Page 224 of Out of Bounds

"Kass…you have to think about yourself too."

90

Kassie

Bet You’re The Nicest

In the back, I found a can of lemonade and a water bottle. I could drink the lemonade with him and he wouldn’t argue against the extra sugar. It was an automatic thing now. Thinking about what I could do for him at every step.

"I just…" I shut the fridge door and the emotions hit me again. Slowly, I placed everything on the counter. There had to be something I could say to Zariah but all I could do was shrug, helpless. "I think…he’s my person."

Her hand went to her mouth. "Oh, man."

"Yeah." I pressed a cool beer to my forehead. "You can say that again."

"Kassie," a voice called to me from the counter on the other side of the fridge.

I glanced up automatically but I had no idea who she was. Literally no clue. She gave me a long look and pressed her lips so hard, they disappeared for a moment. It wasn’t a good look and for a couple of seconds, I knew I should’ve taken my exit.

"You don’t deserve him."

Zariah frowned at me. "What?"

The drunk girl wasn’t alone and her friends flocked over in an instant, trying to apologize for her, but she set her face and I knew she wasn’t sorry.

"Don’t worry about it," I told my roommate and shifted back to look at the girl. "I don’t know who you are but not tonight. Seriously. I’m not in the mood."

"Thank you," one of her friends exhaled.

"You don’t know who I am?" She gave me a flabbergasted look, ignoring her friends trying to get her off the counter. "Amelia."

Great. That clears nothing up.

"I don’t know an Amelia."

"Now we do,” Zariah pushed, stubborn. “And I want to know what she’s talking about."

I gathered up the beers. "Z, trust me, you don’t."

"My brother’s Sebastian. Senior punter." Amelia sneered.

"This used to be a lot worse," I told Zariah, firmly ignoring the drunk girl on the counter. "It doesn’t matter. Let’s go whoop Adam’s ass at cards."

That wasn’t enough for Amelia. "I was there for the first practice—I saw everything. How you stomped around and threw a tantrum."

"And she’s been seething about it ever since," Zariah scoffed.

I had to push Zariah away because I was absolutely not trying to start up an argument at June’s party of all places with the sister of a football player. A waste of time. Nothing good could come from it and I didn’t want anyone at our table finding out.

"You’re a meanbitch," Amelia hurled at me.

I froze, halfway down the table. Ever since Cleo went overboard on the socials in a purposeful way to cut out the weirdo conversations, I hadn’t been confronted in a while. But I definitely hadn’t been called a mean bitch by one of Ryan’s fans before.

"Kass?" Zariah must’ve seen something on my face because she changed her tune. "You’re right, let’s go."

Her friends tried to apologize for her behavior again but I set everything on the table, staring straight ahead at the wall. God, it’d been high school since someone called me a bitch. Every new school I had attended while I bounced around had someone who thought they could fuck with me. I had to learn how to take care of myself.

I shifted back. "A mean bitch?"

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