"What are you doing here tonight?" I asked, surprised to see her. "I thought you were staying over at Wilder's."
She plopped down on her bed. "I was, but felt like my bestie needed me," she said with a smile. "It's been a while since we had a girls night in."
I smiled back, glad she was here. "That sounds amazing. Let me hurry and get dressed and I'll be right out."
I pulled a large t-shirt over my head and threw on some shorts then hurried to towel-dry my hair. Once I'd gotten home from the Wolf's Den, I'd felt like I needed to scrub Rush off of me and hoped that some of my feelings for him would wash down the drain as well.
Opening the bathroom door, I sat down on my bed, across from Olivia. It was rare to have her here on the weekends. During the week, she'd sleep here, but then she would stay at Wilder's for the entire weekend. I had actually been surprised when they hadn't gotten a place together this year, but maybe that had something to do with me and Slate. I wondered if they didn't want us to have to look for new roommates.
"Are you sure Wilder is okay with you staying here tonight?" I asked.
"Of course," she said. "He's worried about you too."
I sighed. "You two don't need to be worried about me at all. I'm fine."
"Scarlet, I know you're tough," she started. "But it's okay to be sad or depressed or upset or whatever emotions you're feeling. You just broke up with Mick—you have to be feeling something about that. And then all this stuff with Rush tonight has you frazzled, whether you want to admit it. You know you can talk to me about anything."
I gave her a pointed look. "Says the girl who kept her past locked up tighter than a vault. We'd been friends for seven months before you told me everything you'd been through, sugar."
She gave me a chagrined look. "I know, and I regret it. I had no idea how much I needed to talk about what happened to me."
She'd been through something awful and had kept it all to herself for so long. I was so proud of her for continuing to work through everything.
"But," she continued, "we're not talking about me, we're talking about you."
This time I let out an exaggerated sigh as I grabbed a pillow off my bed and hugged it to my chest. "Fine. What do you want to know?"
She pulled her legs up on the bed. "I know you said you were okay about your breakup with Mick, but you guys were together for a while. You've got to be feeling some emotions about it."
I was definitely feeling some emotions about it, but they weren't the kind of emotions she thought I would be feeling.
"Mick just wasn't it for me," I said, shrugging my shoulders.
Her brows creased. "Soyoubroke up withhim? You said it was a mutual break up."
I bit my lip. "Technically, I broke up with him, but he'd known for a while that my heart wasn't in it."
"Okay," she said slowly, still processing what I'd told her. "So you're really not sad or anything?"
"Nope," I said before admitting to her what I'd admitted to myself earlier. "I'm actually relieved. I probably should have broken things off earlier."
"Well, that's good I guess," she said. "So it's Rush then that has you rattled?"
I gripped the pillow I held. "Yes," I said quietly.
"It's okay to admit he gets underneath your skin."
"Ha," I said with no humor in it. "That's one way of putting it. Somehow he makes me want to kiss him and punch him at the same time."
She laughed. "I think that's a common feeling when it comes to the guys on the football team."
I laughed too. "That's probably true."
"Although when the two of you were dancing, it definitely looked like you were leaning toward the wanting-to-kiss-him side of things."
I laughed and threw my pillow at her. "Oh, hush your mouth."
She let the pillow hit her, and we both laughed.
