Page 124 of Swallow Your Sorries

“Please.I miss you, Ari...”

I can’t see it, but the way Aria eventually gets up and starts shuffling through her own closet lets me know the ice princess is slowly cracking.

So I’m not the only one suffering from a lack of female friendship.

Elle

When I strolled out of Beaulieu’s gates with Stassi and Aria after breakfast, the last thing I expected was to end up in an adult sex shop.

“I told you we should’ve gone to Mademoiselle’s,” Stassi says, eyeing a pleather pair of assless chaps. “Everything here is so gaudy.”

“Sorry I don’t have a three-figure budget for French lace,” I say, searching the stocking selection that has two pairs for five dollars. There are tons of designs, from plain to kittens, to dicks, and even…dragonflies!I hold up the pair to the girls. “See it’s fate. Libellule, dragonfly…”

They don’t seem impressed, but I throw two pairs into my basket before eyeing a bin of lace panties… maybe there’s a boy short set in emerald green. I still can’t bring myself to put on the pair Gant bought me, but what if I got a pair myself?

“But these don’t scream French Quarter, high-end gentlemen’s club. How do you expect to get hired wearing stuff like this?” Stassi asks.

“The vibe here is more like Sixth Street,” Aria agrees, eyeing a super shiny synthetic wig.

“What happens on Sixth Street?” Stassi asks.

“What doesn’t happen is a better question.”

“And how do you know that?” Stassi arches a brow.

“Simple, absentee parents and constant explorations around the city with Étienne,” Aria says, donning a stocking cap before plopping the cotton candy pink wig onto her head.

“I wish Zedd was more like Étienne. Open and laid back.”

From the tidbits I gathered about Étienne and Aria, I think they’re more than laid back with each other. More like spread-eagle.

“He’s worse than dad and mum, depending on the week,” Stassi continues. “She keeps calling and asking me for pictures.”

Aria stops adjusting her wig to stare at her. “Why is your mum asking you for pictures?”

Seriously, I wished Stassi would just let the cat out of the bag already, but she feigns interest in some penis keychains instead. “She’s just excited to see me in my new custom dance costumes again. You know she designs most of them. It just gets overwhelming.”

“Speaking of your mother,” I whisper to Stassi sheepishly as Aria busies herself with the stripper heel selection. “Do you have any more size eight uniforms?”

She shakes her head while making sure Aria isn’t listening. “I gave you the last one last week. What happened already?”

“Most of it’s fine. It’s just the shirt that’s torn.”

“How? Don’t tell me it was Rin and her bitches again?”

“No.”

Rin had been lying low. Despite her claims of not being Beaussip, she’s still threading pretty carefully as she should. I still hadn’t confronted her about the email thread yet and I think she knows shit’s about to come her way.

Stassi lifts a brow. “Then?”

I blush. “Gant ripped it.”

“What?!”

Both girls had said it in unison and Stassi pales because Aria has supersonic hearing. Holding on to her wig for dear life, she comes clomping over in the most absurd heels I’d ever seen. She’s an inch taller than Stassi now.

“Is that a goldfish?” I ask, bending down to get a closer look at what’s floating in her eight-inch acrylic heels.

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