Page 3 of Secret Obsession
“Yes, baby brother. Go have your fun.” He grins, then leans to the side and spits blood into the snow. “Enjoy putting her back together.”
A scoff escapes me before I can stop it, and I straighten to my full height. “Who said anything about doing that?”
ONE MONTH LATER
1
WILLOW
Ilean closer to the mirror, touching up my dark-red lipstick with the tip of my fingernail. My eye makeup is slightly smudged. It creates a rather Gothic appearance, all black eyeliner and smoked-out shadows, but it gives me a break from the sweetheart vibe.
You know, when you walk down the street and guys catcall you with:Looking good, sweetheart, you wanna come sit on Daddy’s lap?
Okay, so maybe that hasn’t happened in a hot minute. Not in Crown Point anyway. Here, the only devils to watch out for are on the hockey team. And I’ve been on the do-not-flirt-with list for a while.
My best friend, Violet, is with her boyfriend. Aspen and Thalia are at the hockey house. And I…
I’m alone.
Which is preferable nowadays.
“I’m not heartbroken,” I tell my reflection.
I shimmy my glittery black crop top into a better position. Music thumps through the bathroom walls, reminding me that even if Iamheartbroken, I’m still about to go dance my shoes off.
Seems like I’ve been spending more nights here than not.
My new mission has been to see how many drinks guys will buy me before they realize I’m not going to fuck them. Not unless they know how to dance.
I have high standards.
My eyes burn, and I swallow sharply. It’s been amonthsince Knox completely humiliated me at his party. I went home and saw my family. I cried for the first… well, the first week after. But then I really got laughing again. I wasn’t hung up on what some jerk was or wasn’t doing to hurt my feelings. It’s kind of funny how little I’ve cried since we broke up, compared to any single month in our relationship.
Then, of course, the other stuff became apparent. That because he really didn’t give a fuck about me, he flirted with other girls. I don’t think he went so far as cheating on me, but I let that happen. Saw it, cried about it, and still fell in love with him. Or, I thought I did.
I wanted to be sure, you know? I hadn’t fallen in love with anyone before, I don’t know what it’s supposed to feel like. I just knew I feltsomething, and I thought that something was love. Maybe I was wrong?
And then there’s his brother.
For some reason, I thought Miles and I were friends. But the look on his face at the party said:You should’ve known better. And all I wanted to do was scream back:Why didn’t you warn me?
Why did no one warn me?
So I fell for the jerk, and it blew up in my face.
Lesson learned: love is off the table for me.
I run my fingers through my hair, messing it up, and pout my lips at the mirror. I’m fucking hot tonight, I won’t lie. The self-tanner keeps my legs bronzed even in the dead of winter. My boots—cuteandpractical, since there’s nearly a foot of snow on the ground—stop at my ankles, leaving a smooth, glowing expanse of skin up to the hem of my white shorts.
Clearly the boots are where my common sense begins and ends.
“Hey, baby,” a guy says when I leave the restroom.
Don’t call me baby, I think at him. I don’t say it, though. I just give him a practiced smile.
He pushes off the wall, following me back toward the dance floor. “You okay?”
I eye him. He bought me a drink an hour or so ago and has been lurking ever since. Not really in a good way. Maybe he bought me more than one, I can’t really remember. He’s older, though. Definitely not college-age. He seems like the kind of guy who has enough swagger to know what he’s doing in bed… but I don’t like his vibe.
