Page 100 of Overtime
Finally, it’s our turn for the bathroom, and Christine and I do rock, paper, scissors to decide who goes first. She wins, so I wait outside. I’m glad she’s not one of those girls who does her thing in front of her friends. I always found it super uncomfortable, especially because it gave Lori another opportunity to make fun of my fat rolls.
“Well, look what we have here.”
I shake my head hard. Am I hallucinating?
Nope. I really did summon her by just thinking about her.
I take a deep breath as heels click closer. Someone yells, “Hey, don’t cut the line!” But Lori doesn’t care.
She and the others plant themselves next to me. From the back, Rebs waves her fingers at me, and I give her a tight smile. Tiff glances down at my dress in surprise. A fourth girl I don’t know checks me out with even more venom.
She asks Lori, “Are you sure this is Aran’s new girl?”
I reel back.
“Believe it or not.” Lori shrugs and folds her arms delicately. “I’ve seen them all chummy-chummy more than once.”
“That’s impossible.” The unknown girl sneers at me. “He may be a player, but he doesn’t do just any girl.”
“Too right, Kelsey,” Tiff says.
I don’t care for this conversation, so I say, “How about you take all your assumptions somewhere else? Enjoy your night, ladies.” And I turn to face the door.
But then a claw grabs my bare shoulder and forces me to turn. Kelsey laughs in my face. “You got some spunk. I’ll give you that. But don’t think someone like you could possibly keep Aran’s interest for long. He’s probably boning you out of charity.”
“We’re not bo—” But too late, I shut my mouth.
“Of course you’re not.” She squeals a laugh. “How could you be his rebound after datingme?”
Oh.
So this is Aran’s quasi ex, whatever that means. The one who was waiting for him at the library. Who slapped him in the face and has now left marks on my shoulder.
I back away until my back hits the door. Half the people in line are distracted by their own things, but the half paying attention to the drama doesn’t contain any friendly faces.
Crap, I should’ve gone into the bathroom with Christine.
“Listen,” I start with an exasperated voice. “I don’t owe you any explanations, but I will tell you this out of the kindness of my heart. Aran and I are friends, and even if we were more than that, it’s none of your business.”
Rebs grabs Tiff’s arm, who is closest, and says, “Guys, let’s just go, okay?”
“Just friends, my ass.” Lori barks a harsh laugh. “Weren’t you eating his face at the library like a little pig? Oink, oink, oink.”
Tiff bursts into laughter. “Oh, Lori. That’s so mean. She doesn’t even eat pork. She’s a vegetarian.”
I’m too stunned by what Lori says to even care about Tiff’s weak dig.
“What did you say?”
Lori leans a hand on the wall next to me. “Oh yeah. I saw that. Did he even want to kiss you back? It looked pretty aggressive from your side.”
There’s murmuring down the line at that.
My heart beats so fast it makes my chest hurt. I hate that she saw that moment. Even more, I hate that she’s smearing dirt on it in front of a bunch of strangers. And much more than that, I hate that I’m blinking back tears.
“Screw you. How dare you imply I would—without his consent—that’s ridiculous! Of course he wanted to—You know what? It really is none of your damn business.”
I try to push Lori out of the way so I can leave, but the same claw from before holds me back.
