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I flinched and squeezed my eyes shut. Maybe if I kept painting, nobody would notice it was me and I could get the thirty minutes of solitude that I needed to figure out a plan to apologize to Adam. But I didn’t even get five minutes before Kassie, Zariah, and June made their way up to the barn door.
“Do you have extra paintbrushes?” June put a hand on her hip. “I’ll get some. Do we need anything else?”
“You know what I needed last night?” Zariah asked.
Kassie leaned back against the barn door, taking up half of the space where I was supposed to paint. “What did you need?”
“I would’ve loved for the girls to be a little less outnumbered. That would’ve been nice!”
I winced again, cornered.
“Wasn’t somebody supposed to join us?” Kassie continued.
“And I texted her, and she didn’t respond to me,” Zariah pointed out.
Ugh, yes. Zariah had asked if I wanted to hit up the store super quick for another RA supply run, and Kassie had asked about signing up to model for an art class. I would have replied sooner rather than later, but that sooner became later while my stomach twisted in knots from the night before.
Kassie knocked against the barn door, but Zariah spoke before she did. “Cut the shit, Piper. What’s going on? Why are you avoiding us?”
“Ladies,” a curt voice called to us. The volunteer supervisor, an RA from one of the freshman dorms, shook his head. “Ladies, when you paint, remember to use our sponsored paint cans. Ms. Contractor, that’s not our preferred brand.”
Zariah gave him a nasty look, but I held up the bucket. “We have it here.”
“Thank you, Ms. Fontaine.” He beamed and moved along.
“What a tool,” Zariah muttered.
“They only want pictures of us using it,” I whispered, waiting until the supervisor passed. “The generic doesn’t need as many coats. Just hide it behind the other pails.” Leaning down, I dipped my brush in the hidden paint bucket and stood right back up to smooth it over the wooden paneling. “See?”
“Damn, Piper.” Kassie whistled. “Stick it to the man.”
June reappeared with more supplies, and her lips pressed together in irritation. “I am so tired of everyone trying to convince me to do more. Stay until eight o’clock? What are they? Drunk? Why would I stay here until eight?” She put her hands on her hips. “Piper, did you say why you’re ignoring us yet?”
Oh, god.
For a moment, it was quiet, and Kassie swung over to me. “Piper, did Adam do something?”
Guilt grabbed me by the throat. I did something.
“What did he do?” she pressed.
“He didn’t do anything,” I hurried to say.
“You’re avoiding us because of some dude?” Zariah frowned. “I love Adam, but seriously. I can’t be expected to go to these RA pump-it-up meetings by myself.”
“I don’t even go to those,” June admitted.
Kassie raised her eyebrows. “Did Adam say something?”
“No,” I blurted out. With a sigh, I drew my paintbrush away from the wall. “I…said something.”
All three of them stopped painting long enough to give me a long look, before back to each other, and back to me, and right back to each other. Nobody knew what to say. Zariah and June both looked baffled, but Kassie bit her lip. Did she know? Could she guess?
“You said something?” Zariah finally asked. “Uh…like what?”
“I don’t get it. Like you said something that offended Adam?” June said.
Zariah laughed. “There’s no way. Adam is unoffendable. He’s like rubber. You could launch anything at him, bounces right off.”
