Page 9 of Girl Like Me

“No.” Chev snaps.

“Excuse me,” she says, jabbing a pointed finger at his chest. “You can’t tell me what to do.”

“Eastside is no place for a girl.” He growls at her.

“I’m a girl.” I add, making his point invalid.

He turns to look at me with a smirk on his face. “Chloe is good, guys on the Eastside will eat her alive.”

“Guys like you?” I ask, testing his reaction.

“Exactly.” He states, punctuating the word with a derisive nod.

“I’m going.” Chloe states with finality, standing with her hands on her hips.

“Sounds like it’s settled then, maybe we can have a sleepover too.” I smile up at Chev, but his eyes are locked on Chloe, anger simmering in their depths.

“Do what you want, but don’t say I didn’t warn you when something bad happens.” With that final statement, he turns and storms off towards the school parking lot.

“Great.” She says, hitting herself in the forehead. “ I pissed him off again. It’ll be hell at home now.”

“It’s because he likes you.” We come to a stop at the doors of what looks to be a library.

“He does not, he makes my life hell most of the time.” Her face goes bright red.

“He does and he makes your life hell because he knows he is bad news and doesn’t want to ruin you. I think we need to show him what he is missing out on.”

“You think?” Her eyes light up. “Will Clarissa be cool with that?”

“Sure she will.” I really have no idea but she wants my connections and I have a feeling parties on the Eastside were not her thing so she is using me to get in.

***

The rest of the day goes pretty well, Carter informs me on the way home we will be going to that event. The silent auction. He never mentioned it because he forgets I have no memory, he just assumed that I remembered it.

Chloe gave me her number so I can call her tomorrow. I made plans to go to her place and get ready. It shouldn’t be hard to convince Clarissa to tag along. She says her mum and step dad are leaving early for a business trip and she will have the house to herself, Chev rarely comes home on weekends, usually only to sleep off his massive hangovers. She has it planned, we can have a few drinks by the pool and get ready. By how excited she was, I got the impression she has never had a girlfriend before.

Carter follows me into the house through the massive garage. The house is littered with people I have never seen before. The noise of everyone talking at once has me rubbing my temples. “What the hell is all this?” I ask Carter.

“This is what it takes to get us ‘event ready’, we wouldn’t want anyone thinking we could dress ourselves.” I notice my mother heading in our direction, I don’t look much like her at all. Carter has her features though, and I look a lot like my father, just a female version with lighter hair.

“Bristol, thank god. You need to go shower. I picked out your dress, it’s on the rack in your room. You have fifteen minutes and then I’m sending someone up to help you into it.” Help me into it? She can’t be serious. What the heck kind of event is this?

I race up the stairs, not wanting to argue and to get away from the noise that seems to echo off the walls of the house. I connect my phone to the Bluetooth speaker, setting it down on the marble countertop in my bathroom. The one thing I can still do and am immensely grateful for, is connect to the playlists on Maximus’ spotify account. When Post Malone blasts through the speakers, I jump in the shower. Being in this place has certain perks like a shower with jets coming from all directions and at the perfect temperature every time. When the last line from Rockstar finishes, I shut the shower off and wrap myself in a big fluffy towel and a hair wrap, not wanting to drip water all over my floor.

All the air expels from my lungs in the sound of a scream when I walk into my room. A lady with a pixie cut, maybe mid-twenties is sitting on my bed. She jumps at the sound of my scream, a screech of her own coming out of her mouth. She tries to apologise but I’m taken back into a flashback.

“What are you doing here?” My back is turned to someone, I can’t see their face but I don’t seem worried by them being there.

“Did you really think you could run away and we wouldn’t find you?”

“That was the plan.” I throw back.

I blink a few times and see Carter bent down in front of me, a look of concern taking over his features. I must have fallen to the floor during my flashback.

“Are you okay?” I nod in silent answer to his question. I know he doesn’t seem convinced.

“I have anxiety attacks, when I saw a stranger in my room I freaked out.”

---