My lips pursed together with a curt greeting. “Thomas.” I offered him the best fake smile I could. “You were great tonight.” And that was all it took, a stroke to the male ego, for his walls to melt faster than butter in a hot cast-iron skillet. I stopped myself before I made a gagging sound.
“Yeah?” Thomas asked, taking Benji’s hand in his and threading their fingers together. “I think it went over well. I wrote all new jokes this week.”
“You brought the house down,” Benji said. “I’m so proud of you.”
“Too bad you missed the first half.” Thomas’s eyes narrowed slightly while he pinned Benji with his unforgiving gaze.
I cringed slightly at Thomas’s steely tone. “It was my fault.” It wasn’t, but I didn’t want an argument to start.
“It won’t happen again. Promise.” Benji’s expression pleaded with his piece-of-shit boyfriend while fury boiled in the pit of my stomach.
After all the years of pretending to feel differently than I’d portrayed, something inside me snapped for the first time. I grabbed Thomas’s arm and whirled him around toward me. I didn’t miss the horrified expression on my best friend’s face, but it was too late. My anger was accelerating full speed ahead.
Jabbing my pointer finger into Thomas’s chest, I unloaded on him. “You listen to me, you entitled asshole. Benji loves you, and you’ve done nothing but treat him like shit. You cheated on him—not once, but twice—then have the audacity to get pissed because he’s late? Who do you think you are? He’s the most loyal person you’ll ever find, so I highly recommend you get your shit together before he tells you to fuck off. He’s too damned good for you.”
A gasp escaped Benji as his hands flew over his mouth. Dammit, I’d fucked up. I never spoke to people like that, but something inside me had broken, and I wasn’t sure it would ever be fixed. Maybe I’d finally crossed the threshold on my bullshit-and-disrespect meter.
“I’m sorry, Benji. You deserve someone who treats you better.” Shit, I sure did pick a great time to share with Benji how I really felt.
Thomas’s deep-brown eyes flashed with anger, but he didn’t say a word to me. I wasn’t sure if it was because he was shocked or if he thought better of it in public.
“Benji, I’ll be outside waiting for you.” I whirled around on my heel and elbowed my way through the throng of people and out the front door. Shit, shit, shit. I had inserted myself where I didn’t belong, and an alien creature had taken over my mouth. One thing I was skilled at was keeping my trap shut and hiding.
I barked out a laugh and leaned against the building near the entrance. Allowing the cool night air to calm my anger, I recalled the last time I’d lost my shit and stood up to someone. Chloe Sullivan’s sneer and giggle rang through my mind as I recalled one of the many times she’d targeted me during lunch our senior year.
She’d purposefully run into me in the cafeteria, her shoulder smacking mine. My milk teetered off my tray and landed with a loud splat on the tile floor and my food followed. Milk exploded in every direction, soaking my worn tennis shoes. I’d just loaded my tray with as much food as the cafeteria workers had allowed me to. Not only was it my meal for the day, but I tried to save the apple or orange for the younger foster kids wherever I was staying. Now it was scattered across the surrounding area, and the only place it would go to was the trash.
Chloe’s words taunted me. I never saw you there. Guess you’re just see-through.
Every pair of eyes in the cafeteria was trained on us. My temper had traveled from zero to sixty when my plastic tray had clattered to the floor. Chloe’s cackle rang throughout the room. She obviously thought it was funny, but I couldn’t get any more food for the day. Then I grew some balls and approached my nemesis. I was sick and tired of being targeted by her and Layne. Fuck them. Someone needed to put them in their place, and I had officially volunteered.
As we stood toe to toe, a mixture of hate and disgust twisted Chloe’s grin into a sneer. Her jaw clenched while I leaned near her until my face was only inches away from hers. I insisted she buy me another lunch, and of course, she declined. Chloe’s brown eyes narrowed as she grabbed a handful of my hair and yanked. A yelp escaped me before I could stop it. I reached up, attempting to pry her cat claws away from me.
A deep voice from behind me yelled her name. My gaze cut sideways. Great, my second tormentor, Layne, was approaching us. He casually strolled over to her while he assessed the situation. Layne reached for Chloe’s hand and coaxed her into letting me go. She whined as Layne assured her they would deal with me later.
But before I had walked away, I’d made it clear to both of them that the situation wasn’t over by a long shot.
The comedy club door burst open, pulling me away from the haunting high school incident. A tipsy group of guys stumbled across the parking lot while they slapped each other on the backs, hooting and hollering about a party later that night. A girl’s name was tossed back and forth between them, along with more catcalls. I secretly hoped whoever she was had some mace. From the way they were discussing her intimately, I could tell they were assholes.
I shook my head in disgust while my thoughts returned to Chloe and Layne. This wasn’t the first time I’d wondered if things would have gone differently had I just walked away, if I hadn’t lost my shit and told Chloe it wasn’t over. And I’d been right. It hadn’t been over, not by a long shot.
A chill traveled down my spine, and I rubbed my arms, warding off the continued thoughts of my bullies. The front door burst open again, and Benji tentatively stepped outside into the dark parking lot.
“Benji!” I moved out of the safe shadow of the building. “I’m so sorry.”
His faced morphed into relief when he saw me. He pulled me to him and wrapped me up in a warm hug. “I wasn’t sure where you went,” he whispered against my hair.
“Just out here. I was afraid I’d say something else. I don’t know what came over me.” I broke our hug and stepped back, glancing up at him. Pain and anger flickered across his face, and I traced his cheek with my fingertips. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, but we’re done. I’m done. Thomas doesn’t deserve me. I can’t really explain it, but watching you … Listening to you stand up for me brought some clarity. I mean, here we are in public, and he’s chastising me like I’m a child. Mmm, no. It was like a bolt of lightning that traveled through me, and I saw the situation differently. I saw Thomas differently.”
“Yes!” I yelped and performed a happy dance in the parking lot.
“I’m a free man!” he shouted into the star-filled sky.
“Oh, maybe you’ll run into that guy from the bar last night.” I wiggled my eyebrows at him, giggling. “Ya know, the hottie with the ball cap?”
Benji’s shoulders sagged, and he draped his arm over my shoulder. “Thank you for sticking up for me.” He began to walk slowly toward the car. “I should have stood up to him myself, but dammit, he’s got a magic stick like no other.”
I snickered. Benji and I didn’t discuss his sex life in great depth, but he’d shared a few times how well-endowed or not a partner was. We rounded the corner of the building in silence while my heart swelled with pride. I knew Benji had struggled to stand up to Thomas, but he’d finally done it. That called for a celebration.