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God, when will this ordeal end?
I take a few steps back toward my door. “I really should go. I promised Pippa I would help her rearrange the apartment today,” I say, looking for an excuse to be anywhere but here.
“Oh, that’s lovely. I can’t wait to see it when it’s done.”
Dammit, Lizzie. Lie better!
“Of course. I can’t wait for you to see it either.”
Oh, my gosh. Stop. Talking. And just go.
It’s so hard not to run away, especially when I can feel her eyes piercing into the back of my head like daggers. Even when I get to my door, it takes all my strength not to drop my keys as I try to unlock it. It isn’t until I’m safely in my own home and the door is bolted behind me that I finally exhale.
Dropping my shoes on the pile near the door, I bury my face in my hands and let out a sigh.
“I hope for your sake that was a sigh of absolute, total satisfaction.”
Peering through my fingers, I look up to find my best friend and roommate, Pippa, leaning against the kitchen counter and digging into a huge bowl of Cocoa Puffs.
Seeing her instantly comforts me. Mostly because I know whatever I’ve been through, I can tell her, and she won’t judge me for a second.
We’ve been best friends since we were twelve. I remember watching when this tall, skinny girl with dyed black hair and thick eyeliner had been led into class wearing a cheeky expression on her face, and introduced as the new student. I knew right then and there I wanted to be her friend. Everyone thought she was the weird kid who drew on herself in class. I thought she was one of the coolest people I’d ever met.
Now that we’re much older, I know I was wrong. She’s the coolest person I’ve ever met. And while her hair is back to its natural light brown, and she goes much easier on the eyeliner, she has swapped her pen drawings for actual tattoos from the parlor she manages.
“I did a bad thing,” I tell her with a wince.
“Good, bad, or actually bad?”
“All three. Simultaneously and doubly. At least.” I hunch my shoulders and scrunch my nose.
“Nice.”
“No, Pippa. It’s not nice. At least not anymore.”
Pippa takes another large spoonful of cereal before motioning to the door with her spoon. “Does it have anything to do with that bullshit stuff you just spouted to Mrs. L?”
“Oh, God, you heard that?”
Pippa rolls her eyes with a smile. “You’re not the quietest person in the world, Liz.”
With a heavy sigh, I push off the door and cross the small apartment we share, flopping face-first onto the couch. Instead of responding, I let out the longest, pain-filled groan I can muster.
Pippa patiently waits for me to finish before asking, “Oh, Liz, you didn’t have a one-night stand with some rando, did you?”
I peek up at her from the couch. “You’re one to talk. What about that glittery-haired girl I saw sneak out of your bedroom the other morning?”
“That wasn’t a one-night stand,” Pippa argues. “She’ll be back when her tattoo needs to be touched up. Besides, I know we’re a sex-positive household, but your track record isn’t exactly the best.”
Immediately, I think of Rex. “That’s fair.”
“So, what happened last night?”
“I went to the restaurant, fully intending to go on that stupid date Mrs. L set me up on. Even if it was a bust, I figured I’d at least get a free dinner out of it. When I got there, I ran into…someone else and, well, one thing led to another…”
Pippa gasps with a knowing grin. “My little Lizzie met somebody else when she was supposed to be on a date with another person. You minx!”
Pippa makes it sound like an award—which it is. I catch myself smiling, even though, truth be told, I’m usually the poster child for good behavior. Well, almost always; there’s that delightful exception: my job as an exotic dancer. “Oh, hush. It’s not as scandalous as you’re making it sound.”
