Page 73 of Anyone But Her

"I can eat wherever I want and I'm choosing to eat here."

"Then we're going." Birdie looks down at her phone and smiles. "He just texted me. He said he can't wait for our date."

Cal huffs. "Every guy says that. That's nothin' special."

"Like you're Mr. Romantic?" Birdie scoffs.

"As a matter of fact I am."

"Yeah, right. Your idea of romantic is taking a girl to that barbecue place where the waiters dress as pigs."

"I've actually never taken a girl there." He scoops up another big spoonful of ice cream.

"I hate to admit it," I say to Birdie, "but Cal can be romantic when he wants to be. For the right girl."

"And who's the right girl? Some skinny chick with fake boobs?" She rolls her eyes.

"I prefer au natural when it comes to breasts." He licks the ice cream off his spoon. "And as for body size, I like a curvier girl. A girl who has something to hold onto."

"Then why don't you ever date girls like that?" I ask, because he typically dates girls like Birdie described; tall and skinny with big boobs that may or may not be fake. I can't always tell.

"Haven't found the right one," he says. "For now, I'm just playing the field."

"Meaning using hot girls for sex," Birdie says.

"Like you don't use guys?" he asks. "I bet Opera Boy's rich."

She narrows her eyes at him. "That's not why I'm dating him. And for the record, I have no idea what his financial status is."

"So why are you dating him?"

"Because he's cute and he asked me out."

"That's all it takes? A guy asks you out and you say yes? You might want to work on coming up with some better standards."

"He's nice, okay? And he said I had pretty eyes and a pretty smile, which is more than I get out of most guys."

"And you're going out with these losers?" Cal scrapes up the last of his ice cream with his spoon.

Birdie looks at me. "Why are we wasting time talking to him?"

"I've been ready to go this whole time," I say. "I've just been waiting for you two to finish."

"We're done," Birdie says. "Let's go."

As we're leaving I look back and see Cal staring at Birdie's ass. My brother is such a pervert. I guess he's just being a guy, which makes me wonder if Luke looks at my ass when I walk away. I kind of hope he does.

"Your brother is such an idiot," Birdie says as she pulls out of the driveway. We're taking her car tonight, which is a bright yellow Jeep that used to be her dad's.

"I don't know why you even talk to him. You guys always end up fighting."

"I can't just stand there and listen to him say stuff about me that isn't true."

"Well, to be fair, he was right about the opera. That's totally not your thing. Why didn't you ask that guy to take you somewhere else?"

"Because I'm trying to broaden my interests. I'm in college now and college is the time to try new things. Be open to new experiences." She slams on the brakes as a guy cuts in front of us on his bike. She rolls down her window and yells at him, "I could've killed you, asshole!"

He glances back at her, then looks around like he's not sure the comment came from her. Birdie has a sweet innocent face with rose-shaped lips, big blue eyes, and naturally thick eyelashes. If you saw her, you'd think she never swears or raises her voice. But when she gets angry, the swear words fly and she can get pretty loud. Luckily she doesn't get angry very often. Usually the only time she does is when she's around my brother.

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