Page 81 of Love, Luck & Clusterf*ck

I stripped off my clothes and decided to join him. He loved shower sex. It’d be the perfect way to start off our night. I smiled, picturing his expression when he saw me wearing nothing but the necklace.

I tiptoed closer and saw shadowy movement behind the frosted glass doors. The space was more than big enough for two. When was the last time I’d joined him in the shower? Hell, when was the last time I’d even been naked with him? I felt bad for making him wait so long.

What came after that last thought occurred in triple-slow speed. My hand was almost to the shower door when I detected a familiar moan. My brain didn’t fully register it at first, and I remembered thinkingWhy is Christa using Dre’s house to have sex?I pulled open the door, and it still took a few seconds before my eyes would accept it. The mere idea of Christa being in that shower with him was so far beyond my realm of possibilities that I couldn’t believe it even when I saw it.

The moment we all screamed was like someone pushing the fast-forward button. Me running back for my clothes, desperate to claw my eyes out at the sight of my boyfriend fucking my best friend against the wall. Dre throwing out F-bombs and pleading for me to stay so he could explain. Christa crying and also begging me to stay.

Fuck. Them. Both.

Overwhelming revulsion raged until I just wanted to purge everything that had ever been inside me for the past seven years. Ever since I first met that traitorous whore. What I really needed was a rewind switch. I’d go back and turn a blind eye to that girl who’d transferred into my bio class in the middle of tenth grade. I wouldn’t have been the first one to say hi and be nice and ask if she wanted to be my lab partner to make her feel welcome. I wouldn’t have fucking done any of it. I would’ve left that for another, and then she would’ve found a different best friend. Maybe one who also had a boyfriend who liked to fuck in the shower.

Oh my God.My best friend.

The searing betrayal made me pause while I struggled for a breath. They used that to their advantage and were soon practically right on top of me. At least I’d had the decency to get dressed. All Dre managed to do was throw on a pair of shorts, and Christa only wrapped in a teeny towel. I snorted with disgust. Yeah, like I’d expect any decency. They were fucking cunts. Both of them.

“Don’t fucking touch me. Either of you.”

“Perry, please.” Dre’s voice was desperate. I ripped off the necklace and threw it at him.

I stared Christa down. “For someone who can barely stand to be with a guy more than one night, can I assume this was a one-time thing?”

She didn’t respond.

“How long, then? How long has this been going on?”

“I… um….”

“Howfuckinglong?” I yelled.

“About six months,” she whispered.

Six months?Christa couldn’t even do six hours with one man, much lesssix fucking months. Tears were streaming down her face, and that made me hate her all the more. Who the fuck was she to cry? I deserved to cry. Not her.

“Perry, please let me explain,” Dre said.

“Explain? You want toexplain?” He reached for my arm and I recoiled. “I said not to fucking touch me.”

“You have to believe me. I meant every word I said last night.”

“Oh, except the part where you only want me and no one else.”

“We were ending it,” he said, and Christa nodded furiously.Fucking bitch. “That’s why she was here tonight. We both knew what we were doing was wrong and it couldn’t continue. I only want to be with you from now on, Perry. We were saying goodbye.”

A strange maniacal laugh escaped my throat. “A goodbye fuck? And here I thought saying goodbye was done with vocal cords and not dicks. But I guess I was too stupid to know that, seeing as though I never went to college.”

“Perry—”

“All the women out there, Dre. All the fucking women you could have screwed and it wouldn’t have mattered, and you had to go and pick the one that would hurt me the most. The one woman in the world who meant everything to me.”

Yeah, bitch. ‘Meant,’ as in past tense. Go ahead and keep balling your eyes out. I don’t give a shit anymore.

“Perry—”

“What part of ‘off-limits’ didn’t either of you fucking understand!You know what? I don’t care. I’m done.”

I took off for the stairs and Dre called out. “Perry, please! I know what you did to my truck, and I forgive you, okay? Can we please just be even and move on? What happened tonight will never happenagain, with Christa or anyone.”

I stopped, dizziness rushing through me.WhatIdid?I turned to see Christa standing there behind him, and I must’ve given her such a pure look of bitterness and disappointment that she flinched. Then her face drained white.WhatIdid? NotwebutI?So much for our pact. So much for our seven-year friendship shot all to hell. So much for respecting each other enough to never go after the same guy. So much for all the times I spent holding her hand when….

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