Page 27 of A Good Book

I tossed the condom into the garbage by the toilet and pulled on my shirt in record time before grabbing Olivia’s boots and running out of the house.

“Whoa! Where are you going? Olivia just went back inside to look for you,” Ben said, grabbing my arm to stop me. He narrowed his eyes, giving me a full body inspection. “What the hell, Gabby?” Anger strangled his words while his Adam’s apple bobbed. “Your shirt is on inside out and backward.”

I pulled at the neck and dipped my chin to look at it. Sure enough, the tag was in front and facing out.

Worst. Night. Ever.

CHAPTEREIGHT

GREAT WHITE, “ONCEBITTENTWICESHY”

Gabby

“Ready to talk yet?”Olivia asked as I stared at the ceiling the following morning.

I turned my head, and she grinned. She wore pink sweats hiked up to her knees, white tube socks scrunched at her ankles, and her wet hair had dripped onto her Michigan T-shirt. She sat at her desk while gulping Tropicana straight from the bottle.

The previous night, I gave her and Ben the silent treatment on the way home from the party, washed my face, and went straight to bed.

“If you were raped?—”

“What?” I sat up. “No. I wasn’t raped.”

She capped the bottle. “But you could tell me?—”

“Olivia, I wasn’t raped.” I climbed down and put on my robe and slippers while squinting against the sun cutting through the window.

“Did you have anything to drink? We were there less than an hour, but after you went out back, I lost track of you.”

I cringed at my reflection in the mirror of my rat’s nest hair and raccoon eyes from the residual mascara that survived manically washing my face the previous night.

“You don’t have to tell me, but Ben was in a lame mood after you went to bed without telling us what happened. Be prepared for the third degree.”

Nothing felt real, which was saying a lot since I had a vivid imagination that often felt like reality. Oh my gosh, last night really happened.

“I need a shower.” I gathered my things and headed to the bathroom.

When I returned, Ben was in my desk chair, drinking a cup of coffee while fisting Olivia’s red and white hacky sack in his other hand.

“Where’s Olivia?” I hung my towel on a hook and stuffed my pajamas into the laundry bin.

“She went to the library to study. If you don’t tell me what happened last night, I’m calling your father, but not before I beat the crap out of Matt.”

I squinted, wondering if he would win that fight. He was a little taller than Matt, but Matt had put on a lot of muscle since he moved away from Devil’s Head.

“I wasn’t raped. And I didn’t have sex. Happy?”

“Young lady, you’re better than this.”

I turned my back to him and brushed my hair in the mirror, fighting so hard to keep from laughing. Ben had perfected my dad’s favorite guilt trip. Even his voice resembled my dad’s when he dropped it an octave.

“Why was your shirt on backward?”

“Because someone spilled their beer on me.”

“So your fix for that was to turn it backwardsandinside out?”

“Yes.”

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