Page 3 of Get Even

“Pack up your shit and get out.”

Her blue eyes widened, mouth angling to catch flies as she stared. “What?”

“You thought you could bang my boyfriend, call me a slut instead of apologizing – not that it would have helped – and still live here?” Taylor’s mouth opened and closed like a fish and her eyes filled with tears, the standard way she got out of anything she found distasteful, and I folded my arms across my chest, waiting to see if she had anything else to spit out.

“Okay,” I said when her silence stretched on. “Nice knowing you – well, not really, actually.”

“You’re kicking me out?” The whine in her voice grated along my nerves and I felt my control snapping even as I wanted to crow in triumph. This was the thing that would hit Taylor where it hurt – her privilege. Girl had never been toldno.

“What did you think was going to happen?” Taylor looked away and I let out a short laugh. “Right, you thought I’d never find out. I’d like for you to know that you two are both way too fucking stupid to pull that off long-term. Go and pack up your shit before I do something I might regret.”

She ran past me on her way out of the living room, heading to the room that was opposite mine, and I heard her crying down the phone to someone –Aaron maybe? If she thought he was going to put her up she had another thing coming. Aaron was a dick and Taylor had been single for alongtime, maybe I’d been stupid leaving and expecting them not to hook up.

No.I wasn’t responsible for their shitty actions. I finally uncrossed my arms and took a few deep breaths, trying to fight the rising tide of anger that was warring with the newfound loneliness. I’d just lost the closest thing to family I’d had since my Grandmother died.You’ll make new friends.Sure, but it wouldn’t be easy. People tended to find me a little… direct. Which was fine! But it wasn’t an approach that everyone liked. I couldn’t change who I was and I guess it turned out that Taylor didn’t really like me very much anyway if she thought I was a slut and had gone after my boyfriend.

I sank down onto my couch, running my hand over the soft gray material and sighing. The thrill from earlier had faded and now I was left in a messy situation with even messier feelings.

“Jamie?”

I looked up, startled, to find Taylor standing in the doorway, her hair scraped up into a messy bun and her mouth scrunched up in the way that only happened when she was upset.

“What?”

“I’m sorry.”

I glanced away, staring at the sun beyond the window. It was less painful than looking at the girl who was supposed to be my friend, who I’d known for two years and counting and who had screwed everything up for a quick fuck with a guy who didn’t even love her.Unless he did?I didn’t reply, just nodded slightly.

“Aaron doesn’t want to see me, he won’t let me stay with him and I was wondering–”

Second choice yet again, huh?“Oh, so you only apologized once you were sure my ex-boyfriend wouldn’t take you in? Nice. Go and crash with those sorority girls you ass-lick twenty-four-seven – I don’t care but I want you gone. Sooner rather than later if I’m going to have any chance of getting the stink of desperation out of the furniture.”

I finally looked up and found the space where she’d stood empty. Good. Who needed liars and cheaters in their life anyway? I grabbed the remote from the coffee table and flicked the TV off, it was playing a Vampire Diaries re-run and right now I didn’t want to have to look at Damon Salvatore’s perfect face – it would only make me feel worse about my own messed up romantic life right now. Though, of course, if Damon Salvatore walked into a bar and asked for a vein I’dgladlylet him tap that.

A different set of familiar blue eyes floated through my head unexpectedly and I shook my thoughts free of Ryan’s killer lashes and toe-curling smirk. It wasn’t the first time I’d had to do so, but he was off-limits. Fellow co-captain of the football team and Aaron’s ‘nemesis’ (Aaron’s words, boys were fucking dumb, likeseriously– nemesis?) – unfortunately, Ry was also an absolute smoke show. I’d avoided him as much as possible when I had been dating Aaron, which had been hard considering they lived together. I didn’t really understand why, considering they seemed to hate each other’s guts. Men. Can’t live with them… well. I guessed I’d manage.

I sank back against the couch, listening to Taylor crying down the phone to someone else in the other room as she rustled bags and clattered about. My hands shook and my eyes fluttered closed. How had my life become this cluster fuck of such epic proportions? I bit my lip as the emotion I’d been holding back finally threatened to overwhelm me and a tear trickled down my cheek, followed by another. I’d give myself a few minutes to cry and that was it. They didn’t deserve my tears and these were for myself anyway, for whatever came next. For the uncertainty that the future now held without Aaron and Taylor in it. Taylor’s door creaked open and I dashed the tears from my face quickly, setting my jaw and not even flinching when the front door opened and then closed. I stood and walked through the hall to Taylor’s room. Clothes were strewn across the floor, make-up littered her desk as if she’d upended her bag and a suitcase sat on the bed waiting to be filled. All that was left of a two-year friendship.

The front door opened and I turned away as Taylor walked in.

“Jamie, please–” Taylor tried again and I walked into my bedroom, closing the door firmly behind me and resting my back against it as the sounds of Taylor packing resumed.

They say the best way to get over someone was to get under someone else – I could tick that off the proverbial list. Now, it was onto phase two ofErase Aaron Matthews From My Brain/Heart:getting ferociously drunk. I could only hope he would take the memory of my best friend with him.

CHAPTERTHREE

WHEN YOU’RE OUT - BILLEN TED, MAE MULLER

The Box wasloud on a Friday night, that was why Thursdays were my favorite day to come. There were several reasons whyThe Boxwas one of my favorite places in Sun City: firstly, the booze was cheap. Secondly, it looked pretty, with a flower wall along one side and pink lighting that deepened to red as the evening wore on. Lastly, their karaoke and live music nights. I loved to sing, so Wednesday nights I was usually here, setting up my guitar and ready to belt out whatever cover I’d been working on that week. I was a regular and Kat, the bartender working tonight, eyed me worriedly as I threw back my third tequila shot since I’d walked in ten minutes ago. We didn’t know each other that well beyond the odd drunken ramble at the bar and one night that we’d done karaoke together but I liked her. Kat was honest if nothing else and she had let me rant to her about Aaron when I’d invited him to watch me sing at open mic and he’d blown me off. I gave her a tight smile and patted her hand, “It’s been a long day, babe. Keep ‘em coming.”

She squeezed my hand and refilled the shot glasses, waving away my card as I reached out to pay, “This one’s on me, okay? Let me know if you need anything, Jay.”

My smile wobbled and I quickly grabbed another shot, downing it and then smiling widely. “You’re the sweetest, thank you Kat.”See? You have more friends than Taylor and Aaron.I groaned. I’d gone almost an hour without thinking about either of them while I enjoyed the sunset and walked toThe Box. How drunk did I need to be before I wouldn’t be able to remember their names?

Kat gave me one of her trademark sweet smiles, green eyes crinkling at the corners and cheeks dimpling, before she moved off to serve someone else.

I liked to people watch, sometimes it was nice to be surrounded by people and yet be completely alone in your thoughts – it sounded emo as fuck, but there was something peaceful about it. Usually, anyway. Tonight my thoughts were a swirling mess ofWhat did I do wrong? Am I really so unbearable?And oddly and most stupidly of all,Ryan saw me naked.

I ran a hand through my short hair in agitation, a mixture of irritation and confusion dogging me. Who gave a singular fuck what Ryan Sommers thought?

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