Couldn’t say that I blamed her. This whole thing had gotten so warped.God, this sucked.
The sound of a key being pushed into the lock and the door sliding open sprung me into action. I crumpled up the letter and shoved it under my mattress. I had just enough time to swipe at the lone tear on my cheek before my roommate appeared.
She took one look at me and wrinkled her nose. “Oh, Cass. You’re here.”
I kept a bored expression. “Hi, Jill.”
The door slammed behind her and she set her purse primly on the countertop on her side of the room. Everything in our dorm was divided down the middle except the bathroom and our bunk beds. But in every other way, we avoided each other like the plague.
Her dresser sat on her side of the room, clean, organized and covered in perfumes. My dresser had clothes and underwear sticking out of every drawer and the top was covered with tapes and magazines. Her vanity area had three matching caboodle sets filled with makeup, hair benders, Noxema and press-on nails in every color. Mine had black lipstick, black nail polish and a wash cloth.
She looked around her vanity for a minute before glancing at me over her shoulder. I could feel the bad vibes already and I just wanted to bolt, but I had a major life event to get ready for and I couldn’t let her get to me today.
“Have you seen my pink banana clip?” It was her tone that made me want to hurl myself across the room and pull out her perfectly curled blonde hair.
“I haven’t,” I said instead.
She turned to face me. “Are you sure?”
I threw myself backwards on my bed and pulled at the choker around my neck. “Get real, Jill. I wouldn’t even know what to do with a banana clip.”
I felt her huff of annoyance, but she didn’t press the issue. Jill had only ever known me as goth. My explanation was perfectly acceptable to her.
Little did she know that I had an entire stack of them back home. One in every color. And a crimper that crimped hearts into my hair.
Ugh. Just remembering my former habits made me want to ralph everywhere.
I also had a caboodle. But I was less embarrassed about that.
Those things were handy.
“So you’re sticking around then? Did you realize what a waste that stupid band concert was?”
I rolled my eyes and stared at the underside of her mattress. “Battle of the Bands is not a band concert, spaz. It’s the sickest band showdown ever. Any local band who’s anybody is in it. There’s a thousand dollar cash prize for the winner.”
“So are you going or what?”
I pushed up on my elbows so I could stare at the back of her head. “Step off, Jill. I’m going, okay? Gina’s coming over to get ready and then we’ll be out of your hair.”
She glanced at her watch and went back to primping her already perfect face. “You should probably hurry if you want to catch the next bus.”
I hated how her words made me feel less than her. Just because her richie rich daddy paid for her brand new Beamer, she thought she was the tits.
And that was why I couldn’t be blamed for the words that came out of my mouth next. “We’re not taking the bus. We have a ride.”
She made a disbelieving sound and I watched her wrinkle her nose again in the mirror. “With who? Your freak friend Gina can’t drive.”
“No, but Troy Cameron can.”
She turned all the way around to stare at me, mouth ajar, eyes buggin’. I jumped off my bed and moved over to my closet to hide my smile.
I’d had my outfit picked out for weeks. I even bought a new bra for the special occasion. Black, lacy and something my mother would kill me for if she ever found it.
Whipping off my shirt just to make Jill uncomfortable, I changed undergarments with my back turned to her, then grabbed the black mesh shirt to wear over it.
The bra itself was more of a crop top and the mesh holes were really small, so you had to basically stare at me to figure out my shirt was see through, but I felt sexy. And tonight of all nights, I needed to feel sexy. I swapped one black mini skirt for another only this time I paired it with my fishnet stockings. I’d managed to snag a few holes in them, but they looked good like that.
“You’re not serious?” Jill finally hissed.
