By chance, he lifted his gaze my way, and I was filled with glee, my stomach doing a flip that had me smiling at him. He looked away without returning the gesture, and my smile died.
Never mind.
“Fucking rude prick,” I muttered.
Milk blinked, looking over at me. “What?”
“Not you,” I answered, taking a sip of my drink. “It’s nothing, just another episode of ‘my boyfriend’s a prick to me, and I am trying so hard not to gut him.’”
She chuckled, looking back at the girls. “You and Elio share a very weird relationship.”
“I know, that’s why I like him,” I said, following her line of vision again. “What’s up with you? You wanna hang out with them?”
She snapped her head to me, eyes wide. “What? No… I mean, yeah? But they are, like, way out of my league in the social aspect of things.”
I scrunched my nose. “They’re normal girls who would probably kill to have your looks. And like you once told me, don’t sell yourself short.”
She sighed, turning her head to watch them again. “I’m not; it’s just—beauty isn’t everything, you know, and I love Street and you, but sometimes I wonder what it would be like to have a group of girlfriends, you know? Where you can talk about all the things and laugh freely like they’re doing now. I’m not saying we can’t or don’t do that, but if I were normal and had a job, I could walk up to them and say hi, and if they asked me what I did for a living, I wouldn’t say I cheat or steal from people. I would say I own a jewelry store or a shop at the mall, or a salon.” She released a wistful laugh.
I pressed my lips together. “I get what you mean, but you gotta remember you didn’t ask for this life, and we still havethe future, and you’re still young. You could still make lots of girlfriends who would kill to just say hi to you. I mean, you’re one of the coolest people I know.”
She looked back at me, her pale skin bathing in the setting sun. “Really?”
“Yup.” I offered her a smile.
“Thank you, Zahra.”
I nodded, looking back at the girls, my eyes zeroing in on one in particular. She was familiar.
Blond hair, pretty smile, and apparently, a beautiful laugh, and that aura—the aura ofperfection.
I tilted my head to the side. “I know that one.”
“Which one?”
“The blondie, the one in the short red net dress that screams attention?”
Milk’s brows shot up. “Oh my God, she’s the prettiest; I mean, they’re all pretty, but she just outshines them all; she drew my attention to the circle. Where do you know her from?”
I squinted my eyes. “Hmph, the first night I spent at Elio’s, she knocked on his door and apologized when she saw me; apparently, she had taken the wrong route, said something about having directional issues or some shit along those lines.”
“Oh, that’s odd.”
My eyes shifted toward Elio; his gaze was on his whiskey glass, and he was nodding at whatever Angelo had said.
And then I looked back at the circle of girls to see the blondie’s gaze shifting in his direction.
I frowned, watching her watch Elio and Angelo. Her concentration was not exactly on the animated conversation around her; she had a little frown on her brows.
“Why is she…” Milk trailed off, looking toward Elio’s direction and then at the blondie. “… looking at them?”
I sat up straighter. “No idea.”
Milk chuckled. “They’re quite something to look at; why are we surprised?”
“That’s not the ‘Wow, they’re hot’ look, that’s a ‘What the hell are they talking about’ look,” I told Milk.
She shook her head, studying the situation as she said, “I don’t even wanna know how you broke thaaaat…”
