Page 21 of Pinkie Promise

Fallon’s hands fly up to her hair and she looks frantically around.

The sight of her looking so small, alone, and out of her depth punches through my alcohol haze and clenches something tight in my chest. I shove myself off the table and plant myself behind her like a damn tree.

“Everything alright over here?” I ask, hooking my fingers through the belt-loops of Fallon’s denim skirt.

“Swell,” the older woman deadpans, and then her eyes flash back to Fallon. “Look, I don’t think that this is the fit for you. I’ll pay you for tonight but… I want this shift to be your first and your last.”

Fallon keels forward slightly and I rein her in by the loops.

“Are you – firing me – on my –first shift?” she gasps.

The other woman looks up at me and the guys who have all congregated around Fallon.

“I don’t hire students. This is literally why. Your boyfriend here? He looks like he wants to murder me. Take this as a compliment when I say: you do not fit in here.”

Without another word she turns around and leaves us. I hear one of the guys mutter something about an Uber back to a frat house and the guys begin draining the rest of their drinks.

Fallon hasn’t moved a muscle and she’s staring unseeingly straight ahead. For the briefest moment I swear she whispers, “I never fit in anywhere.”

“Fallon,” I begin, trying to twist her around to face me.

She flashes me adrop deadglare over her shoulder and I remove my hands immediately from her skirt.

“Did I just get her fired?” I ask Tanner as Fallon storms away, one palm rubbing down my jaw and the other gripping the back of my neck. “Did I just… get her fucking fired?”

Tanner winces and avoids my eyes as we lumber over to the entrance.

“I need you to do something for me,” I say to him as I crane my neck for one last look at Fallon. “I need you to do something for me because I’m not gonna remember this tomorrow. I need you to tell me to get Fallon a job.”

“How’re you gonna get her a job?” Tanner asks, rolling his eyes.

He clearly doesn’t understand the kind of obsessive psycho that he’s dealing with.

“I’ve got it covered,” I rumble vaguely. “Don’t worry about the little details.”

Tanner pulls his phone out of his pocket and ten seconds later mine is vibrating. I check the screen and it reads:you fucked up and got your gf fired. fix it, loser.

“Jesus Christ. Thanks I guess.”

We hunch down into the Uber and he slides his phone back into his pocket, smirking. “Any time.”

Chapter 7

Fallon

I get a little sparkle in my belly when I hear thepingcoming from my phone.

After checking my surroundings I slip my cell from a tiny side pocket in my leggings and I anxiously tap the bubbles on my screen. The message from Ash that has just popped up almost makes my heart burst with joy.

AISLING:Fallon!!! This is so good, I’m swooning!!

My eyes practically spill with happy tears.

Really?!I type back to her, and I get an immediate,Yes my queen.

I clutch at my chest and sniffle back a watery smile.Thank you Ash.

Getting hired-and-fired at Rodeo Bar six days ago has been the catalyst for my nervous-wreck productivity bender, meaning that I managed to finish my first essay of term a whole week early, and I don’t even need to worry about my thesis right now because I already wrote the first draft over the summer. It’s times like now that have me wishing that I could talk to my parents the way that other people do in the hopes of receiving a little familial appreciation, but I know to think better of it so I keep that Messages page as blank as it’s always been.

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