Page 48 of Be Your Anything
Leonard Houston.
He’s fairly well known in the area, though he keeps a much lower profile than Ellison does.
“Maybe we could find a way to…cause some trouble?” she asks, her face looking a little mischievous.
I scrunch my nose. “What kind of trouble?”
Ji-Eun lifts a shoulder, feigning innocence.
But I know that face.
That’s the face of a girl who has had a few too many drinks and wants to break some rules.
“Oh, I don’t know,” she replies. “I could always sleep with him.”
My eyes widen.
“What?!” Paige exclaims, lifting a hand and placing it against her chest, her mouth open. “Are you kidding? Promise me you won’t joke about shit like that.”
Ji-Eun must realize she’s pushed too far, because she stumbles over her next words, backtracking a fair bit as she stammers out a response to Paige and to her girlfriend, Tabitha, who is sitting right next to her with crossed arms and an incredibly displeased expression.
“I didn’t…I mean, that wasn’t what I—”
“Look, enough of us have had cheating parents to know people who do that shit are homewreckers,” I say, my voice coming out a bit more forcefully than I intended. “We don’t need to add to that mix.”
Ji-Eun’s eyes narrow slightly when she looks at me. “So then what do you call what you’re doing with Lucas?”
The entire booth goes deathly silent.
If I wasn’t sitting just a few feet away from her, I might assume I heard her incorrectly. The idea that Ji-Eun would say something like that to me is… I don’t even know how to classify it.
My eyes dart around the group and I see the rest of the girls have wide eyes as they look into their drinks, trying not to stare at the awkward car crash that is my emotional state right now.
When I glance back at Ji-Eun, I see her face has gone pale, almost as if the reality of what she just said has finally hit her.
“I think we can all agree that maybe Ji has had one glass too many,” Paige says, using a single finger to push Ji-Eun’s drink away from her on the table then patting her on the back. “Let’s order some more appetizers so we can soak up some of this alcohol.”
I clench my jaw and just look at my drink on the table.
It’s rare that I’m embarrassed. Being the girl who has all the dirt on just about everyone around town, I don’t usually feel the need to cower. Everyone has their baggage. Their mistakes. Their weak spots.
Lucas is mine.
It isn’t really asecret, I don’t think, but it isn’t something people talk about.
Because in truth, there is an element of shame to it, being Lucas’ side chick. His beck-and-call girl. His mistress.
Most of the time, I’m able to put those feelings aside. I’m able to just focus on the wonderful feelings I get when we’re together, on how it feels to have him in my bed, how nice it is when he looks at me across the room and there’s that little knowing glint in his eyes.
But most of the time, other people keep their mouths closed and I don’t have to face anyone’s opinions or objections on the topic. Which is probably why this feeling is so uncomfortable, so foreign.
She looked me right in the eyes when she said it.
Ji-Eun isn’t malicious. She’s not nasty or vindictive, and she doesn’t usually relish the discomfort of those around her, which means even though she might be a little drunkypoo right now and may not have said those words in exactly that way if she were sober…she actually believes what she said.
That I’m a homewrecker.
My chest gets tight and I start to feel that prickle around the edges of my eyes, the one that says tears are going to flow, and soon.
