Page 73 of Don't Go Faking My Heart

Parker screws up her nose. "Ugh. He called you that?"

"In those exact words.” I roll my eyes. “Rusty friend-zoned me so fast, he didn't feel like a threat. He didn’t seem like the kind of guy who would eventually change on me, treat me badly, and then leave me, like they always do."

"But you dumped Philip."

I hate when my friends say this. They always applaud me for finally ending things with him. “He was happy to be rid of me because I’m ‘not normal.’” I say, swallowing. Frank used to say things like that to me when we were in public and I couldn’t look or act exactly the way he wanted me to. There’s something wrong with you. Why can’t you be normal?

Jane passes us trays and bags to carry, and we start walking back. “Girl, that’s a badge of honor. We're all weird and messed up. That's what makes us wonderful!"

"It's true," Parker says. She gestures to her four-inch heels as we walk up the stairs. "Do you think I'm fooling anyone with these? They don't actually make me 5'4", but I want you to think they do."

I snort.

"I talk to myself out loud," Jane says. We're pushing past people to get to our seats. "I literally said, 'why is he so hot' to myself in front of Tripp when I first moved out. I said it out loud."

We see our friends up ahead. "Millie is a therapist who couldn't draw a single boundary with her own family."

"And she drinks enough Diet Coke that Duke has started spiking her flavored syrups with electrolytes."

"You what?" Millie asks Duke. We push past them to sit.

"And let's not even start on Hannah Montana over here," Parker says.

Lou drops her jaw. "Excuse me?"

"We're all weird," Jane says. She stuffs popcorn in her face in a way that looks impossibly graceful. "Who the heck wants to be normal?"

I think of my bio dad always trying to make me into some acceptable reflection of him. I think of Greg putting up with me. Of Philip being humiliated that his girlfriend was too much. "Me," I say.

"No you don't," Lou says from my other side. "No one makes you dress a little funky or watch things a little nerdy. You choose that stuff because you like it. Frank pushed ‘normal’ on you for years, and you rejected his brand of fitting in because you like who you are. You don't want someone who thinks you're normal. You want someone who likes you because of who you are, not in spite of it. You want someone who accepts and embraces all of you. Like we do," Lou says, putting her arm around my shoulder and bumping her head against mine.

“Yeah, I really do,” I say.

On the ice, two tractors are racing and smashing into each other like they’re bumper cars. We watch and cheer them on until halftime ends.

I follow the game differently in the second half. I see how Philip goads Rusty and how he responds. He hits, he knocks him over, he smashes him against the boards, but it's nothing compared to what Philip does. He doesn't leave Rusty alone. He targets him. At one point, Sonny catches the ball, and Philip comes after Rusty anyway. Fortunately, Tripp lays him out before he can slam Rusty's head against the ice, or whatever petty revenge he's planning.

Duke is right that this game gives guys the chance to act out their aggressive fantasies. Everyone is getting physical, but Philip takes it to a clownish level.

How did I ever date such a loser? Someone who preys on people like he does. Someone who plays dirty and is condescending and asks women to look at his abs like he's some kind of frat boy "doin' it for the 'gram."

Rusty is a million times the man Philip is.

So the next time Tripp throws Philip to the ground like he's yesterday's trash, I barely take note. I'm too riveted watching Rusty. And when he slips and falls in the end zone, a part of me falls with him.

CHAPTER TWENTY

RUSTY

When the game ends, we've destroyed the Badgers.

I'm grinning as our team lines up for the celebratory line dance—thanks a lot for that idea, Savannah Bananas. The Mullet Ridge Dirtbags end every home game linking arms and swaying back and forth to a country cover of Teenage Dirtbag.

I'm not gonna lie, it gets a little dusty in the arena.

With our helmets off, people are losing their minds to cheer on Sonny. But I'm well known enough around Mullet Ridge that I get a good share of applause. Tripp even more so. The three of us are bigger draws than anyone else on either team.

By the way he's crossing his arms, I'd say it's driving Philip nuts.

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