“Are you excited about giving me driving lessons?”
“Have you been reading the books I got you?”
“I finished them all.” More like glossed over them. I have no interest in learning how to drive other than the basics; with my two left feet, it might be a road hazard.
“Baby, I have something to ask you.”
What? Did I give myself away already?
“I’m thinking about taking a trip back home to see my dad before the trials start. I want you to come with me.”
“Of course, is that even a question?” My relief made my voice sound more chipper than was warranted, but he didn’t seem to notice, and once again, I forgot all about Susie as I grew flushed with pleasure. Meeting the parents is a big deal, right?
SUSIE
It’s getting harder to ignore the whispers. Not only because of what people are saying and how it makes me look but because they seem to no longer care that I can hear them. Everyone in the room seemed fixated on the new ‘it’ couple, something that has been sticking in my craw for the past week. It’s bad enough I have to see her with my sorority sisters, but lately, it seems I can’t turn around without hearing about her and Cody. Like the fact that they’re always together now and how attentive he is; the perfect boyfriend they claim.
I know some of my enemies just love rubbing it in to get under my skin but seeing them together like this more than confirms those rumors. I wish I could look away from the two of them, but like someone coming upon a train wreck, I found it hard not to look on since they were right in front of me. I didn’t realize I was digging my nails into my palm until I felt the warmness of the blood as it dripped down my fingers.
More than the pain of watching him with her or hearing the way others were laughing and talking them up, it was the way he looked at her that made me see red. After my years of hard work, how could he not know what I felt or what it would do to me to see him this way, sharing everything that I’d hoped for with someone else?
It was her doing, I’m sure. I’ve seen the way she acts, like little Miss. Perfect, always hanging onto his every word like a simpleton. I bet it’s all an act. Maybe that’s why no one can find out anything about her. I’d even asked Melissa what she knew, but even she was rather tight-lipped when it came to Lisa and her family. I’m not too worried, though; I’ll just ask mom to do some digging. If anyone is on my side, I know she is; she knows how I feel about Cody and agrees with me that we’d make the perfect couple.
I felt reassured as I looked at them across the room, knowing that her days were numbered, and then she smiled at me. Like, what the hell! Is she stupid? She can’t possibly think we can be friends. Unless…. Why have I been working under the assumption that she knows how I feel about her? Now that I think about it, nothing has ever been said to make me think that way. She has no idea that I was the one who sent that picture, which means that even if Cody does, he never shared that information with her.
We’ve never had any dealings, her and I, except for that little run-in the night of the party, but that can be easily explained away as me doing my job and making sure that things were done above board when it came to the sorority. Why haven’t I thought of this? I know just how to get her now, the fool. I started to smile back, but then my eyes met Cody’s, and I felt a chill run down my spine.
I didn’t move, didn’t even breathe while he looked at me as if I were somehow beneath him. He could never know what that look made me feel or how it fired my need to destroy his little plaything. It’s the best way to make him suffer for the way he’s treated me. And then I’ll take him back after he grovels a bit, of course. Just thinking about what I was going to do to her, the planning I had to look forward to was enough to make me finish the lunch I’d found so hard to digest just a few short minutes ago.
CODY
“Uh-oh, here comes the kissing bandit.” I barely had time to pause the game I was playing online before she plopped down on my lap for another one of her smoochatons. I’m not sure what’s up with her and kisses, but the girl is crazy for them. At almost twenty-two, I haven’t done half the things with her that I’d done as a horny thirteen- and fourteen-year-old with my first taste of pleasure, and yet, just her kisses alone outshine anything I’ve ever done before.