“Yeah. Or mine,” I argued, and she let out a loud groan as she reached for her coffee.
“I need to get ready for class. But seriously, think about it. Just tell him you heard what he did to Logan. Tell him you love him. Tell him you’ll run away to an island and give him a whole baseball team of babies if that’s what he wants. Tell him you know he’d never sell you to the black market.”
“You’re ridiculous.”
“But at least I’m cute.” She flipped her blonde hair before disappearing into her room and leaving me alone with my thoughts.
I used to love my alone time, craved it even. Being alone never used to bother me. But that was before. Alone time now equaled emotional torture, overthinking, and a brain that wouldn’t shut off. Running Lauren’s words through my mind, I decided against reaching out to Cole, no matter how badly I wanted to. He needed to focus, and I’d promised myself that I wouldn’t screw that up for him.
That afternoon, during class, the girl next to me kept glancing over at me. I could see her in my peripheral vision, but I didn’t turn to make eye contact. I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep my composure if I did.
“Aren’t you the one who cheated on Cole?” she whispered toward me, and I broke my no-looking rule as I stared but gave her no response. “How could you do that to him? And with Logan of all people. Gross. Are you stupid?” When I continued to stay silent, she ended with, “Yeah. You’re obviously stupid. Can’t even answer my question.”
The girl next to her leaned forward and added, “Who cares why she did it? At least Cole’s back on the market. Thanks for fucking up, by the way. I, for one, really appreciate it.”
They both started giggling as I packed up my things and walked out, my eyes already misting over, my heart pounding in my chest. Pushing open the glass door, I stepped outside and immediately started following wherever my legs wanted to take me as I wiped at my eyes and sucked in a steadying breath.
“Christina?” a voice I didn’t recognize shouted my name.
I knew I couldn’t take any more confrontations today. Just that small one had pushed me over the emotional edge I’d been teetering on for weeks.
“Christina! Wait!”
I looked up to see a redhead in the distance, waving at me. I had no idea who she was, but she continued heading my direction, and I stopped walking altogether.
“Hi,” she said with a big smile when she reached me like we were long-lost friends.
I tilted my head and knew I had a confused look on my face. “Hi,” I said back, sounding unsure, and she laughed.
“Cory.” She reached out her hand for me to shake. “We met a few weeks ago.”
“We did?” I searched my mind and came up empty.
“Yeah. At The Bar?”
The last time I’d gone to The Bar was the night I tore my relationship apart. “When The Long Ones were playing?” I asked, and she nodded enthusiastically.
“Yeah. I’m actually really glad I ran into you. I just wanted to make sure you were okay after that night. I didn’t have your phone number or anything, and I don’t fuck with online stuff.”
This girl talked a mile a minute, and to be honest, I had no idea what the hell she meant. Why is she asking if I’m okay?
“I’m confused,” I said, deciding to be perfectly honest.
“I’m not surprised. You were pretty wasted,” she said.
I winced. It hadn’t been my finest moment, and it had resulted in my biggest regret.
“Yeah. I don’t really remember anything past a certain point that night,” I admitted, feeling like an idiot.
“Again, not really surprised.” Cory smiled. “You could barely tell me how to get to your apartment.”
Wait. What? “Come again?”
“Your apartment. When I drove you home,” she said the words super slow, assuming that I had remembered at least that part.
But I hadn’t. Because I couldn’t even remember leaving the bar in the first place. Which was why I’d believed Logan when he said he was the one who had brought me home and insinuated that we’d had sex in his car before I went inside.
All this time, I wasn’t sure if I had done it or not. All this time, I’d been hating myself over the possibility.
“You drove me home that night?” I asked as the fog started to clear.
“Yeah.”
“Me and Logan, right?” His name was like acid on my tongue, and I wanted to spit it out. I hated how just his name caused a visceral reaction in me.
“Logan? That asshole on the baseball team? Not a chance. I drove you home. Just you. But not for his lack of trying.” She sounded annoyed and disgusted but resolute.
“Okay. Wait. I’m really confused.” I held up a hand to stop her from saying anything else because I needed to focus. I also needed to know every piece of information that she had for me about that night. “Can I ask you a couple more things? Do you have time to fill in the blanks for me if you can?”
Cory nodded, pulling out her phone and glancing at it before shoving it in a back pocket. “I have class in a bit, but yeah, I have time.”
“Okay. Thank you. Sorry, I really don’t remember. Um …” I shook my head, forcing myself to pull it together. “So, Logan didn’t drive me home. But he was there, right?” It was a stupid first question because I’d seen the picture of us together, so of course he had been there.
“Yeah, he was there. He was watching you the whole night. I was ordering a drink at the bar, and I saw him sitting in, like, this dark corner with a weird expression on his face. I wanted to know what he was looking at. And it was you.” She fidgeted with her backpack before taking it off and throwing it on the ground. “Shit’s heavy.”
“He was watching me?”
She nodded and opened her eyes wide. “More like he was stalking your every move, following you with his eyes. He gave me such a bad vibe that I just kind of kept my eye on you the whole time. Which I know sounds super creepy, but we girls have to stick together, right?”
I almost didn’t know what to say in response. It was such a surreal situation. “I’ve just never had someone I didn’t know look out for me like that before. Or maybe no one ever has,” I said with a laugh, and she smiled.
“Well, I knew who you were,” she said like that was the most obvious thing on the planet, which made me feel even worse because I didn’t think I’d ever seen her before in my entire four years at this school.
“You did?”
“Yeah. I mean, everyone knows you’re Cole’s girlfriend. You can’t avoid that fact even if you hate baseball and baseball players. Which I do. No offense.” She put her hands up.
“None taken.”
“It’s just that baseball’s super boring. I don’t know how you stand it.” She rolled her eyes and continued, “Anyway, I knew you and I went to school together. I knew you were dating Cole. Which also made the whole Logan looking at you with his beady, little, untrusting eyes even sketchier.”
“I can’t believe this,” I said, shocked by her revelations. “You don’t even know what you’ve done for me. I don’t know how to thank you.”