Chapter 37

Cersei Lannister POV

I can't believe Jon is trying to transfer here and Dany didn't even tell me. I may not be happy about it, but it still isn't something she should've kept from me. I decide to confront her about it when she gets back from class this evening, I had a couple of wine glasses so that my anger wouldn't take over.

Dany walks in and I'm sitting on the couch, she stops when she comes in. I think she can sense that something's up. "Hey," she says. "What's up?"

"I need to talk to you about something," I say, setting my wine glass down on the table. "Come sit down."

"Is everything okay?" She asks, setting her purse down and sitting on the couch next to me.

"I just want to talk to you," I say. "I overheard your phone call with Jon recently."

"Okay," she says. "We didn't really talk about much, we didn't have phone sex or anything."

"I know, that isn't what I wanted to talk to you about."

"Okay, then what is it?"

"I heard you say he was trying to transfer here," I say. "I was just wondering why you didn't tell me."

She sighs. "I knew you'd get upset," Dany says. "I didn't want to say anything until it was set in stone."

"You know I don't love him," I say. "And he definitely can't move in here, there's just not enough room."

"Well I do love him," she says. "He wants to come here so we can be closer."

"I figured, but he still can't move in here."

"He wouldn't move in here," Dany says. "If he gets into our school, he and I would get our own place together."

I pause, her moving out is just as bad as him moving in here. I wanted us to keep living together, we're best friends. If she moves in with Jon, I feel like he'll slowly isolate her from us.

"Why wouldn't you tell me about this?" I ask her.

"Because I knew you'd be mad," she says. "I want to move in with him, but I've been terrified to tell you anything about it."

"Why?"

"Because," she pauses, taking a deep breath. "Cersei, you've been a really hard person to be around lately."

I pause, I don't know how to respond to that. "What do you mean?" I ask.

"You drink a lot, and I get really scared that I'm going to come in again to you passed out and laying in your own mess."

"That only happened a couple times."

"Yeah," Dany says. "And it was really scary for me, and I know it was scary for Jaime too."

"How many times have I told you guys that you can't tell me how to live my life?" I ask, my voice is raising. "I'm just partying, like everyone does in college."

"No, Cersei," she says. "This is more than that, and I know you know that. It's really hard to have to babysit you and take care of you all the time."

"So that's why you want to leave? Because I'm partying a little?"

"And to get more serious with Jon," Dany responds. "But yeah, that's part of it."

I pause, I'm so angry I don't even know what to say. "Go away," I finally say. "Get out."

"What?" She asks.

"I don't want to talk to you anymore tonight," I say. "You're judging me and keeping secrets from me, and that's something I can't do."

She pauses, I can tell she didn't think I'd say that. "Fine," she says, getting up. "Sorry for being honest." She walks into our room and slams the door.

I take a deep breath and pick up my wine glass. I look at it and throw it across the room. It hits the wall and shatters, the pieces falling to the floor. A few minutes later, Jaime walks in and I'm crying.

"Hey," he says. He sees what happened and his face falls. "What the hell happened?"

"Dany and I got into a fight," I say. He cleans up the mess and throws the broken glass in the trash. "Jon is trying to transfer here, and if he gets into our school she'll be moving out and getting a place with him."

Jaime sits next to me and puts his arm around me. "I'm sorry, babe," he says. "But it makes sense that she'd want to be closer to him."

"She also said I've been hard to be around," I say. "Apparently my partying is really hard on her."

"Well, you know it scares us when you drink and do Xanax and end up passing out."

"I know," I say. "But that only happened a couple times, and it hasn't happened in a while."

"I know," Jaime says, kissing my head. "I'm sorry this is happening, let's get some sleep and worry about it tomorrow."

I just nod and we head to bed. Dany is my best friend, but Jaime is my soulmate. He's the one I definitely need, we've been together literally since before we were born. Dany can move out if she wants to. I'll be mad at her if she does, but at least I still have Jaime. He's my forever, he's the only guaranteed consistent in my life.

Arya Stark POV

Gendry and I are leaving tech one day when we see Podrick and Myrcella. They're sitting outside the theater after finishing a rehearsal, they are really cute together. Podrick sees Gendry and waves at him.

"Hey," Podrick says as we walk up to them. "How was tech."

"It was alright," Gendry says. "How was theatre rehearsal?"

"It went great," Podrick says. "Are you going to prom?"

"Oh, shit," Gendry says. "I really haven't even thought about it."

"It's next month," Podrick says. "I just thought I'd ask so you'd remember to get tickets if you wanted to go, but I honestly didn't think you'd want to."

"Are you going?" Gendry asks Podrick.

"Yeah," he says. "Already asked Myrcella." Myrcella smiles.

"And you said yes?" I ask.

"Definitely," Myrcella says. "I want to go dress shopping this weekend if you want to come with me, I was going to ask Sansa for help picking one out. You can come if you want. That is, if Gendry's going and you want to go."

"I'll have to see," I say. "He hasn't even thought about it, so I definitely haven't."

"Okay," Myrcella says. "Well just let me know."

"I will."

"Bye, man," Gendry says to Podrick. "See you later."

"Bye," Podrick says. We walk out to Gendry's car and get in.

"Did you want to go to prom?" Gendry asks me as we start driving to our smoking spot.

"Not particularly," I say. "Sorry if that conversation made you feel like you have to take me."

"It didn't," he says. "I never thought about going, but I also didn't have anyone to take."

"If you don't want to go, we don't have to," I say. "Especially since we didn't have much fun at Homecoming."

There's a pause. "I want to take you," he says. "I think it would be nice."

"Really? Are you sure?"

"Yeah," he responds. "It'll be my only chance to go, and it'll be a rare chance for us to go on a real date. We don't get to do that very often. Unless you really don't want to go, then we don't have to."

I think about it. I definitely wouldn't go alone or even just with friends, and it's probably something I should experience in my high school career.

"Okay," I say. "Let's do it."

"Are you sure? I want to make sure you're comfortable with it."

"I am," I say. "This is the only time I would go, too."

"It'll be fun to go with Podrick and Myrcella," Gendry says. "And you know we can ditch it if we get tired of it."

"Okay, deal. I just wish Sansa could go, she doesn't have a date and she's not a senior."

"Maybe she'll find someone, you never know."

We smoke and end up having sex, it feels pretty routine for us now.

"Are you okay?" He asks me. He asks me that a lot after we sleep together.

"I'm great," I say. "That was really good, I'd let you know if it wasn't."

"Good," he says. "I love you."

I just kiss him. I'm still not ready to say that and I'm glad he respects it, I feel like I wouldn't know what I meant if I said that to him. I don't really know what it means to love someone. I love Sansa, but obviously not in the same way that I know Gendry means. I need to figure all that out before I tell him that.

I'm glad we're going to prom together. Even if I don't end up enjoying it, at least I'll know I went when I had the chance. Plus, I know I'll at least have a little fun if I'm with him. It feels like we're still just friends, even though we sleep together. Not much besides that has changed in our relationship since we started dating.

Labels are weird, they seem arbitrary and they don't make much sense. I guess Gendry and I are dating, but it doesn't feel any different. He needed that label to feel okay with sleeping with me, even though nothing else has changed. I wish I understood this stuff like Sansa does, it's all so complicated.

Sansa Stark POV

Arya gets home after tech practice and seeing Gendry, and we've all already ate dinner. I'm in our room studying, luckily I'm not on watch as much anymore after eating. My parents are starting to trust me more with food again.

"Hey," I say as Arya walks in. "How was tech?"

"It was good," she says. "I hope mom and dad weren't too mad that I wasn't home for dinner."

"They didn't seem to be," I say. "Bran and Rickon were causing too much trouble."

Arya chuckles at that. She sits down on her bed and pauses, it seems like something is on her mind. "Can I ask you about something?" She asks me.

"Sure, what's up?"

"Gendry asked me to go to prom with him," she says. "I said sure, but I'm a little nervous about it."

"Why are you nervous?"

"Those dances aren't really my thing," she says. "I know I should probably go to at least be able to say I went, but it just seems like a glorified school dance."

"I wouldn't think Gendry would want to go," I say. "Especially since Homecoming wasn't his thing."

"Well, Podrick's going with Myrcella. We really wish you could go, too."

"You can't go unless you're a senior or dating a senior," I say. "It sucks, but it is what it is. I'll go next year."

There's a pause, I think she feels bad. It's really fine, I understand rules are rules.

"I found out Podrick was going with Myrcella when we saw them after tech today," Arya says. "She said she was going to ask you to help her pick out a dress."

"Yeah, we talked about it briefly. We didn't set anything up with that, though."

"If you end up doing that, could I join you?" Arya asks. "I have no idea what I'm doing with that stuff, you know that."

"Of course you can," I say. "I'll set it up with Myrcella soon."

"Okay, thanks," she says. "Do you think mom and dad will let me go to prom?"

"I'm sure they will," I respond. "They seem to like Gendry, and I'm assuming that they don't know you guys slept together."

"Definitely not," Arya says. "It's funny to me that they still think we're both virgins. They probably even think Jon is a virgin."

I pause. I don't really like when people bring up that I'm not a virgin. I know people don't really get it, but it was a really bad experience for me.

"I don't know about that," I say, laughing. "Jon's been with Dany a long time."

"Our parents don't want to know anything like that," Arya says. "They would kill me if they knew Gendry and I slept together."

"Did you today?" I ask.

Arya just nods, it's so weird to me that she's so casual about it. I was always a hopeless romantic, so I always pictured my first time to be with candles and with someone I was in love with. It breaks my heart that it didn't happen like that for me, but I guess Arya and I are just different like that.

I'm excited to help Arya and Myrcella pick out prom dresses, even though I'm not going. It would be nice if I was going, though. I am a little jealous, but I'll go next year. I'm glad Arya is letting me play fashion stylist with her, I remember when we were little and she would always fighy me when I tried to do that. I'm glad we're still close, she's definitely my favorite person.