Page 9 of Racing Hearts

Juniper smirked. “What’s wrong with being bitches? Some people deserve it.”

Maybe she was right. Maybe Sierra really did deserve it.No.If that little fight at practice the other day had Ellie so shaken up, she couldn’t imagine how she’d feel going out of her way to be mean to someone. It just wasn’t her personality, even if Sierra seemed to bring out that side of her. “No. Absolutely not. Think of how pissed Coach would be if he found out.”

Juniper furrowed her eyebrows as if she was considering this, then nodded. “That’s true.” Juniper took another big sip of her drink. She slammed it down on the table and her eyes lit up. “I know! You can just act super gay in front of her. Kiss some girls and shit. She’ll hate that. If she’s at the party tonight, you can kiss me!”

Ellie rolled her eyes. “You’re straight.”

Juniper shrugged. “Never stopped me from kissing a girl before.”

“You’re also my best friend. I don’t go around kissing my friends. Things could get messy.”

Juniper lifted an eyebrow as she brought her drink back up to her lips and smiled at Ellie over the cup. “Afraid you’ll fall madly in love with me?”

“Yep, that’s exactly it.” Ellie snorted out a laugh. “It would never work anyway. Ihighlydoubt she’s going to the party tonight. Does she even have any friends on the team?”

Ellie didn’t realize how mean that sounded until Juniper spit out her drink from laughing. “Wow. I like this feisty side of Ellie.” Juniper shrugged. “I’m not actually sure if she has any friends on the team, but I heard Chris invite her to the party, andshe asked if she could bring a friend. That’s not exactly ayes, but it’s definitely not a no.”

Ellie’s stomach turned. This was supposed to be her night to let loose and have fun with her friends. She didn’t want to deal with the sick feeling she got every time she was forced to be around Sierra. She picked her cup off of the table and held it out toward Juniper. “In that case…” Before she could overthink what she was doing, she drained the rest of the liquid from the cup. She coughed as the last of it made its way into her mouth.Fuck, I’m going to be so drunk.

“Alright. I guess it’s time to party!” Juniper drank the rest of her drink as well, then took two shot glasses out of the cabinet and filled them with more vodka. She slid one toward Ellie, then picked up the other one. “Cheers.”

Ellie knew this was a bad idea, but she couldn’t stop herself from giving in. “Cheers,” she repeated.

*

By the time they left their apartment, Ellie was already so drunk she could barely walk, which made their two-block journey seem much longer. Juniper giggled as she struggled to hold Ellie up while they walked together.

“I don’t know if I’ve ever seen you this drunk.” Juniper laughed and tripped over something on the ground, before not-so-smoothly saving herself from a face plant by grabbing onto Ellie even harder.

“I’m not drunk,” Ellie lied.

Juniper laughed again. “Uh-huh.Sureyou’re not.”

They stumbled through the door, and the first person Ellie saw was Sierra What’s-Her-Fuck, standing with a group of people in the kitchen.Of fucking course.“Maybe we should go back to our place. I think I’m starting to feel sick.” Ellie’sbest friend didn’t need to know that the feelingwasn’tfrom the alcohol.

Juniper slapped her on the butt. “You got this, babe. Keep it in.”

Ellie nodded. Juniper was right. She was a senior on the track team. She wasn’t going to let a freshman run her life.

Ellie turned to go left in order to avoid Sierra, but before she could walk that way, Juniper grabbed her arm. “Just becauseyou’rea lightweight doesn’t mean I don’t need another drink. Let’s go.”

When they reached the kitchen, Ellie realized that the same redhead from the state meet was standing next to Sierra, but she had her hands resting on Chris’s biceps.

“You know, I did track in high school. I even thought about trying to walk-on to the team here.” The redhead ran her hands over his muscles. “If I had known the guys on the team looked like this, maybe I would have.”

Chris smiled dumbly as if he had never received a compliment from a pretty girl before. It wasn’t even like she was that pretty. Sierra was…nope not thinking that way about my current enemy.

“Well, for what it’s worth, even though you’re not on the team, you’re welcome at these parties anytime.” Chris flashed a grin that Ellie was sure was supposed to look suave, but it definitely wasnot.

Now Ellie might actually throw up. Heterosexual flirting was always so cringe.

It got even worse when the redhead giggled obnoxiously as if he had just said the funniest thing in the world. Apparently, Ellie wasn’t the only one bothered by their flirting. Sierra looked seriously annoyed as she tightly wrapped her hand around the redhead’s arm. “We should go,” she said sternly.

Redhead giggled again as she turned to face Sierra. She held onto Sierra the same way she had just done with Chris. “Aw, don’t be so uptight, SiSi. There’s plenty of guys here for you, too.” She raised her eyebrows and leaned in close to her, so close that if Ellie didn’t know any better, she could have sworn they were going to kiss. “What do you say, Si? Should we put on a show for them?”

When Redhead licked her lips, there was no question what she was asking Sierra to do.

“Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!” one of the guys shouted while a few others hooted and hollered along with him.

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