Especially the fact that I’d managed to consume nearly three full bottles of Captain Morgan within a week.
Oh, and two twelve packs of coke. But who was really counting?
“Well,” Annika huffed after a minute. “That’s not acceptable. We can’t have a Tequila talk with no Tequila.” She flounced across the kitchen, heels clicking against the vinyl flooring. She was the beauty queen of our infamous trio—literally. Annika had been a pageant girl until she was ten.
It must have really rubbed off on her because twelve years later and you’d never catch her with a blonde hair out of place, heels not on her feet, or a gap in her acrylics. Snatching my keys from their hook, she turned abruptly and without warning tossed them through the air.
“Didn’t you drive?” I asked, catching them with ease.
“Yeah, but now it’s your—what exactly were you painting?” She curled her lip, taking in my splattered shirt.
“She’s right,” Emery interjected before I snapped back. “I could really do with a drink and some girl chat.”
I glanced at the time on my microwave. “Ollie’s doesn’t close until nine. We’ve got plenty of time to get there and grab some necessities for a girls night in.”
“Then we should make our way to Ollie’s,” she replied, sounding a tad better than she looked. “After I clean myself up, though. I’ll meet you two in the car.”
“Okay.” I spun on my heel and went to retrieve my purse and flip-flops from the living room. Five minutes later I was out the door and sliding into the driver’s seat of my Camaro.
Annika climbed into the back, leaving the passenger free for Emery.
Needing to know what kind of damage control would be necessary, I made sure Emery wasn’t coming before asking for details. “On a scale of one to ten how bad did Tyler screw up this time?”
Annika scoffed and crossed her arms over her chest. “Rebecca Goin’s face was consuming his cock, so I would say he officially broke the scale for level of fuck ups.”
“Toothless Becca?” Why would a guy want gums sliding up and down his cock? I guess I saw the appeal. Ew. Gross. I scrunched my nose, tightening my grip on the steering wheel. I’d predicted something like this happening after the first time Tyler did Emery wrong, which wasn’t all that long ago. She’d come home in the middle of the night teary eyed and heartbroken. When something like that happens there’s only two ways to react.
You either be the shoulder your best-friend needs to cry on, or you castrate the asshole responsible for all her tears. I obviously went with the first option. Not that I wouldn’t have gone through with the second and enjoyed it immensely.
Emery appeared on the porch, ending me and Annika’s conversation before it really began. Her previous outfit replaced with a pair of black yoga shorts and a blue hoodie. Long, rose-gold hair pulled into a sleek ponytail in place of the rat’s nest she’d arrived with. She jogged down the steps and to the car, tossing a skimpy tank-top on my lap once she was fully inside.
“What’s this for?”
“That red paint makes you look like you just massacred someone.”
“I agree,” came from the backseat.
I rolled my eyes and slid the key into the ignition.
The V8 engine roared to life, settling into a soft purr that had the leather bucket seat vibrating beneath my ass.
God, I love this car. I smiled to myself and shifted into reverse. As I swung out into the street, maneuvering around Annika’s Beamer, curtains shifted in an upper window in the house directly across from mine, Mrs. Richardson being her usual nosey self. I swear she saw everything and knew all there was to know about everyone. Well, almost everyone.
Silence lingered as I drove through the maze that was my neighborhood, which looked a lot like something out of Desperate Housewives. This alone said so much about my mother. I would have never chosen to live somewhere like this. The interior of our house wasn’t much better. It was all so fancy and flashy apart from my two rooms.
The moment we were clear of Kendall Heights, Annika reached forward from the backseat and turned on the stereo.
Bass immediately began thumping in sync with the voice of Blessed. I guess no one wanted to be the first to poach the metaphorical elephant in the room just yet. That was fine with me. It was always one of them who began our discussions, usually. I had my moments, but I honestly didn’t know where to begin with this.
Telling Emery exactly what I thought of the situation was out of the question. I wanted to shred her dickhead of a boyfriend apart for the second time in a matter of weeks, but I had to take her feelings into account and unfortunately, she cared about him. So, here we were. Going to buy alcohol to numb ourselves and attempt to forget our problems. While not the healthiest way to get over something, it was a mildly effective one.