Page 116 of The Shake Off

I turned behind me, looking to see if maybe there was a portal to a different reality, or for any indication this wasn’t happening. Maybe it was one of those shitty joke shows, like Punk’d.

But her bedroom was as I’d left it, the comforter hanging half off the bed.

When I looked back, her eyes were closed and she was holding onto the sink.

She was hungover. That’s all this was. The World’s Worst Hangover.

“Pay, babe, why don’t you go back to bed and try to sleep? You’ll feel better.”

“Stop telling me what to do!” she snapped, as loudly as she could manage.

“I’m not telling you what to do. I’m trying to help you feel better.”

“Well, I don’t need you to, and I don’t need a boyfriend. I look after myself just fine.”

I didn’t think it was the time to remind her that she kept shoes in her kitchen cabinets, or, if I opened the fridge, there’d be a half empty carton of two percent milk and not much else.

I stood up, too annoyed to stay sitting. It was also hard to be annoyed at someone who looked like they were on the verge of dying, but I was doing my best.

“Where’s this boyfriend talk coming from? Has someone said something to you? What happened yesterday?”

“No one said anything,” she snapped, though I noticed she didn’t look me in the eye. “I can think for myself, you know.”

I had to hand it to her; I now couldn’t tell if it was the hangover speaking, especially when she stormed past me into the bedroom. I followed, expecting to find her in bed, but she was standing by the bedroom door holding up my trackpants.

Guess that was my cue.

“This has been fun, and I’m really grateful for what you’ve done for me…”

“I haven’t done anything,” I snapped, snatching the pants from her hand, “and you’re being ridiculous.”

“I’mbeing ridiculous? Me? Me?” she pointed at her chest. “We’re using each other. This whole thing started because you wanted to play better, and I wanted a promotion. It’s not a relationship, Ace.”

“What would you know? You’ve never had a relationship!”

“Neither have you!”

“No, but you know what? I want to try, and I want to see what it’s like, so sue me. I like you, Payton. I more than like you – maybe not right this second – but I like you, and I know you like me, too. Don’t you want to see what we’d be like together?”

“Not really,” she replied, and this time I was certain she purposely looked away.

Liar.

I didn’t know what was happening right now, but I knew she was lying.

“Payton, I want to have you at the games, watching me. I want to take you to dinner, and I want to hold your hand and kiss you in public. Hell, I want to see you in daylight.”

She rolled her eyes, then winced from the movement. “Yeah, because you’ve got it in your head that you can’t win without me.”

I tugged my pants on and snatched up my hoodie from the floor. “No! Maybe that’s how this started, but it’s not why it continued. My game was fixed long ago.”

“I don’t want a boyfriend, Ace.”

“Yeah? I call bullshit on that.” I stormed past her into the living room, and waved my hands around. “All the books in this apartment are romance. They’re all about finding love. No one reads that many books about love if they don’t believe in it.”

“I work in publishing, you dumbass!”

I shook my head. “Nice try. You didn’t collect all those books in the last month. Kids don’t read those kinds of books.”

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