“Yeah, what’s it to ya, nerd?” Brooke snaps back.
Lily looks at me then rolls her eyes. “Wow, she really is precious, isn’t she, Stella?”
“Yep. Precious,” I mutter. I look back over in Bradley’s direction. He’d been watching Brooke walk away too—not surprising since she’s practically naked. “Bradley, I’m not going to ride home with you. I’m not leaving until later this morning anyway. You go ahead and go.”
“Now that’s just silly, Stella!” Bradley exclaims.
“No, it’s not silly. I don’t want to spend over an hour in the car with you.”
“Come on. We’ve known each other for fifteen years. You can’t spend an hour in the car with me?”
“I think she said, no, dude,” Lily defends.
“Who the fuck asked you, Lily?” Bradley retorts.
“No one. Just like no one asked you to come over here and no one asked you to give Stella a ride home,” snaps Lily.
Ignoring their spat, I say, “I’ll just plan on seeing you back home. I’m sure you have some type of intervention intended for me. That’ll be soon enough for me.”
“What the hell happened to my sweet Stella? It’s because you’re spending time with those idiot jocks, isn’t it? Is thatwhere you were last night? Already sleeping with other people?” he sneers.
“Sleeping with other people? That would mean that I had slept withyou, Bradley, which I know you didn’t want to do. Brooke told me all about your aversion to seeing me, erm, that way and being forced to have sex with me.” I can’t believe I just said all that aloud.
“What? I never said that! She’s just jealous that I want to be with you instead of her, that’s all.”
With that statement hanging in the air, Brooke’s door flies open and slams against her bedroom wall. She steps out, still only in underwear. “Really, Brad, that’s your story? Stella, what I told you was the absolute truth. I could give two shits what happens to you and this idiot, but that’s exactly what he said about you. Shit, I may have even sugarcoated it a little bit. I think he was even more explicit than I was,” says Satan’s mistress.
“That’s bullshit, B, and you know it.”
“Whatever,” Brooke says while she stomps back to her room, her tiny ass jiggling.
“Girl, get some damn clothes on. I don’t need to know that much about you,” Lily bellows.
Brooke flips Lily off and slams her door again.
“Wow, what a sweetie. If she wasn’t the princess of darkness, we might have been friends,” states Lily.
I roll my eyes. Bradley called her “B.” That’s a pretty familiar way of addressing someone you only slept with once. I turn to Bradley, point to the door, and tell him I’ll see him at my intervention tonight. Because I know my family and therewillbe an intervention. The thing that my family doesn’t realize is that nothing will change the fact that Bradley and I are finished. I could never take him back. Not now.
Bradley looks sincerely dejected and sad as he leaves, telling me he’ll see me at home. I’m sure he’s just upset that he’s notgetting his way. The guy could sell ice to an Eskimo, so he’s probably confused about my resistance. I almost feel a little sorry for him, but I’m sure he’ll rebound. He always does.
Lily decides to shower at my place so she can have a bathroom to herself for once. I start packing up my overnight bag for home. I’m not looking forward to the conversation tonight, but I need to get it over with. After my bag is packed, it’s my turn in the bathroom. I shower and pack up my toiletries.
“Let’s see, which one of my graphic tees should I wear today? I don’t want to antagonize my mom; she hates my tees,” I explain to Lily. Graphic tees are the staple of my wardrobe—tees along with jeans and my Converse. But my mom h-a-t-e-s them. If she had her way, there would have been a huge bonfire made entirely of my T-shirt collection.
Lily looks in my closet at all of my tees. “What about this one?” She holds up a navy blue scoop neck T-shirt that says, “Come to the Dark Side. We have cookies.”
I laugh. “Any reference to food or drink of any kind is strictly prohibited by Mrs. Matthews.”
“Okay. How ’bout this one?” “Glitter: The herpes of craft supplies.”
She and I both laugh at that one. It’s one of my favorites. Ironically, the text is made of glitter. But I have to say no.
“Okay, last try,” says Lily.
She pulls out a red V-neck tee with “Life without art is just… meh.”
Yeah, that one is safe. I slip the T-shirt on with my tan shorts. “This will be fine. Nothing I wear will really make her happy, so I might as well be comfortable. Right?”
