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My hands pause their motion of rubbing moisturizer into my legs as I stare after her. I may not be the Lori whisperer, but even I recognize when she’s pissed. She’ll never tell me unless I ask, and it’ll eat her up until she explodes. Throwing on my own swimsuit, a purple bandeau with matching cheeky bottoms, I sit on my bed and wait for her to leave the bathroom. She barely looks at me when she exits in her own black bikini, so now I’m positive my theory was right.
“Okay, spill. Why are you mad? I didn’t puke on any of your things, I swear.”
She pulls her beach bag from the closet. “Wow. I’m surprised you stopped thinking about yourself for a second to realize I’m upset.”
I’m taken aback by the obvious shade she’s throwing at me.
Why would she be mad at me? I rack my brain to figure out what I could’ve done.
“I’m sorry I didn’t stop and ask where you were before we left the club last night. That was shitty of me, I should’ve had your back. But in my defense, I was seeing double and could barely walk straight.”
She spares me a glance, but her eyebrows are drawn together like she has no idea what I’m talking about. Okay. If not that, then what have I done?
Standing up, I ask, “What did Kiara say to you? Is she turning you against me?”
She faces me properly for the first time since entering the room, and her mouth is set in a hard line. “Kiara didn’t say anything. I’m mad at you because you don’t think about anyone but yourself.”
Her words hit me like an imaginary blow, and I take a physical step back from the impact of them. Adam said the same thing yesterday. “What are you talking about?”
She draws her shoulders back, standing to her full height. “I don’t own Dean. I know that. And I’m aware that I haven’t really known him that long, but youknewhow I feel about him, and youstillhit on him. You can getanyguy you want, and you had to choose the one guy you knew I liked. You haven’t even said one word to him all week! Why flirt with him now?!”
I’m stunned to silence. Did I flirt with Dean last night?
Technically, not really. I said about three sentences to him before running off to puke. But Iwantedit to look like I was flirting with him, and that’s what’s important. Lori must have seen me right at the beginning and drawn her own conclusions, which, in her defense, is the exact conclusion I wanted everyone to draw.
“Okay, I know it looked bad, but I wasn’t really flirting with Dean.”
She crosses her arms over her chest but doesn’t say anything, which prompts me to continue. My stomach tightens, but I push through it.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t thinking of you when I did that. I’m a terrible friend, and I haven’t been acting like myself during this trip. But I don’t have any interest in Dean because I’m in love with Kellan.” The words tumble out of my mouth before I’m able to catch my breath. “I’m in love with him, and I want to be more than his secret fling, and I hate that he only wants me as a booty call, so I came up with a stupid plan. I wanted to make him jealous, so he’d realize he had actual feelings for me instead of just lust, and I understand it’s stupid now and I realize I’ve been fucking up all week. He was being all buddy-buddy with Kiara and I was already drunk, not that it’s an excuse, but Dean wasright there, and I just wanted Kellan to want me.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa—wait. What?” The cold exterior Lori’s been wearing since walking into the room has melted, and now she’s regarding me with shock and curiosity. “You’re in love with Kellan? Does he know?” She pulls me to sit beside her on her bed.
“No! Are you crazy? I can’t tell Kellan I’m in love with him!
He’ll probably laugh in my face.”
“He would not laugh in your face, Faye,” she says. “It seems like he really cares about you. How many guys do you know who would take your makeup off for you since they remember that you don’t like sleeping with it on?”
“But—you were sleeping. How did you know about that?”
She rolls her big blue eyes. “Seriously? Do you know how loud you are? I was pretending to sleep because I was mad and didn’t want to talk to you.”
“Was? So, you’re not mad anymore?” I ask, hope creeping into my voice. “I swear nothing frisky went on. If it makes you feel better, he was confused the whole time and after a few words I puked my guts out. Plus, I think he asked about you.”
She perks up at that. “He did?” She shakes her head as if trying to focus on the topic at hand. “I’m not mad at you anymore. I get that you’re going through this whole revelation and acting stupid because of it. But making Kellan jealous isn’t the right way to play this. You should be honest with him instead of playing these mind games. Tell him how you feel, even if you leave out theLword for now.”
I knew she’d say that, which is why I didn’t tell her in the first place. She’s always the voice of reason, and I’m the spontaneous one—it’s why we work.
“I know, I know. I realized that on the disgusting bathroom floor of the club. I’m not sure what I’ll do, but I’m done with the games, I promise. I’m sorry for hurting you. That must have looked really bad, but you know I’d never do anything like that to you.”
She chews on her bottom lip for a moment, then says, “Even though I was pissed, I just kept thinking about Alex Castillo.”
“Alex Castillo?”
“Yeah. Do you remember last year when I told you about my massive crush on him?”
It’s an odd question, but I nod anyway. She continues, “I refused to talk to him at school, so you threw a party. You invited a bunch of guys that had been mean to you all through high school because Alex was friends with them, because if they came, he would too.”
