“I’m glad you’re not being a bitch anymore,” Rose said conversationally as I stacked another pile of clothes into a garbage bag. “I didn’t want to hurt you, but I would’ve.”
I snorted. “No, you wouldn’t have. Too many years of conditioning—you’d never be able to do it.”
“Oh, I don’t know. I almost decked you when you let Brent drive you home.”
“Sorry about that,” I said, throwing my sweaty braid over my shoulder. It was cold as shit outside and I was sweating like a pig. There was something wrong with that scenario. “I was having a moment.”
“You were having a lot of moments,” she said dryly.
“I know. I already had a come to Jesus talk with my dad, remember?”
“I get it, you were frustrated,” she said, coming inside the garage as it started raining again. “But I’m your best friend, dipshit. I’m the one you’re supposed to talk to about that stuff.”
“I know, I just felt guilty about it, which pissed me off more. I didn’t want to complain.”
“That’s stupid.”
“Yeah, yeah—hey, you’re not supposed to be helping me,” I said as she grabbed a pair of jeans off the floor and stuffed them in the garbage bag.
“What’s Aunt Farrah going to do? Ground me?” she laughed, even though we both knew it was a possibility. Our parents had pretty much shared responsibility for punishing us since we were little. We were together so often and they trusted each other so much that usually if one of us was in trouble, they just punished both of us at the same time. The worst part about it was that Aunt Callie could take away TV at their house and my mom would enforce it at our house. It sucked.
“Brent’s actually an okay guy,” I said, reaching around her for another stack of clothes. “I’m not sure why he stood me up, but I don’t think he wanted to.”
“Dude had a pretty solid black eye when he came to school, so you could be right.”
“Do you think he got jumped or something?” I asked, marking down the clothes I’d just packed. My mom liked to have exact numbers so she could write in the donations on her taxes.
“Nah, not with only a black eye. He seemed fine otherwise. That’s how I knew that none of the guys got to him.”
I laughed. “You actually thought that?”
“I wondered,” she said. “Especially after Leo swooped in and spent the night cheering you up.”
“Good grief.”
“Well, he did magically show up to save the day,” she said, elbowing me in the side.
“Coincidence.”
“What’s going on with you two?”
“Bravo,” I said, laughing.
“What?”
“You held out for an entire week before you asked about it.” I clapped like I was giving her a round of applause.
“I was too busy letting you grovel to ask you about the gorgeous older man you’ve been lusting after for years.”
“Not years,” I argued.
“At least two years,” she countered.
“Fine.”
“Well?”
I sighed and fell back onto my ass. I needed to take a break anyway. “We got into a fight.”
“You’re not still fighting, I can tell,” she said knowingly.
“Nope.” I grinned and rolled my eyes. “He said he’s going to stop seeing the blonde girl.”
“Ashley?”
“Is that her name? I didn’t ask,” I said, even though I was perfectly aware of her name.
I started to fold more clothes, but stopped when Rose smacked a shirt out of my hands.
“What does that mean?” she whispered, glancing at the closed door between the garage and the house. “Are you two a thing now?”
“I don’t know,” I replied, shrugging. “We didn’t really work that part out.”
“Well, what did he say?”
“That I didn’t have to worry about seeing him with other people as long as I wasn’t with other people.”
“Holy shit,” she breathed. “Leo’s the jealous type.”
“Are you surprised?” I asked dryly.
“Not at all. But still, that’s nuts. I mean, I knew you guys had a thing, but I didn’t realize it was going to be a thing.”
“Why do you and my mom think that changing the tone of your voice changes the meaning of a word?” I asked.
“Stop changing the subject. What are you going to do?”
“I don’t know,” I said truthfully. “I haven’t talked to him since I’ve been on house arrest, but the ball is in his court.”
“Uncle Casper is going to flip.”
“I accidently told my dad about the kiss—”
“Wait,” she yelled, her eyes wide. “Back up. What kiss?”
* * *
An hour later, Rose had finally worn my mom down enough that I could actually leave the house.
“You can go with Rose to Tommy’s,” my mom said, crossing her arms over her chest. “Then straight home.”
Rose raised her fist and knocked her knuckles against mine as we hurried out the front door. Her car was parked haphazardly in the driveway, and we scrambled to get inside before my mom changed her mind. In less than a minute, we were barreling down the highway.