Page 157 of I Shouldn't Feel This Way

It took him a little while to text me back this time.

Look sweetheart, if ur the chick I banged last night, the sex is all I can remember. In which case, I strongly urge u to tell me ur name, and preferably ur location if ur looking to get some more of what I gave u last night ;) Or we could just meet up @ that strip club again …

Well, this was going to be a bit humiliating. Were we always going to end up having awkward conversations?

It’s Aria :/

Seconds turned to minutes, and a sudden dread took me over. I’d probably embarrassed him.Stupid Aria!You should’ve told him right away who you were!I was in my bedroom again when my cellphone vibrated at last:

Shit, I’m sorry. Plz delete the last few texts from ur phone … and ur brain.

No problemo.Although it wouldn’t be as simple to press Delete on everything I’d just read in his previous text. That would definitely stay in my head for a while. But I did what he asked and cleared my SMS inbox.

Done :)

My cellphone delivered another text:

I was afraid I wouldn’t hear from u. I’m glad u decided to text me :)

That’s right—he hadn’t seen how Noah had ripped up his number right in front of me.

Can we hang out today?

His lack of response was killing me, and then I received:

Is Noah cool with that?

I had two choices: lie or tell him the truth. And since I was just getting to know my uncle, I figured that our friendship wouldn’t start off on the right foot if it was built on lies, so I texted:

Technically, no …

Please respond, please respond …

Wicked :] Want me to pick u up?

I’d been expecting him to show some reluctance, but it didn’t seem to bother him at all.

Evan, can we meet @ the food court inside Westfield Century City Mall @ 12:30pm?

He responded much faster this time:

Sure can. C u there :)

I noticed that he had a habit of texting the same way I did—shortening the words with abbreviations and adding emoticons. I was about to get dressed when my phone rang.

“Hey, Jess, what’s up?” I said. “Oh, crap … I totally forgot … No, it’s fine … It’s just that I made plans with my uncle … Yeah, he’s in LA … No, we can still go shopping … Sure … Okay, I’ll see you then.” I hung up and tossed my phone on my bed. I had forgotten that I’d made plans to go shopping with Jessica. But it was fine. It wasn’t like I was spending the whole day with Evan.

****

I skipped breakfast and hung out in my room for the next hour, waiting for Jess to pick me up. I could have driven to the mall myself, but I didn’t want to drive that Firebird. It belonged to Noah, and even though he had relinquished ownership to me, I couldn’t bring myself to get in the driver’s seat while feeling so unbelievably upset at him.

I remembered how Jade, Ally, and I used to take the subway everywhere. Living in a huge house with a ginormous pool and expensive luxury vehicles was definitely something I wasn’t used to.

I was in the middle of reapplying my makeup when someone rapped on my door.

“Come in, I’m decent.”

I watched my bedroom door open through the reflection of my mirrored vanity, and in walked his royal highnesshimself. He was all smiles, but I ignored him and devoted my attention to my mascara.

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