Page 26 of The B!tch List

“I know he’s pissed at something, but that’s just rude,” Carter muttered, turning his gaze from Shaw back to his clipboard. He groaned. “Jesus, help us. Ellie, you’re up.”

Ellie squealed and clapped her hands and jumped up and down on the spot. “I’m so going to kill this.”

“No fucking kidding.” Carter frowned and pushed his sister toward the stage.

As she did a little bow, I heard Hunter yelling. “Go baby. You can do it.”

“I beg to differ,” Carter said, shoving some yellow foam into his ears. He then held out his palm, where another pair of earplugs balanced. “Seriously, take them. You’ll thank me for it.”

The first note that came out of Ellie’s mouth wasn’t too bad, but the second, third, fourth and so on were hideous. Fingers down a chalk board sounded better. She was supposed to be singing Whitney Houston’sGreatest Love of All,but there was nothing about it that resembled the original song. When the three judges shouted ‘no’ simultaneously, I heaved a sigh of relief. Carter slapped his thigh with his clipboard. “Hell, yeah.” It took a couple of seconds for it to register with Ellie, who continued warbling.

“Garner,” Carter yelled across the stage. “Get her off.”

“But I haven’t had my feedback,” Ellie protested. “I think I’ve been judged unfairly.” She pouted and looked from the judges to Carter.

Carter took a step onto the stage. “I’ll give you your feedback, sis. You’re shit, now get off.”

Ellie stamped her foot. “Why are you so mean to me?”

“I’m not, I’m truthful. Now move, we have two more people to sing and very little time.”

“Well, thank you and commiserations, Ellie,” Garner said, moving to center stage and putting a hand on Ellie’s back. “Let’s hear it for nurse Ellie, everyone.”

With that she finally moved off, throwing a death stare at the judges as she did. It was so mean it even scared me, not as much as her singing had, but it scared me all the same.

* * *

Stars & Stripes was almost full to busting when I finally got there to meet ‘the gang’ for drinks. They didn’t have to invite me along, as I wasn’t with Minnesota any longer, but they still included me in any plans. Yes, I felt awkward from time to time, especially when they all insisted on PDA-ing the hell out of each other. Generally, though, it was great to have people other than four-year-old kids and a crotchety old teacher to spend time with.

I knew that Alaska felt guilty about how his brother dumped me, but he had no need. If I was being truthful and dug up my feelings from deep within my heart, he and I had been having problems for a while. They were little things. He stopped staying over both nights on the weekends. He’d started to complain about the mess in my bathroom, which he’d never done before. The main thing was when he’d called me Annalise one time, at least I’m pretty sure he did. I tried to pretend to myself I’d misheard, after all he didn’t look guilty, hadn’t flinched, or colored up. I pushed it from my mind and decided it hadn’t happened, but deep down I knew it had. Then when I collected his stuff from around my apartment to give back to him, a piece of paper fell out of the pocket of his jeans. It had the name Annalise and a number on it with the words, ‘next time maybe you can stay longer’. It kind of proved I wasn’t hard of hearing.

Anyway, safe to say, when Minnesota left, I wasn’t totally heartbroken. Maybe a little heart sore would be a better description. I felt stupid and foolish for believing that he wanted to travel the world with me before we decided to settle down together. It had all been a bunch of lies on his part—the stupid, handsome idiot. Truth be told, if I thought about settling down with Minnesota it didn’t make me feel all warm and fuzzy, he’d probably done me a favor.

“Hey, Nancy,” Hunter called from the high-top table everyone was standing at. “Got you a beer.”

I nodded my thanks and made my way over to the three couples. There was no Shaw, or Lily, who sometimes tagged along and then spent the night complaining about the fact that she had to drink Coke.

“Hey guys.” I gave them all a wave and then took the beer being offered to me by Carter. “Thanks, I need this.”

“You were amazing,” Bronte gushed, pulling me into a hug. “I mean I know he’s my brother, but you were even better than Shaw.”

“What about me?” Ellie asked in all seriousness. “Did you not think I was robbed?”

Everyone stopped and stared at her, and I felt a little uncomfortable as she watched us all with wide-eyed anticipation.

“Sure, baby,” Hunter finally replied. “They just weren’t ready for your brilliance.”

Through a cough, Carter spluttered, “Fucking pussy.”

Slapping him against the chest with the back of her hand, Bronte smiled sweetly at Ellie. “There’s always next year, honey.”

“Shaw was pretty good though,” Hunter quickly added, steering the conversation. “He’s got the old, tortured rockstar thing going on.”

“Yeah, what’s that all about?” Carter asked. “He hardly waited long enough to hear if he’d got through, he was in such a foul mood.”

Bronte shrugged. “No idea. I know he went to Wichita with Tate the other day. Maybe it’s a tough case they’re working on.”

“Where is he anyway?” I took a swig of my beer, being careful not to give anyone eye contact.

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