“Oh, so now you’re a relationship expert on quantity and quality.” I lean in, a suppressed laugh just below the surface. “Honey, this is as real a rebound as they come.” I toss an indifferent glance to Justin. “And we are coming over and over and overagain.”
Jen gags as if she might actually be sick. She’s so pale and thin, so pasty and gaunt and haunted, I can’t imagine what Justin must be thinking when he’s with her. Andvapid! My God, you don’t need a road map to know that what brain cells she does have she utilizes while looking in themirror.
She leans in, nostrils flaring, eyes bulging, and I’m thrilled to see she’s so quick to comply with the misery we’re about to bestow upon her. “How can you sit there with this filthy piece of trash while she talks like some dirty sailor onleave?”
Knox embeds those flame blue eyes into her, and you can see his rage grow like a house fire just beneath the surface. “People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.” He wraps an arm around my shoulders and pulls me in ever so slightly. “Besides, Harper and I hardly know each other. We thought we’d load up on some enchiladas then hit the sheets.” He gives my hair a playful tousle. “I can’t wait to test out her mattressmoves.”
“Shit.” Justin shakes as he takes his next breath. “Dude, you cannot have my chick—especially not on enchiladanight.”
“Oh, yes, he can.” A deep laugh trembles from me. This entire scenario is so damn satisfying I’m about to pop with pleasure. “He’s going to have the whole enchilada and he can have me for dessert. In fact, tonight, while the two of you are off doing whatever it is that you do best, we’ll be taking one another for a test drive for the very first time.” I lean over to Knox and lick a line up the side ofhisface.
“Oh God.” Jen hides in her hands amoment.
“Oh, stop,” I bark out at her. “If you were so interested in preserving your boyfriend for yourself, you wouldn’t have trotted off like some overheated harlot and found another boy to nail you! How long has this been going on between the two of you, anyway?” My throat grows raw and it’s only then I realize I’m screaming over themusic.
She looks up at Justin and he shrugs as if unsure himself. But what’s worse is the comfort level they seem to have with one another. They have that invisible, quiet, silent, couples’ speak—a gift that only true lifers seem topossess.
“I had Justin in my civics class last semester.” She shrugs while gazing up at the ceiling. You can practically see her brain attempting higher mathematics, and it’s not a pretty sight. “We were paired together for writing assignments.” She gazes up at him, starry-eyed. “It’s as if someone upthereknew.”
Knew? Knew what? They were destined to bump uglies because they’re a couple of hormonalidiots?
“Hey”—Knox taps his knuckles over the table until he manages to garner their attention—“you could have told me instead of stepping out behind my back.” The cords in his neck extend like ropes, and there’s something hot about a boy who’s all worked up while telling off his rat ofanex.
“Ididtell you!” she fires right back. “I told you, each and every time I went to study group, and not once did you try tostopme!”
“What?” He scoots his seat back an inch as if he’s about to launch through the ceiling. He can launch Justin through the ceiling while he’s at it. I totally wouldn’t mind. “Why would I stand in the way of a study group? Besides, you said your study partner was some chick namedJustine.” He says the feminine version of the name and stops cold as if realizing that this entire fiasco might have hinged on a spelling error on the part of his ditz of an ex. “Shit.” He closes his eyes amoment.
“See?” Her voice rises to inhuman decibels. My God, isn’t there a law on the books that frowns upon noise that sponsors tinnitus? “I told you the truth. It’s not my fault Justin and I grew close throughout the semester.” She cozies into him as if proving herpoint.
Knox groans at the sight. “We were together for two years, Janelle. The least you could have done was break it off with mefirst.”
She bounces in her seat as if affronted. “Why would I do that? I knew the second you stepped on campus all the girls would have their eye on you, and I’m not hot onsharing.”
He shakes his head with a wild look in his eyes. “I’m not either. But you can’t have itbothways.”
“Then let’s take a tiny break.” She offers a bashful, albeit, yet again, vapid grin, up atJustine. “We can always get back together inthefall.”
“I’m not taking a break with you,” Knox spits it out so fast and fueled with enough rage geared toward my ex I’m almost expecting him to try to drill his fist into Justin’s skull for old times’ sake. Old times being two long days ago that might as well have been two hundred years. It’s as if time has stalled to a crawl now that I’m secured in this nightmare and all I can do is stew in my juices. “We’re done.” His voice sounds off like a gavel. “You will never get a piece of meagain.”
Her face grows increasingly pale as if she’s just realized what a grave mistakeshe’smade.
“Ditto for you,” I say to the turd seated to my right. “After two years, you could have at least given me the common courtesy of a breakup, or thefinger.”
“What?” Justin looks genuinely perplexed. “We weren’t eventogether.”
My heart sinks into my feet with embarrassment. It’s the white-hot sting of rejection all over again. “We were just messing around, hanging out. There was nothing serious going onthere.”
My face heats ten times hotter than I ever thought possible. All those wasted years, those wasted kisses, my wastedvirginity.
“What did you think was happening when I said I loved you?” My voice grows small with shame. Here Justin had all but stripped me of the right to properly berate him as the cheating ex by way of making me look like some batshitstalker.
He clicks his tongue dismissively as he leans back in his seat. “Those are just words.” His fingers snap open and closed as if miming the fact I was merely talking. “I have ten girls a day that say those things to me. We were just having some fun.” He spears me with a heated look that asserts the fact he very much knows he’s lying. Not only is Justin into cheating, but he’s into humiliation too. “You meant nothing to me.” His lips curl to the side with an evil twitch of asmile.
“I meant nothing to you?” The words come out breathless, more of an idea—arottenidea.
It’s as if someone turned out the lights in my world all over again. How could I not see this coming? How could I not see this monster for who hereallywas?
“Hear that?” Knox pulls me up by the hand until we’re standing next to the table. “That’s my favorite song. Let’s dance.” A slow melodic melody warbles through the air as Knox adheres his body next to mine. He leans in, his scruff lightly grazing over my cheek as he buries his mouth close to my ear. “Don’t let that asshole get to you. You are beautiful, strong, and smart, and he’s nothing but a waste of humanflesh.”
