Page 2 of Getting Over You

“Is she pretty?” I ask. I regret it as soon as the words leave my mouth because what the hell, Gigi? Why would you ask that? Who cares if your ex’s new girlfriend is pretty?

I do. She might be better looking than me.

“Uh.” Marcus thinks this over. How weird is this conversation as we’re getting dressed after almost having sex? I suppose it’s better than doing it after. Getting dumped right now is hard, but doing it immediately after?

Oof.

“You don’t have to answer that,” I say quickly, blinking back impending tears that pulse behind my eyes. Wincing, I say, “Sorry.” I take a few steps to the door, placing my hand on the knob, but not turning it. This feels weird, final. I can stay locked in this moment as long as I keep the door shut—stay in this room with him.

“I’m sorry, too,” Marcus says. “Thanks for everything, Gigi. Seriously, you’re a good girl.”

Not good enough to make a girlfriend out of, but good enough to treat as a toy,I think. I say instead, “It happens. This was just a fling anyway, you know?”

“Right,” he replies, a small smile forming as he processes what I’ve said. “Thanks for being so cool about this, Geeg.”

I hate nicknames.

“Yeah,” I say, pulling the door open. “No problem.”

I find a place downstairs to duck into and call my sister Mollie to pick me up.

“Why are you calling me?” she asks. “Can’t Marcus drive you home?”

“Mollie,” I sigh into the phone. “Please. Just come.”

“Fine, but only because you sound really sad. What do I tell Mom when she asks why I’m going to get you?”

“Tell her…” Shit, I didn’t think this through. I bite my lip. “I have food poisoning.”

“Food poisoning at a house party?” My sister guffaws, incredulous.“Okay.”

“Mollie.Please?” I don’t have the energy for Mollie to be soherselfat the moment.

“You do know that I’m already on my way, don’t you?” she asks.

“You are?”

“Of course I am,” she says earnestly. “My sister’s in trouble.”

I find a spot in the Cooper’s front lawn to wait for Mollie. And as I thought, she’s there in moments, before my limbs have the chance to go to stone with grief.

“SCREW MARCUS MATTESON!” she screams from her open window, her blonde bun bouncing with force as she punctuates her words.

I shush her, walking to the passenger side of her blue Honda Accord. “Are you insane?” I accuse as I slide in and shut the door. “You don’t even know what happened.”

“Well?” she spits. “Clearly, it’s not good. Because here my dear sister is, alone, waiting for me to pick her up from a party.”

I sigh, my whole body sagging as the Cooper’s house fades further and further away.

“He’s got a girlfriend,” I whisper. “Marcus does, I mean.”

“Well, yeah.” Mollie glances at me sidelong. “You.”

“No, not me. We were an arrangement—a conditional arrangement.”

“And that condition was?”

Bile rises in my throat. “That we are a thing until we aren’t a thing. Until one of us decides—”

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