Page 19 of Falling

“She’s also talking about herself in third person,” Scarlett says before she turns to me. Her eyes sparkle as she reaches out and grabs my hand. “Okay, Wrenny baby, what’s the issue?”

“There is no issue. You just think any guy who pays attention to me wants to get into my pants,” I say, trying not to laugh. The faith these girls have in me and my ability to casually hook up with someone is admirable.

“That’s because it’s true. Have you looked in the mirror?” Scarlett says, shaking her head. “Look, you think he’s a cutie, he thinksyou’rea cutie. Ken and I both vouch that you get some sort of dick thatisn’ta dildo so you can stop being such a grump.”

I gasp. “I amnota grump. I’m a delight.”

“A delight?” Kennedy snickers. I narrow my eyes at her and then to Scarlett, who is nodding in agreement.

“Yes, I am an absolute joy to be around,” I say. No one has ever outwardly said I’m a delight, but I can feel it radiating off the energy I put into the universe. Most of the time…

“Yeah, when you’ve had some chance to work off your energy. When you're a bundle of nerves and anxiousness, you’re snappy. Like you have been all day,” Scarlett says. I groan. “Give me some reasons why sleeping with him is a bad idea.”

“Because he’shim.He’s a popular hockey player. Everybody wants him, and if people see me sneaking around with him, it’s just going to draw attention to me, and that's the last thing I want.”

“Wren, youloveattention. You forced us all to enter every high school talent show just so they could call our names out and we’d walk out to the intro to ‘Crazy in Love.’”

“Because we’re amazing performers if we put our minds to it,” I argue. High school Wren was convinced we could be pop stars, and I saw nothing in the way to stop us.

“We werehorribledancers,” Scar says, shuddering.

“Well, I’m sorry I believed in our collective talent,” I grumble. They both laugh, shaking their heads. “Look, I just don’t see how getting involved with him physically is going to do anything good for me.”

“Getting your brains fucked out of you by Miles Davis isn’t somethinggood? People would pay to kiss his feet, Wren. You do know just how big of a deal he is, right?” Scarlett explains.

“That brings me back to my first point. It's just going to draw unnecessary attention to me and give me more stress than I need.”

“You’re no fun,” Kennedy mumbles. She sulks, and I don’t have the energy to tell her that she can stop trying to live vicariously through me.

I’ve not been with anyone since Augustus, and the prospect of hooking up with anyone casually is terrifying. Even when we broke up, it had already been a few weeks since we had sex. He refused to sleep with me during competition season because of some stupid superstition he has and that only led to more friction in our relationship until it blew up.

Scarlett’s eyes slowly lift to mine, and a fire lights within them. “This is perfect.”

“What is?”

“You can use him.”

“I’m not you, Scar, I don’t use boys for the shits and gigs.”

“Well, you should. It's really fun,” she mumbles. Scarlett laughs like an evil genius whose favorite pastime is torturing boys for fun. “Anyway, what I’m saying is you could date him, and maybe that way, people will be focusing on the skating team again. Just use him for a bit of fame and drop him when the showcase is done.”

I stumble over my words at her suggestion. “I’m not going to lie to him.”

“Fine. Tell him or don't tell him you're going to use him,” she concedes. “Honestly, I’m sure he’ll take it as a compliment.”

Kennedy’s eyes widen as she leans forward on our tiny table. “That plan is genius. Why didn’t I think of that?”

“Maybe because you should be thinking about things like, I don’t know… your job!” I cry, keeping my voice as quiet as possible. It seems like I’m the only person who cares if Kennedy gets fired or not.

She waves me off. “It's fine. Grace can survive on her own for five minutes.”

“You've been sitting here for nearly an hour, Ken,” I mumble.

“Whatever.” I narrow my eyes at her, and she sticks her tongue out. It’s like being best friends with a child. “So, are you going to do it?”

“I don't know. I’ll have to thinkabout it.”

The idea doesn’t sound bad at all. I’m already having a fun time hanging out with him, so it wouldn’t be hard to pretend to like him. I’m not an actress by any means, but getting the attention out of it would be good. My mom has been calling me non-stop over the past week, and I’ve been avoiding her like the plague. Not like I have much choice now though. I’m supposed to be going to see her for a “check-in” when I leave the girls.

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