Page 15 of Her Wicked Knights
"Well, you wouldn't agree to throwing a partyhere, so it was the best option. Unless you're having second thoughts?"
"Wait," I shake my head like that will clear the last of my confusion. "You're the one who put Jake up to asking me about a party?"
"Duh." She laughs. "I mean, has Jake North ever had a single thought of his own?"
"Audrey!" I chide, disapproving. "That's not nice."
"I'm not nice." She shrugs, unfazed, and plucks a red dress off the hanger. "This is cute!"
"Try it on." I offer, sitting back and grabbing my phone off the nightstand.
I expect she'll grab a handful of options and go to the bathroom to see what she likes best, but when I glance up, she's already shimmied out of her jeans, fixing me with a view of her ass in a G string that looks really uncomfortable. "Audrey!" I chide, lifting my hands to block the view.
"What?" She sneers, rolling her eyes like I'm being overly-dramatic. "You told me to try it on."
"Yeah, but I figured you'd use the bathroom." I laugh as she peels her top over her head and lifts her arms, as if she's questioning my alarm.
"This bra covers more than my bikini." She argues, shimmying her shoulders as if to demonstrate that her tits stay reasonably in the cups of her bra. "Besides, this is what girlfriends do."
Girl friends.
Audrey's the first one I've ever had, and I'm debating on whether I should confess that or keep it to myself when she tugs the red dress over her head. It's a bit short, riding high up her thigh, but it looks good. "I've never had girl friends." I admit, waiting ‘til her head pops through the opening and she gets a good look at herself.
"Obviously." She laughs, glancing back over her shoulder at me. "No offense, but I think anyone who so much as takes a look at you could figure that out." She plucks at the hem, contemplating her reflection.
"It looks really good on you. Better than it does on me."
"Because you're short." She shrugs.
"But what did you mean, that it's obvious I've never had girl friends?"
Audrey bites her lip, and in her reflection, she meets my gaze. "I don't want to offend you."
"I won't be offended," I promise, raising my hands to show her that whatever she says, I won't hold it against her.
"It's just that you're... a guys' girl. It shows in the way you dress, the way you do your hair. I mean, you barely even wear makeup. It's pretty obvious you've never had a girl friend to practice this stuff with."
"I had my sister." I reason, because we did spend plenty of time doing each other's hair and makeup. I never bothered to get as good at it as Hadley, because it didn't seem to make a difference. I didn't like the time it took to do anything fancy, and my friends all seemed to like me the same with or without it.
"Yeah, an older sister. Older sisters don't treat you the way friends do. They get mad when you borrow their clothes and worry that their boyfriend will think you're prettier and sleep with you when she passes out from too many mixed drinks at the party."
She says it so matter-of-fact that I almost wonder if I missed out on some rite of passage. But I laugh instead. "I'm sure Hadley never once worried I was going to try and steal her boyfriend. Not like anyone could, anyway. Axel's always been completely obsessed with her. He doesn't have eyes for anyone else."
"That's whatyouthink." She shrugs and returns to preening before the mirror, testing the dress in every angle of her reflection. "He totally seemed into me when I handed him his card back at The Dive the other night."
"I think he was probably just being nice." I laugh. Axel is a nice guy. Too nice, according to my sister. It's part of why she couldn't imagine a future with him. She said there was no tension, that they were just best friends. It didn't make sense to me back when she said it, because who wouldn't want to date their best friend? But then I thought of Tripp, and I decided she was right. As much as he still gives me butterflies when he stares at me with those gorgeous eyes of his, I can't see a world where we weretogether.
To be fair, I can't see a world where I'm with anyone other than Jake.
Life with Jake is easy, and part of me thinks that's because he is absolutely not my best friend. He can annoy me with the way he talks through movies and moans like he's getting unimaginable pleasure out of eating a bag of Doritos, but then he can leave, and I can call Tripp to ask him to go see the movie with me again so that I can hear it without the commentary.
"I don't think so. He definitely looked at my tits. I might make a move for him."
I steel myself so Audrey doesn't see the way I bristle at that. It's wrong, to feel so territorial over my sister's ex-boyfriend, but I can't imagine Audrey and Axel together. I don't want to, when he always seemed like he had been made by the gods for my sister. "Okay," I choke out a dry laugh. "But don't be offended if he turns you down. He's still really heartbroken about Hadley..."
"Lucky for me, I know the way to a man's heart. It's through his dick."
"Audrey!" I gasp, though I'm not really as shocked as I'm pretending to be. She's made it clear who she is in themonths that I've known her, and who she is someone who unapologetically goes after what she wants.
