Page 32 of Destined To Fall

“Of course she didn’t.”

He grins at me.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“Keep talking.”

“Come Monday at school, we walked past Luke, and she ignored him. Walked right past him like he didn’t exist. I wouldn’t have noticed anything was amiss if it weren’t for the look on Luke’s face. He went green when he saw us.”

“He didn’t know you were dating?”

“No, he kept to himself mostly, I think. We went to a pretty big school.”

“Okay, the suspense is killing me. Also, I’m waiting for the smack-down on the ho.”

He snorts at me and bumps my shoulder.“I wouldn’t want to get on your bad side.”

“God, no. If I’d gone to the same school as you, I would have pummeled her ass.”

“And then stolen her boyfriend?”

“Definitely. I would have paraded you around just to rub it in her whorey face. You would have forgotten all about her in a week.” I smile. For a split second, I wish I could have been there to ease the burn. No doubt some other girl was all over that.

“A day.”

“Huh?”

“It wouldn’t have even taken that long. Hell, if you went to my school…I wouldn’t have seen anyone else.”

“I…” I’m at a loss and struck stupid.“I did kind of stand out at school. I was the rebel.”

He laughs at that.“I bet.”

“Okay, seriously, what happened?”

“Something made me ask her if Luke had gone to the party. He still looked hung over. I think I said something along those lines, downplaying my unease. She went all weird, and then said she couldn’t remember, had gotten too drunk, and then laughed it off.”

“Ah, the fake I’m-not-lying laugh.”

“Exactly. Once again, I knew something was up. The following day, Luke found me without her. It took him forever to spit it out. He apologized till he was red in the face while I stood there like a mute, not sure what to say.”

“But why did he tell you? He could have let it go because obviously hoface wasn’t going to say anything.” I pull on his arm and nod to the entrance for Theo’s, surprised there isn’t a line yet.

“He didn’t think it was right that I obviously didn’t know what was going on. And she hadn’t been that drunk, he thought,” he says, opening the door for me.“She’d come on to him.”

“Fucking whore,” I mutter under my breath as we enter the café, but Jeremy hears and chuckles beside me.

“What a mouth,” he teases.

“You have no idea.” I smirk, minutely distracted.“Speaking of my mouth, it’s in desperate need of a good stuffing.” Jeremy chokes and coughs, his eyes going wide.“Food, Jeremy. I meant food. Though I approve of your train of thought. So dirty. I like it.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I swallowed a fly.”

“And perhaps you’ll die? I’ll order you a spider.” I shudder at the thought, the nursery rhyme playing in my head while I scan the small space for a table.

“Can I skip to the pig part? Did she swallow a pig, or was it a cow?” Jeremy grimaces, and I chuckle.

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