Page 12 of Tenderfoot

Jessie’s, Raye’s and Luna’s got thin.

“What happened?” Jessie rapped out.

“Can I not talk about it?” I asked.

“Javi made you cry?” Raye inquired, sounding shocked.

As she would (see the “biggest heart” note).

“Again, can I not talk about it?” I requested.

They all looked at each other.

I sucked in a very deep breath in order to pull myself together.

It didn’t work.

Per experience, I knew this was because I hadn’t had near enough time to wallow and feel sorry for myself.

So I took another big breath.

That worked (kinda).

“We need a new game plan,” I announced. “Now we have to tackle both Kev and Trev, and my cover’s been blown. Not truthfully, but I’m thinking Kev probably unmatched me.”

Everyone stared at me, and I had a feeling it wasn’t because I only had one false eyelash remaining.

“I think we can assume Trev is in on it,” I went on.

“How did Javi know you were there?” Luna asked.

Hmm.

It might have been good if I inquired about that sometime between instigating my fume and him ripping my heart out and kicking it around my super cute living room.

“I didn’t ask,” I said.

This got me weird looks, and I understood them, because if I had’ve been thinking clearly, that should have been one of my first questions.

“What did you two talk about on your way here?” Raye entered the interrogation.

“Not much, since I was fuming,” I replied.

“Uh-oh, The Fume,” Luna said under her breath.

“The Fume?” Willow asked.

“Don’t get caught in Lolo’s Fume,” Luna advised.

They knew me so well.

“Were you crying because you were angry?” Jessie asked suspiciously.

“And why was your bedroom door locked?” Luna put in.

I had to get them past this, and truthfully, if it was me on their side of my door, I’d be worried and want answers.

So I semi-shared, “I wasn’t big on him horning in and ruining our play. He wasn’t big on me making that play. When he got me home, we had words. They weren’t real nice words. I retreated to my room to wallow. I locked the door to make a point. Javi took my point and took off. The end.”

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