Chapter 26

TW: Discussions of EDs in this chapter

Sansa Stark POV

I've been taking hands-on driving lessons for the past couple weeks, I've done two out of the seven required sessions. I'm so excited to take my test, it looks like I'll be able to in May. My mom brought up how she thinks I'm getting skinny the other day. I'm sure either Jon or my dad told her to say that, but it honestly makes me happy that someone noticed. I told her I want to start modeling, and she was excited that I found something to be passionate about.

Dany is picking me up from one of our spring break cheer practices today. Jon was supposed to, but Dany offered to do it instead for some reason. It's still early in spring break, I know Dany is going to see Cersei and Jaime later this week.

"Thanks for picking me up," I say as I get in the car. "You really didn't have to."

"I know," she says. "I just wanted to see you before I went out of town. I probably won't be able to text much because I usually have to babysit Cersei while I'm there."

I chuckle at that, but I stop quickly when she seems serious. "Oh," I say. "I'm sorry, that must really suck."

"It's okay, she's done a lot for me," Dany says. "Have you eaten? Do you want go get food?"

"No, that's okay. I'll eat dinner when I get home."

There's a pause. I though she would start driving, but she doesn't.

"Sansa," she says. "You're getting really skinny. We should go get something to eat, we can get whatever you want."

"Did Jon talk to you?" I ask. "My mom said something similar to me the other day, and I told her I want to start modeling."

"He didn't have to say anything," she says. "I can tell you're losing weight, you don't look good."

All I heard from that was that I'm getting skinny and it's noticeable, which makes me happy. How can getting skinnier be a bad thing? It's all I wanted last year.

"You're not letting this go, are you?" I ask her.

"No," she says. "I've been where you are, and it's worrying me."

"Fine," I say. "But only something small."

"Where do you want to go?"

"Let's just go to the smoothie place down the street." That seems safe, I can make peace with a smoothie. That has healthy ingredients.

I don't know why everyone's up my butt about what I'm eating and drawing attention to how I look. No one seemed to care last year, but that's probably because I was too fat.

We go to the smoothie place, and Dany makes us sit there until I've drank all my smoothie. I'm irritated with her, even though I know she cares.

"I really think you're overreacting," I say. "I'm constantly excercising with cheer. So what if I lost a little weight?"

"We're— I'm just worried about you," she says. "I don't want you to pass out during a game like you did last year."

That irritates me, I don't like to think about that because it's when Ramsay first started flirting with me. I get home and head straight to my room, not saying a word to anyone, especially Jon. Dany can deny it, but I know they talked about it. I want—no, I need to be skinny. No one can tell me I can't do that.

Tyrion Lannister POV

Jaime picked me up from the bus station, of course Cersei didn't come with him. I know she won't be happy to see me, so I'm kind of dreading that. When I walk into the apartment, Cersei is drinking a beer on the couch. She looks at me but doesn't say anything.

"A couple of our friends are coming over," Jaime says as I sit down on the couch next to Cersei. She immediately scooches away from me. "I hope that's okay."

"Yeah, of course," I say. "It'll be fun to meet some of your college friends. When is Dany getting here? I haven't seen her in a while."

"I'm not sure," Cersei says. I'm surprised she even acknowledged my presence. "She said she was heading this way soon, but it'll be a while."

A little bit later, there's a knock at the door. When Jaime opens it, two guys walk in.

"Bronn, Jorah," Jaime says. "This is my younger brother, Tyrion. He'll be attending our school next year." They sit at the table.

"Hey, nice to meet you," Bronn says. "Sorry to hear about your girlfriend, I heard it was a pretty rough situation."

I glare at Jaime, I didn't know he was telling random strangers that I got cheated on.

"Sorry," Jaime says. "I just mentioned you broke up with your girlfriend and you were coming here to get a break from everything." I guess that's not so bad.

"Yeah, my dad was supposed to help me with getting set up in an apartment like he did with Cersei and Jaime," I say. "He only agreed because I was moving in there with my ex girlfriend, so I don't think he'll help me now that we've broken up."

"Why would that change?" Jorah asks me.

"He's always liked Cersei and Jaime more," I say. "I think he was hoping I'd marry my ex, since he really liked her. Whatever, I don't want his help anyway."

"Actually, we know a guy who's been saying he needs a roommate for fall," Bronn says. "If you want, we can tell him about you."

"That would be great," I say. "Please let him know. I can give you my number so he can contact me if he wants."

"Yeah, sure," Bronn says.

We give each other our phone numbers, and I'm starting to feel more optomistic. I really don't want to live with Cersei and Jaime after high school, and I'm not sure Cersei would even let me stay there. Danaerys is already going to be living with them temporarily, so that would be really crowded if I was here too.

"Is your friend Daenerys coming?" Jorah asks. That seems random, I didn't know he even knew Daenerys.

"Yeah," Cersei says. "But she won't be here for another few hours, she's probably busy giving her boyfriend googly eyes."

"Oh, she's still dating him?" Jorah asks.

"Yeah," Cersei says. "Don't worry, I'll let you know when you can shoot your shot." Jorah blushes.

"Oh, do you like Daenerys?" I ask.

"Yeah," he says. "She's gorgeous, and she was really sweet when I met her."

"I don't blame you," I say. "She is beautiful, all the guys were all over her in high school."

"You grew up with her, right?" Bronn asks me.

"Yeah, but I didn't go to the same school," I say. "I'm homeschooled, but Jaime still dragged me to high school events."

"Why were you homeschooled?" Jorah asks me. That question catches me by surprise, I thought it was obvious just from looking at me.

"I guess I'm just too smart," I say. Cersei rolls her eyes. I know that's not the complete truth, but it's easier than saying my family is ashamed of me.

Jon Snow Stark POV

Sam wants to hang out with me today. I'm looking forward to it, we haven't hung out just us in a while. It's spring break now, so we definitely have more time. I pull up to his house and he gets in the car.

"Where do you want to go?" I ask him.

"Want to go get food?" He asks. "Maybe go get a burger?"

"Sure," I say, driving to our favorite burger place. We pull into the parking lot, and Sam stops me before I can get out of the car. "What's up?" I ask him.

"Gilly and I slept together," he says. "It happened a couple nights ago."

"Woah, what? I thought she was holding out on that."

"I though so too, but the other day she just kind of threw herself at me. I asked her what changed, and she acted like what she did was completely normal and in character for her."

"So you guys did it, and then she acted like she hasn't been saying no for the past year?"

"Basically," Sam says. "It was good, but I wish I knew what changed for her. It was really weird."

"I assumed you wouldn't question it," I say. "Guys our age tend to not question it when they get laid."

"I mean, I was happy about it," he says. "I just don't understand it. I wish she would tell me what made her change her mind. We've been together for over a year, I thought by now she'd be able to tell me anything."

It is pretty weird that she was randomly ready to have sex when she seemed to be so against it for so long.

"Maybe you should ask her about it again," I say. "See if there's anything more to it because you're right, that does seem really weird."

"I just assumed before that she didn't want to have sex in high school," Sam says. "I assumed she wanted to wait until she was on her own and out of her dad's house. That would make sense with how responsible she is."

"Try talking to her," I say. "Keep trying. Eventually you'll get something out of her."

We walk into the burger place, order our food and walk back to the car with our bags.

"Thanks, Jon," Sam says as we're getting back into the car. "She also told me not to tell anyone it happened. I wanted to respect that, but I couldn't just not tell you."

"I won't tell anyone," I say. "But I do think you should try to make sure nothing's wrong, because this does seem really out of character for her."

Sam just nods. Gilly's always been kind of unpredicatble in the sense that she's hard to read, but not unpredictable like Ygritte is. Ygritte does the opposite of what you think she'll do, but you have no idea what Gilly's thinking or what she wants to do. Girls can be so complicated. I love Dany, but sometimes dating is more confusing than anything else.

Daenerys Targaryen POV

I arrived at Cersei and Jaime's place earlier today, and Tyrion is already there. He and Cersei are drinking so excessively, I can tell they're both going through it. Bronn and Jorah were apparently here for a bit, but they left before I got here. It would have been nice to catch up with them, but I didn't make it here in time.

"I need to go to the store before I get too drunk," Cersei says, getting up and staggering. She gets her purse and starts rummaging through it, looking through her wallet. "Where's my fake ID? It's always in my wallet."

I look over at Jaime, and he just subtely shakes his head. Unfortunately, it's not subtle enough because Cersei sees our little exchange.

"What was that?" She says, looking over at Jaime. "Did you take my fake?" She's raising her voice.

"You definitely can't drive right now," he says to her. "We have two 6-packs of beer in the fridge, you can have that."

"How are all of us supposed to get plastered off that?" Cersei asks.

"I'll be fine," Jaime says. "I don't want any." Cersei walks up to him and starts reaching her hand in all of his pockets.

"Where is it?" She's yelling. "You can't take my shit, asshole!" She starts hitting him, and it's honestly scaring me. She's always had anger issues, but I've never seen her go this far.

"Cersei, stop," Jaime says, trying to restrain her. "Calm down, it's going to be okay." She keeps hitting him, and he's barely reacting.

"Fuck you!" She yells. "Stop trying to control me!" She's still yelling nonsense and hitting him.

"You wanted to stay here so bad," Jaime says to Tyrion, he's yelling over Cersei's yelling. "Is this much better than father's house? Do you see what I have to deal with?"

Tyrion starts to walk over to get Cersei off of Jaime, but I make it there first. I'm worried if Tyrion tries to intervene, Cersei will get even worse and someone will really get hurt. I pull Cersei off of Jaime and hug her. We sit on the couch together, and she buries her face in my shoulder.

"Shhh…" I say, rubbing Cersei's hair. "Let's go to your room." I start to get up, but she stops me.

"Will you take me to the store?" She asks me.

"No," I say. "I didn't bring my fake ID." That's a lie, but I'm not taking her to the store or going to the store for her.

"Don't you want to have fun?" She asks me.

"We can have fun here," I say. "Let's go watch a movie in your room and let Jaime and Tyrion have some brother time, okay?"

Cersei seems to calm down a bit, and she lets me take her to her room without saying anything. I look at Jaime as we're walking into her room, and he just mouths "Thank you" to me. I'm scared to leave her this weekend. I know she has Jaime, but I'm worried that's starting to not be enough.