Page 262 of Small Town Firsts

“Okay. Can I... can I sit in the bathroom while you do it? To make sure you’re okay?”

I nod, secretly grateful to not be alone.

We trek into the small bathroom, and I step into the tub and pull the curtain closed. I toss my wet bra and panties out and turn on the water, cranking the temperature to scalding.

Stella chatters aimlessly as I stand under the hot spray, letting it wash away the scent of cheap beer, wishing it could wash away the memory of his touch.

“Did he pour his drink on you?” Stella asks as I rinse the shampoo from my hair.

“No. Um. That would’ve been... Melanie.”

“What?” my suitemate shrieks.

I’m nearly too tired to tell the whole sordid story, but I know Stella, and she won’t let me sleep until she knows it all.

“I guess they were there together. And she thought I was flirting with him and got really,reallymad. She said some not nice things to me and then tossed her beer in my face.”

“And he let her believe that? That you were with him?”

I scoff out a laugh. “He encouraged the notion.”

“That little dick weasel!”

Even though she can’t see me, I shrug. “It is what it is.”

“No, ma’am. It is not.”

“Stella, I love that you want to help, but?—”

“But nothing! Tonight, you sleep. And tomorrow?” She pauses for dramatic effect. “Tomorrow, we plot!”

CHAPTER 16

EMMY

Stella didn’t leavemy side for the rest of the weekend. And I mean that literally. We spent Saturday, Sunday, and Monday—which was blessedly a holiday—cozied up in our suite, binge-watching chick flicks, eating takeout, and plotting my payback.

Ultimately, we both decided the best form of revenge against Sterling was...nothing.He’s clearly after a reaction, and if I refuse to give him one, he can’t win.

However, we also agreed I can’t let him steamroll me either. I need to be fierce, which means taking no shit when it comes to him.

“I mean,” Stella says as we cut through the quad, “if he’s an ass to you, just ice him out. Don’t let him know he’s getting to you.”

“Easier said.”

“Lunch after, and you can tell me all about how you shut his ass down.”

“And you can tell me all about Samson,” I counter, already knowing it’s a lost cause. I asked about him at least twenty times over the last three days, but she shut me down each and every time.

“Toodles,” she calls over her shoulder with a finger-wave before breaking into a run toward her building.

I roll my eyes at her antics, but press on toward my destination, albeit slowly. While I don’t want to be late for Sterling’s class, I definitely don’t want to be early either. When it comes to his class, it’s bare minimum and nothing more.

I make it to the classroom with two minutes to spare, marching right past Sterling’s smug, stupid face, all the way to a desk in the very back of the room.

For the next one-hundred-and-twenty seconds, I sit on pins and needles, waiting for him to fling some low-handed, shitty remark my way. But he doesn’t even look at me.

It’s as if I’m not here. Invisible.

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