of place here, but it's cute that Margaery wanted him to be here. Cersei texted me the other day and said that she and Jaime wouldn't be able to make it. I'm secretly glad, I really don't want to have to babysit her.

When we walk in, I see Margaery and immediately run up to hug her. "Hi!" I say as I give her a big hug. I feel like I don't see her enough despite still being in town.

"Hey, Dan!" She says to me. "Are Gendry, Jon and Sansa here?"

"Yep," I respond. I look around and lower my voice a little. "I heard you have a little thing for Gendry."

"Yeah," Margaery says, blushing. "He's really cute and he's in amazing shape."

"You should go for it, he would be a fool to turn you down." She smiles at me. Usually Margaery is so confident, I never really see her nervous like this.

Jon comes up and gives me a hug and a kiss on the cheek from behind. Margaery jokingly makes a gagging sound. "Gross," she says.

"Shut up," I respond. "Is Sansa okay?" I ask Jon.

"Yeah," he responds. "She went to get a drink." I don't like the idea of him leaving her alone when all of this stuff has been happening. I make a mental note to go check on her later as Jon walks off to go find Gendry again.

I go and find Missandei and Grey Worm. They're talking with Theon, which makes me nervous. If you see Theon, that usually means Ramsay can't be too far away.

"Hey guys," I say, walking up to them. Missandei gives me a hug. "What are you doing here, Theon?"

"Margaery invited me," he responds. I want to ask him if Ramsay's here, but Missandei cuts me off before I can do that.

"How are Jaime and Cersei?" She asks.

"Oh, they're good," I respond. "Having fun at college. I invited them but they wouldn't be able to make it here in time."

"That sucks," Missandei says. "I wanted to catch up with Cersei." Theon and Grey Worm walk off, so I don't get a chance to ask him about Ramsay. If I see Ramsay here, it won't be a pretty picture.

Sansa Stark POV

After having a drink, I find myself in a corner by myself. This is pretty typical, especially when I'm the laughing stock of the school like I am right now. I find a chair to sit in, I feel really tired. That's probably because I haven't eaten hardly anything today. My self control is getting back on track, it wasn't great for a while. I was definitely eating more than I should have.

As I'm sipping on my drink, I see Myranda and Ramsay walking around. I was hoping they wouldn't show up. My heart starts beating and I get up. As I'm trying to walk away, I run into a side table which makes a noise. I make eye contact with Ramsay, and fear rises up in me.

As he starts to wall up to me, Theon stops him and starts talking to him. I want to walk away, but I feel frozen in my tracks. I see Ramsay brush Theon off and continue to walk towards me. I walk off to a side room that just has a desk and a chair in it, but he follows me.

"Can you leave me alone?" I ask, turning to face him. "What is it you want from me?"

Ramsay just laughs. "You think you can talk to me like that?" He asks.

"I just," I start shaking and I feel like something really bad is going to happen. "We broke up, you broke up with me. I don't know why you're trying to talk to me."

Ramsay moves closer to me. "What if you and I did some stuff on the side?" He asks me, putting his hand on my hip. "Myranda's alright, but I have room for one more. I can't say it was bad with you." My heart is pounding, I have no idea what to do.

Myranda suddenly walks in. "Are you flirting with my boyfriend?" She yells at me. Before I can say anything, she starts yelling at Ramsay, asking him why he was alone with me and calling me a whore. I start to tear up and before I can defend myself, Jon walks into the room. I guess he heard all the commotion.

"What's going on?" He says as he walks in.

"Your whore of a sister was flirting with my boyfriend," Myranda says. "That's what's going on."

"Can't you both just leave her alone?" He asks. "If you don't get the fuck away from her you and I can go for round 2." He's referring to beating up Ramsay again.

"One day I'll get you alone and you're brother won't be around to save you," Ramsay whispers to me under his breath before he and Myranda walk out of the room.

"Thank you, Jon," I say after they leave.

"You know Sansa," Jon replies. "You need to start sticking up for yourself." I thought he was going to hug me and comfort me, but even Jon is tired of having to deal with all my issues.

Gendry Baratheon POV

I go into the kitchen, and Margaery is cleaning up some trash. "Hey," she says when I walk in. "Are you having fun?"

"Yeah," I respond. "Did you need any help?"

"No, I'm finishing up. Did you want a drink or something?"

"Sure, just a beer." She gets a beer out of the fridge, takes a bottle opener out of the drawer and opens the beer for me.

"Thanks," I say as she hands the beer to me. "Why did you invite me here tonight?" Something made me want to ask her, we sit next to each other in math class but I didn't think she liked me all that much.

"I wanted to get to know you more," she responds. It seems like she's looking at me a certain way, but I can't really put my finger on it. "You're friends with Jon, and he's dating Dany. You seem really cool."

"Thanks," I say. That's confusing, I don't think I'm that cool. "Well, I'm going to go back out there."

"Wait," Margaery says to me as I'm about to walk out. "Do you want to go out sometime?" I turn around, I have no idea what to say to that.

"What?" I ask.

"That's why I invited you," she says. "I wanted to ask you out."

"Oh, um—" I start to say.

"I get it if not, and I know we don't know each other that well. I still just wanted to ask because I like you a lot."

"You do?"

"Yeah, I think it's super interesting that you're into tech and working with your hands. It's great that you don't care about popularity, even though you could be popular if you really tried."

What she just said confuses me. I thought Margaery Tyrell was really shallow and only cared about popularity. I think about it for a second. Maybe I should try to get out there more. Margaery isn't exactly the kind of girl I pictured myself being with, but maybe it'll a good thing to actually try dating someone. Maybe I was wrong about her and I should try to get to know her more.

"Sure," I say. "Why not?" She smiles.

"What's your number?" She asks. We exchange numbers and split off to go talk to our respective friend groups. I'm not sure how I feel about this, but I feel like I need to try.