Page 51 of Wild and Bright

She makes me crazy.

And at the same time, she feels like home.

I love watching her talk. I love watching her expressive eyes as they light up, her big gestures, her head motions making those long earrings swing wildly around her jaw.

I could watch her forever.

“I can tell she makes you really happy,” Janie whispers into my ear.

I whip around to face her. “Are you high? This is Lauren…”

She smiles wide. “I know, and I’m glad you’re doing this. I’m glad you’re finally admitting what Hunter and I have known all along.”

I shake my head. “It’s not like that. I can’t help that I’m obsessed with her. She was the first girl I ever saw naked. You don’t just get over that. But even if I had deeper feelings, it wouldn’t be healthy to indulge them.”

“Why do you think that?”

“Because she makes me insane. You and Hunter think I’m a control freak? You should see me with her. I’m an absolute lunatic. I make myself cringe daily, and yet I can’t keep myself in check no matter what I do. And it’s only with her. I was never like this with any of my other girlfriends.”

Janie stares at me for a moment, her expression thoughtful. If she noticed my slip up in putting Lauren in the category of “girlfriend”, she doesn’t show it. “Yeah, but to be honest, you never seemed like you were that in to your other girlfriends.”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know…” Her eyes grow unfocused, her lips pursing to the side. “You never seemed that invested. And you were still watching Lauren’s videos when you were with Norah. I know because I saw you do it several times, and that’s only when I caught you.”

When my cheeks warm, I avert my gaze from hers. I search the room and find Lauren not far from where she was a moment ago. When our eyes meet, she winks, and my insides soften. I try to steel myself against the feeling.

“She’s not good for me. I could never trust her.”

“I don’t know. I think she’s changed since we were teenagers.”

I snort. “Look at that fucking dress. Just look at it.”

She places a palm over her mouth and gulps back a laugh. “I can’t believe she put that on.”

My smile doesn’t reach my eyes. “She said it’s a cocktail dress.”

“No, it’s not. That’s lingerie. It might have even come from a sex shop. It looks it came with a whip.”

“If it did, I’m going to use it on her tonight.”

Janie’s lips part into an open-mouth smile. “Oh, damn! I think she might be a good influence on you. She’s your opposite, and I think that’s a good thing.”

“Absolutely not. I’ve never believed in that bullshit. We might be drawn to our opposites, but we should only be in relationships with like-minded people.”

She looks in Lauren’s direction. “Well, maybe she should be with Matt then, because he’s a little wild too, and he seems to be really into her…”

My head snaps in Lauren’s direction, and even though I know Janie’s chuckle is at my expense, I don’t care. Sure enough, Lauren is giving Matt that heavy-lidded look she gives when she knows she has someone under her thrall. I slide out of our booth, hell bent on separating them and not caring in the slightest what it looks like to anyone.

As I get closer, I see she’s holding a phone that isn’t hers and looking down at it. Matt has his eyes on her tits, and even though I kind of want to kill him for it, I can’t blame him. How could anyone around her look at anything else?

Now that I’m a few feet away, I’m finally able to make out their conversation. Curiosity makes me stop for a moment and listen before interrupting.

“Lighting cannot be underestimated,” she says. “People will scroll past something with bad light without even giving it a second thought, especially on TikTok. It doesn’t matter how pretty the music is. I can tell you have a really dark house.”

Matt smiles. “Naw, I just live in SF, and it’s always overcast.”

Lauren purses her lips, her eyes still fixed on the phone. “You need to invest in some professional lighting. And you can’t have any dead space in your videos, especially at the beginning. And by that I’m not only talking about actual dead space, which you have in quite a few. I mean no starting a video with a greeting or a filler word. On TikTok, you have like one to two seconds to grab their attention. You have a little more time on YouTube, but not much. It’s all a matter of…”

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