Page 44 of Rules in Love
“The hot chick you wanna bone?”
I rolled my eyes. “No… Yes. Well, she is kind of pissed at me, and being alone in a room with her and her tight skirts is not the best place for me to be at the moment. We were kind of getting close, and then I said something stupid, and now I think she hates me. Working together in such a tight space with no fun and flirtation is…awkward.”
“So, you avoid her by apologizing to me? Lovely.” Smirking, she sipped again. “You know you can’t hide from everyone, don’t you?”
“Yeah, I’m a bit slow, but I am starting to realize that.”
“Good. About bloody time. Now go. I’ve got shit to do.” She pushed me from the bed and resumed her reading. I began to walk out but stopped at her door and spoke without looking back.
“I don’t know what I’d do without you, Evie. I hope you know how much I appreciate what you’ve done for me…and Iris. You deserve to be happy too.”
“Love you too. Now go to work, you big dork.”
My issues with Nate were simpler to work through. One phone call, one mention of football, and a question about his latest conquest, and we were back to being BFFs. I could only hope Scarlett would be so easily won over. Even if nothing happened romantically between us, I missed…her. All of her. I missed the banter, and laughter, and friendship we’d built. I wanted things to be the way they were before the kiss, but the way things were before our kiss is what led to the kiss. It was hopeless, and confusing, and basically a classic case of wanting your cake and eating it too.
With all this…this stuff brewing and bubbling around us, somehow, work had progressed on our project. It was beginning to come together, and Jocelyn, who I was FaceTiming with as I walked into Team Finnlett’s headquarters, agreed.
“I have decided to extend my stay in France for at least another month.” I instantly knew she’d gotten herself a boytoy and dreaded the upcoming discussions this would lead to. Jocelyn was a very open woman. “I’ve also added some further modifications and a pool house. I’ll email it all over later today after my date with Luc. If I can still manage to move, that is.” Knew it.
Her instructions continued, and judging by the darting of my intuitive aunt’s eyes, the frostiness between Scarlett and me transcended time zones, oceans, and iPad screens. Again, I knew Jocelyn would somehow involve herself in correcting it.
I was right. Though I couldn’t prove her involvement, Jason Wright had a spur-of-the-moment idea not ten minutes after her call. The next week, Scarlett and I would join him and Victoria, his PA, to visit the home site. The plan was to stay overnight in Tarrytown and return Friday afternoon.
Well played, old lady…well played.
Scarlett
Almost nine years ago.
Icarried my laptop and a giant decaf latte and waddled into my last lecture before the summer break. For me, it would be a break like no other. I was due to give birth in four weeks.
“Slut.”
I ignored it, knowing full well who I would find behind me, coughing and sneezing insults into their clenched fists: The Barbies. Three girls, all with platinum-blonde locks, swollen trout pouts, and skin tones akin to an Oompa-Loompa. Not that there was anything wrong with that.
“Slut. Slut. Slut.”
It was the same broken record each time since I’d begun to show. I’d tried to ignore it. I’d tried to reason with them. I tried reporting to student welfare. After that, we were all forced to attend group mediations together, but they bullshitted their way through each session, saying everything they knew the counselors wanted to hear. Then, the insults and taunts would start again as soon as we left the room.
Slut, harlot, ho, town bike, and my personal favorite, Cum Pot. That one came about after I ate a kumquat in class. It was disgusting but rather inventive. Any time I was late, had to leave to use the bathroom, missed a class for an appointment, or even if I ate in public, I would be targeted. Accusations of unfair treatment were made because some of my assignment deadlines had been modified. And other students refused to work on joint projects with me because I had been deemed unreliable.
In this class, Fundamental Principles of Environmental Design, the harassment was worse because Teddy had a different lecture time than me. They knew I was alone and easy prey—a lame duck, if you will—and they hunted me as such. Well, on that day, I was done.
“Slut. Oh, excuse me. I must have allergies. Do you have any tissues, Harlett…sorry, Scarlett?”
“No, Stacey. I do not have any tissues, and even if I did, I wouldn’t give them to you.”
“Wow. Someone’s hormonal. I don’t know why they let pregnant women loose in lecture halls. Especially this one,” she complained.
“She’s basically feral. She talks to us like this, and they still help her. It’s completely unfair,” complained Brooke.
“I can’t believe she gets modified schedules just because she can’t keep her legs together,” added Alisha, my former roommate—the one whose parents had kicked me out.
Tears stung my eyes, but I kept my head down and opened my laptop. The second our professor spoke, they started again.
“Slut. Slut. Slut.”
These bitches had pushed me too far. I was retaining fluid. I was having Braxton-Hicks contractions. My ass hurt night and day for some ungodly reason, and I could hardly eat because I had a beach ball squishing my stomach. I snapped, slamming my laptop shut and jumping to my feet as fast as I possibly could jump by that stage. “What the hell is your problem? Yes, I’m pregnant. Yes, I am young. But I deserve to be here as much as you do. I’ve got the talent. I’ve got the grades. I got the scholarship. Shut the fuck up and leave me alone.”
