Page 4 of The Plus One
Arriving at the station and swiping her pass, Indira draped a scarf over the outside of Grammy’s carrier, hoping the general loudness of the city would divert notice of any bizarre screeches the creature decided to let out. She picked a window seat in a fairly empty train car, dropping her stuff around her in a mess.
The train pulled out a few minutes later, and Indira watched the city blur into streaks of gray and green. The steady vibrations of the ride relaxed her tense muscles, and the commotion of the past hour hit her unguarded heart.
How could Chris do that to her? How could he betray her like that?
Indira had twisted herself into knots to be a chill girlfriend. Afun girlfriend. To be exactly the type of person she thought Chris would like.
That had worked fucking well.
The train pulled to a stop at the next station, and Indira blinked away the tiny stars in her vision, focusing on the view outside her window and hoping the onboarding passengers wouldn’t see her tear-stained cheeks. It was a useless effort, fat droplets squeaking out and plopping on to her lap.
Indira was so damn sick of being left by the men in her life—first her father, then every guy she’d offered her heart to after—and just once, she wanted to be someone worth staying for.
She tended to fall too fast. Too hard. Care way too much. It was why Chris had seemed sosafe. The thought of him had never made her heart swoop or her head float. Liking him hadn’t felt like anything more than… well, liking him, and she thought not feeling too much would be a safeguard from another emotional car crash.
So much for that plan, because now she was sitting here, bawling on the fucking train, and careening off a cliff to rock bottom.
She rubbed the heels of her hands into her eyes, willing herself not to cry (again). She was done crying over all these people who hurt her. She was done letting anyone hurt her, period.
She finally arrived at the Manayunk station, gathered her crap and cat, and trudged out of the platform and up the disgustingly steep hill to Collin’s home.
Collin and Jeremy’s cars were parked in front of their tall, brick row house, which meant they were likely sleeping, coming off a long shift.
Grammy was well on her way to scratching a hole through the cat carrier as Indira clutched it to her chest, balancing the rest of her stuff precariously as she moved up their stoop. She didn’twantto wake Collin or Jeremy, but with her arms filled to the brim with baggage and mood darker than a storm cloud, Indira (oh so gently) pounded her foot as hard as she could against the base of the door so one of them would open it for her.
After a few moments of banging, Indira heard footsteps on the other side and stepped back, ready to put her shit down and collapse on Collin’s expensive leather couch the second he let her in.
But, when the knob turned and the door swung open, Indira’s battered heart somehow managed to sink even lower at who she saw.
The person she’d loathed since childhood.
Overlord of darkness and killer of fun.
Her older brother’s best friend.
Jude.
“Oh great,” she said, blowing a stray curl off her forehead as she glared at him. “It’s you.”
CHAPTER 3
Jude
There were very few people Jude enjoyed spending time with.
Collin Papadakis, Jude’s closest friend since they were kids, historically topped the list, despite his many extroverted tendencies and tediously charming personality that would annoy Jude in any other person. Collin’s fiancé, Jeremy, was also fun to be around, primarily because he made his best friend happy.
But at the very bottom of said list where the most aggravating of people existed, written in red pen and underlined for good measure, was Indira fucking Papadakis. She was the counterpoint to every facet of his personality and she never failed to fracture his composure, the duo growing up bickering more than they ever actually talked.
“Great to see you too, Dira,” Jude said, fixing her with a bland look, taking in her wild mane of hair and watery eyes as she stood on Collin’s doorstep. “It’s been awhile.”
“Not long enough,” she said, pushing past him and walking into the house. Jude sighed, then closed the door with a flick of his wrist.
This was not what he fucking needed.
Jude, to put it delicately, did not like Indira. Ever since they were children, she’d managed to rub him the wrong way. It would be easier to explain their mutual loathing if there were some grand eventof childhood betrayal or a deep-rooted blood feud—something he could point to and say,There. Right there. That’s the reason we don’t get along and never will.But nothing could ever be easy when it came to Dira, and their animosity didn’t have a source so much as it was a fact of nature.The sun rose in the east. Set in the west. Indira annoyed Jude. Jude annoyed her back.
She was intensely sensitive and had a way of… ofstaringat people with those big copper eyes like she could see beneath their skin. Read their thoughts. The overall effect was horribly unnerving.
