Chapter 20

Sansa Stark POV

I'm finally back to restricting my calories consistently again, thank God. My self control wasn't where it should've been recently. I would go through periods of restricting, and then eat "normally" for a while. I lost most of the weight I gained back, so I'm feeling a lot better about that. Luckilly I've always been excercising, and I'm naturally on the skinnier side.

Daenerys is taking me and Arya to the mall today, and then we're dropping Arya off at her fencing practice. I guess she wants to bond with us more. That's nice, but we were friends in high school so she's definitely bonded with me. Arya and I are sitting on the couch when Daenerys knocks on the door and Jon goes to open it.

"Hey babe," Jon says, giving Daenerys a hug and a kiss. Arya gives me a grossed out look, which makes me snicker. "They're right in here." He's referring to us.

"Are you guys ready to go?" She asks us. We just nod and walk towards the door.

"Have a good time," Jon says, like he's a dad or something.

We're sitting in the food court after looking in Forever 21 and H&M. I didn't buy any clothes, just a couple necklaces. Trying on clothes stresses me out. I also didn't get anything to eat at the food court for that very reason, I just got a Diet Coke.

"So is there any drama at Winterfell?" Dany asks me. "I do kind of miss hearing about all that."

"Not a whole lot," I say. "Just Myranda being a bitch."

"Yeah, what else is new?" Daenerys says.

"Is Margaery still dating Gendry?" Arya asks after a pause of silence.

"Yeah," I say. "They slept together."

"Woah, really?" Dany asks.

"Yeah," I say. "I guess it went well, I don't really know details."

"He could do better," Arya mumbles under her breath.

"What?" Dany asks her.

"Oh, nothing," she says. We keep eating in silence.

…

We drive up to Arya's fencing practice after shopping at a couple more stores. We went to Pink and Claire's after we were done eating.

"Bye guys," Arya says, gathering her stuff. "Thank you for taking us shopping, Daenerys."

"Of course," she responds. "Have a good practice." She walks into her practice and then Daenerys starts driving away.

"Why did Arya ask about Gendry and Margaery?" Dany asks me.

"Oh, I don't know," I say. "She's always asking me about life in high school, she was probably just curious."

"I never thought she'd be interested in the dating lives of high schoolers. That seems like something she couldn't care less about."

There's a long pause. I want to tell Dany about Arya's crush on Gendry, but I know Arya would get really mad at me if I did that.

"Well, she's been more curious about that stuff lately," I say. "Probably because she's getting older."

"What kind of stuff?" Dany asks me.

"Just like dating and stuff."

"I bet you're someone she can trust and you give her correct information and good advice. I could have really used a sister like you when I was growing up. The closest thing I had was Cersei, and she definitely wasn't one to give advice."

There's a long pause. "There's something else," I say. "But you can never tell Jon I told you."

"What is it?" She asks me.

"Arya has a crush on Gendry," I say. "That's why she was asking."

"Really?" Dany asks, sounding shocked. "That's really surprising."

"Yeah, she's liked him for a while. And she got mad at me when I helped Margaery and him get together, but it's not like he would date her now anyway."

"Yeah, she's really young. But I understand how she feels, I was a lot like that at her age."

"I don't think she's mad at me anymore," I say. "But is there anything else I could have done?"

"Not really," Dany says. "You were just helping your friend, and she can't date Gendry anyway."

"Thank you," I say. "I'm glad someone sees where I was coming from."

We pull up to my house. "And don't worry," Dany says. "I won't tell Jon."

"Thank you," I say. "Do you want to come inside? Jon is home."

"No, I have to go volunteer. Jon knew I couldn't hang out after shopping, I'll catch up with him later."

"Okay, well thanks for the ride and for taking us shopping. Bye." I get out of the car and walk inside. It felt good to confide in Dany, even though I know Arya wouldn't want me to. I feel like I can always count on Dany to give me good advice.

Jon Snow Stark POV

I'm hanging out with Gendry, Tormund, Podrick and Sam after school one day, we're going to go get burgers together. We're waiting in the drive-thru line. This drive-thru always takes a long time, especially right after school.

"Thanks for coming with us, Gendry," I say. "We figured you'd be hanging out with Margaery."

"We're kind of having a rough time right now," he says. "We got into a fight the other day."

"Really?" Podrick asks. "You guys seemed pretty solid to me."

"We are," Gendry responds. "But we got into an argument because she was encouraging me to stop doing tech."

"I knew she would pull some shit like that," Tormund says. "It's probably embarassing to her status."

"It's not that," he says quietly.

"What else could it be?" I ask. "You love doing tech." There's a long pause. It feels like he has an answer, he just doesn't want to say.

"You guys can't tell anyone if I tell you," he finally says.

"We won't," Sam says.

"I mean it," Gendry says. "Like seriously."

"We won't, dude," I say. "What's up?"

"Over the summer, I was helping Lady Mel with some stuff to get ready for the school year," he says. "One day, one thing led to another and before I knew what was going on, we were hooking up."

A series of gasps and exclamations echo throughout the car.

"What?!" Podrick shouts.

"Holy shit!" Tormund yells. "For real?"

"Dude, you had a foursome," I say to Podrick. "This is no where near as shocking."

"I know," Podrick responds. "But it wasn't with a teacher."

"How was it?" Sam asks.

"Sam!" I say.

"What?" He responds. "I'm just curious."

"I don't know," Gendry says. "It all happened so fast."

"I bet it did," Tormund says, with the other guys laughing.

"No, I mean—" Gendry is stammering. "She didn't really ask me if I wanted to, she kinda just pinned me down. I didn't have time to agree or dispute her."

"This happened over the summer?" Tormund asks. "You waited until now to tell us?"

"I didn't want to say anything at all," Gendry says.

"Why?" I ask.

"I didn't want Lady Mel to get in trouble," he responds. "And I was kind of embarassed."

"Why?" Podrick asks. "We would all kill to be you."

"Speak for yourself," I say. I get what they mean, but Dany is a better option to me.

"Yeah, every guy in our school would be so jealous," Tormund says. "You'd be a god."

"Just promise me you won't tell anyone," Gendry says. "Please?"

"We won't," Sam says. "Not sure why you want it to be a secret, but we won't."

I have a weird feeling about what Gendry just told us. The guys didn't have to act like such cavemen about it, even if they are jealous. But besides all that, Gendry seems a bit shaken up by the whole thing. I feel like they could've at least listened to what he said and how he felt about the whole thing before losing their minds.

Tyrion Lannister POV

Shae and I got into Cersei and Jaime's school, and we've been looking at apartments to potentially rent. I know Cersei doesn't want me going to her school, and I'm only going because I want to be close to Jaime and he wants me there. I don't care what Cersei thinks anymore, she's made my life a living hell for too long.

"Father?" I walk into my dad's home office where he's sitting, doing work.

"Yes?" He asks me, not looking up.

"Were you planning on helping me with an apartment after I graduate?" I ask. I've been wanting to ask him this for a while, but I've been too scared to. "I know you helped Jaime and Cersei." I'm fully expecting him to say no, since he's ashamed of me.

Father just sighs deeply. "I guess you wanted to move into one with Shae?" He asks me.

"Yeah," I respond. "We decided to move in together after high school. We both got into Cersei and Jaime's school."

"Oh, that's good," he says to me. It's really sad that he doesn't even know I got into college, despite me telling him when I found out. "Do you have a plan once you get there?"

"I want to go into finances," I respond. I don't actually know for sure that's what I want, but I knew he would be more inclined to help me if I had a definitive plan. "Maybe I'll be a lawyer like you." That'll butter him up for sure.

"Okay," he says after a long pause. "I'll help you, but only if you have a job while in school." That's a reasonable request, but he didn't make Cersei and Jaime get a job.

"Thank you, father," I say. "I promise I won't let you down."

"Only because you have a plan," he says. "And because I really like Shae and want you guys to do well after high school."

I leave the room before he can change his mind and start texting Shae.

*Father said he would help us with an apartment after high school as long as I have a job while in school.* I text her.

Ding. *Yay! I'll keep looking at apartments.*

*I wasn't sure he would help me, this is much better than I expected.*

Ding. *We'd make it through no matter what.* That makes me smile that she's committed to me.

*I can't wait to start our lives together.*

Ding. *Me neither, my lion 3.* I love her so much.