"Parking now, sweetheart, don't get your panties in a twist." Ethan huffs at the nickname he hates.
"Good. Then I get to kick your dumb ass, sweetheart." The sarcasm in his voice doesn't make me laugh any less, and he hangs up cursing at me.
I get out of the car and stop for a second, taking in the entrance to the field. Man, I love this place.
Life is pretty damn good to me: I'm at the college I always wanted, playing the sport that's my whole life, with a real shot at going pro one day.
And nobody was throwing things at me or cheating behind my back.
I think back on it and shake my head, chasing the thought away. Being single was so much better, and I had no intention of changing that.
Chapter 1
Charlotte
Everything a woman needs to get over getting dumped is a new hair color, deleting every chat and photo of the two of you together, and sleeping around until she forgets the cheater's dick.
I run my hand through a pink strand falling across my face while I think about how I've already done two of those three things. All that's left is the part where I sit on other dicks, but for that I'd need a little more courage.
Shots of tequila in the middle of it all might help, which is why I let the fourth one slide down my throat. Or is it the fifth? I'm not sure. This time I wince more at biting the lime than at the burn of the alcohol. Should I call that progress?
"The progress of your hangover, maybe," says a voice I know almost better than my own from the stool beside me, and only then do I realize I said that out loud. I lift my eyes to Madison, my twin sister who's six months older.
Yeah. I let out a drunk little giggle remembering that quirk of our family. Madison and I are cousins, but practically identical, because our moms and our dads are identical twins who, on top of marrying each other, pulled off the feat of getting pregnant around the same time too.
I swear. I'm not making it up. Anyone who searches online will find a bunch of news stories done about us when we were little.
These days it's actually easier to tell us apart, even before the pink dye in my hair, but when we were kids it was tricky. Maddie's a little taller and thinner than me, her eyes are blue while mine lean green, and my lips are a bit fuller, but her boobs are almost double mine. Of course that's because she got implants the second she turned eighteen, but...
Is that why Jonathan cheated on me? Or because I don't put myself together as well as my cousin? It's got to be past midnight, and while my mascara is probably running down my cheek, my cousin is showing off perfect skin with the same light everyday makeup. I still don't know who he cheated on me with, because the photos I got didn't show the girl's face, just her legs wrapped around my then-boyfriend's head, but it's definitely got to be someone as pretty and always-perfect as Madison.
I think about commenting on her new above-the-shoulder haircut, but I frown when my drunk brain finally manages to focus on a more important question:
"What are you doing here, Mads?" My cousin rolls her eyes and sits on the bar stool next to me.
"It's past midnight and you still hadn't shown up at the dorm, so I tracked your phone," she explains with a shrug, and I huff.
"Damn app." I rest my arms on the cold marble counter and lay my head on them. I didn't want anyone to find me, I just wanted to drink until I passed out and not cry gallons and gallons of tears, pathetically, the way I want to right now with Madison gently stroking my hair.
"I like the color," she says, and all I let out in response is a whiny little sound. "You want to tell me what happened?"
"Not really," I whisper, shaking my head side to side, my forehead still on my arms.
"Nicolle gave me a heads-up that it had something to do with Jonathan..." she says, and I let out a groan. Nicolle is my best friend in the computer science program. She doesn't quite take Maddie's place in my life, but she's a good friend. Unfortunately, she was studying with me in my room when I got the photos of Johnny cheating on me, so she had to witness my little meltdown. "Want to curse him out? Kill him? I'll help hide the body."
That pulls a pained laugh out of me, and I turn my head to look at her.
"I want to cut his dick off," I say, trying to focus on the anger instead of the pain in my heart.
"Perfect, I'll sharpen the knife," she answers right away, and I actually laugh for a few seconds, even if it makes the shards of my heart rattle around in my chest.
"Deal."
"Good, so how about we head to the dorm, you tell me what happened, we make our castration plans, and I make you some coffee so this tequila can start wearing off?" she suggests, and I shake my head no, whining like a bratty little kid.
"But tequila is my friend. My only true friend besides you and Nick," I argue, grabbing the bottle the bartender left lying around like it's my lifeline. Maddie tuts and takes the bottle out of my arms, then gets me down off the bar stool right after.
The only reason I don't go straight to the floor is because she catches me, but it takes several long seconds for the world to stop spinning and for me to realize just how drunk I really am.
