Page 73 of Broken Dream
I’m the keeper of secrets in our little foursome.
The awesome foursome. That nickname kind of makes me want to gag now.
“Sure, if you want to,” I say to Tabitha.
She takes a deep breath and then nods, as if she’s squaring up her thoughts. “It’s about Ralph,” she begins, and I can’t help but feel my stomach tighten at the mention of his name. “We met last semester at orientation, and we…” She draws in a breath. “We had a one-nighter. Neither one of us mentioned it again. And he was a dick yesterday. But I can’t help that I’m feeling things.”
I keep my face neutral, not wanting her to see the surprise that’s definitely written there.
“You’re not saying anything,” she says, sounding slightly worried. “Do you think it’s weird?”
“No,” I quickly say, shaking my head. “No, it’s not weird. We’ve all had one-nighters. And you like who you like. It’s not like you can control who you’re attracted to.”
“But he tried to blackmail you.” She wrings her hands in her lap.
“He did.” I shrug slightly. “But that’s between me and him. You shouldn’t let it affect your feelings.” A pang of pity for her shoots through me. I can’t imagine how she must be feeling right now, being caught between her feelings for Ralph and the fact that he tried to blackmail her friend. “You can always talk to me,” I assure her.
“You can talk to me too,” she says.
I smile.
Nope. Still not giving it up. Not until I’m sure I can trust her.
“I guess I’ll get over Ralph,” she says. “I mean, it was just sex. We didn’t have any classes together last semester, so I hardly saw him, but now, with lab… And he and Eli are lab partners and all.”
“Listen,” I say. “You can do a lot better than Ralph. Sure, he’s decent-looking, but think about Eli. He’s really cute in a nerdy kind of way.”
“Nah,” she says. “That’ll never happen.”
“If you say so. But Ralph…”
She holds up a hand. “I get it. You think he’s a dick, and you have a valid reason for thinking it.” She pauses a moment. “You can talk to me, you know.”
Gads.
She really wants me to spill it.
I sigh.
“He saw me…kissing someone,” I say.
She wrinkles her forehead. “So what? He wants to blackmail you over that?”
“It was…”
“Go on…” she urges.
“It was someone who’s…in a relationship with someone else,” I say, scrambling. “He threatened to tell the other woman.”
“Oh my God, who was it?” A devilish grin curls across her lips. “And what were you doing kissing somebody else’s boyfriend?”
I clear my throat, struggling to find more words. “I don’t want to add fuel to the fire, so I won’t say who it was. But Tabitha, you have to believe me. I didn’t know he was in a relationship.”
She drops her jaw. “Was it Jonathan Baxter? He’s so hot, and I think he just started dating someone.”
Jonathan Baxter? I don’t even know who the hell that is.
“No. It was someone else.”
