Page 10 of The One I Hate
Or if no one did this to her then the question becomes, “What can I do to make you stop crying?” Because in this moment, that’s all I want to do.
She sits up, using the back of her hand to wipe away the stray tears. “Thank you.”
“You never need to thank me,” I say. “Are you okay?”
She nods, though I don’t know how genuine it is. “I will be.”
“Can I ask what happened?”
I can feel her body still against me. At first, I don’t think she’s going to say anything. Then she slowly moves out of my hold to turn and face me. “I had a date.”
My body stills, but I push it down. She needs a friend. She’s upset. I remind myself to not get pissy because she agreed to a date with a guy who wasn’t me.
Even though I’ve asked out her once a week since January…
“Did he have bad breath? Nasty cologne? Oh! Wait! He wore an Ed Hardy shirt. All of those would make me cry.”
This makes her laugh. “I wish. Turns out he had a girlfriend.”
I jump off the step, ready to hunt this guy down. “Who is he?”
Charlie pulls me back to the step. “Easy, tiger.”
“Don’t easy tiger me, Bug. Who the fuck is he and where can I find him?”
Charlie grabs my hand in hers, and for that brief moment in time, I forget about the fuck face who made her cry. Because this is the first time I’ve held Charlie’s hand. And I know it’s not much, but to me right now, it’s everything.
“He’s a guy I have a few classes with. Seemed nice. Turns out his girlfriend cheated on him, and instead of breaking up, she gave him a free pass.”
My eyes double in size. “A free pass?”
“Yup,” she says with a shrug. “That’s me. I’m the free pass.”
“How…what…huh?” My words trailing off because what the fuck?
“How did I find out? His drunk friend. We went to meet them at a bar after dinner. I thought it would be fun. Except when he went to get us drinks, his friend—who apparently is pretty loose-lipped after a few Jagerbombs—asked me if I was the ‘chubby coffee shop girl.’ It only took a few more questions to figure out what he was doing.”
Rage. That’s all I feel. Pure, crisp, rage. Charlie must see it on my face because she gives my hand a squeeze.
“Easy. Nothing happened. If anything, I need to be thanking Jagerbomb Boy. Who knew being the chubby girl would come in handy?”
I don’t laugh at her attempt at a joke. Also I hate it when she calls herself that, because that’s not what I see when I look at her.
All I see is my Bug. My beautiful Bug.
“Oh, come on,” she says, now laughing. “That part was funny.”
I shake my head. “Nothing is funny about this. Five minutes ago you were crying. Now you’re trying to put on a brave face and crack jokes. Why? Don’t. You don’t have to. You shouldn’t have to. You’re amazing, and that jackass deserves to have his ass kicked.”
This makes her laugh again, but I can see the tears forming in her eyes. “It does suck, doesn’t it?”
I nod. “Yeah, it does.”
She lets her head fall into my shoulder, and we sit there for I don’t know how long. I wrap my arms around her as her tears start slowly coming again. I don’t pry for any more information, instead just being that shoulder she so clearly needs.
When the air starts to cool down, I move her head just enough for me to take off my hoodie and give it to her. She looks at it, confused, before back to me.
“You’re cold,” I say.
