Page 1 of IOU

Rumor has it she’s a psycho.

Contrary to what you might hear, I’m not crazy. I swear it.

“Are you out of your goddamned mind?”

It’s a rhetorical question.

“The fucking apartment is on fire, Ainsley!”

Tucker has always been the more dramatic one in our relationship, and if I weren’t so pissed off, I would bring it up, but there’s no point. He’s not my problem anymore.

“Fuck you!” I shout over the smoke detector, glaring at the cheating scumbag who was my boyfriend up until sixty seconds ago.

He’s only half right, by the way. The apartment isn’t on fire, the curtains in the living room are. It’s a small flame, but a flame big enough to set off the smoke detectors, which triggered the neighbors to pull the fire alarm.

At this point, though, you’re probably wondering why I’m screaming, ‘Fuck you!’ instead of grabbing some water and helping Tucker pull the curtain rod down. It’s simple. I hate Tucker and hope his dick catches fire.

And I hate the girl standing next to him. Taylor. My roommate and, currently, my boyfriend’s side piece. But that’s not even the fucked-up part. The real fucked-up part is the fact they decided to usemycandles to create this ambiance of adultery.

I aim a glare at Taylor, who’s been quiet during this entire meltdown, but I’m guessing that’s because she’s naked, shivering in our living room as her hideous curtains go up in flames. “I did Taylor a favor by burning those curtains,” I continue, undeterred by Tucker’s panic and the wailing of sirens in the distance. “That’s what good roommates do! They rid you of the ugly things in your life.”

I force out a devilish smile like Taylor did me a solid tonight by porking Tucker, showing me what a real piece of shit he is. And in return, I paid her back by setting our apartment ablaze. Okay, so ablaze sounds like I ripped the sofa cushions and lit a match. That’s not what happened. I meant to hit Tucker with a lit candle and missed.

He deserved it, and so did she.

Even if Taylor and I weren’t the greatest of friends, we made being roommates work. I mean, sure, she’s a twat twenty-five days out of the month, but the rest of those six days, she’s kind of decent. But she had to go and ruin our fickle relationship.

Taylor glares back at me, not bothering to cover her flawless tits. I used to think the rumors about her perfect tits were a drunken observation and not a real fact. But now that I’m looking at them, I mean,reallylooking at them, they are pretty perfect. The perfect handful guys fight over. Guys like my boyfriend, who’s also naked. At least Tucker is covering his junk. Wait.

“Why are you covering yourself, Tucker? Your dick has to be more useful than fucking my roommate. Pee on the fire, why don’t you? Do at least one redeeming thing tonight.”

Tucker grits his teeth and snatches a throw from the floor where the love nest of soft blankets is rumpled from their fuckfest. “Get some water!”

I don’t move at his frustrated shout. He lost the right to tell me what to do the minute I walked through the door tonight.

“Ainsley! Put aside our issues for a moment. Innocent people are in the building.”

Our issues. Pfft. He makes it sound like we have a weekly appointment with a marriage counselor. Not like we were so in love that I followed his med-school bound ass to this college, giving up all of my dreams so he could chase his.

“Ainsley!”

Okay. Fine. He’s right. Even if I would like for his dick to sizzle, I don’t want anyone to die or be responsible for any lung complications just because he crushed my heart tonight.

I look at Taylor, the traitor standing next to me. Her eyes are laser-focused, searing me with hate. It takes all I have not to tackle her and snatch those thousand-dollar extensions from her hair. But that would show I give a crap about their betrayals.

And I do.

But no one needs to know the truth.

This whole fire thing is a throwing mishap. But if I took Taylor down to the ground in a tangle of bitch slaps...? That would seem like I completely lost my shit and care that my roommate has been banging my boyfriend for who knows how long.

The message I want to send is they can live happily ever after for all I care.

I have options, dammit.

I have respect.

At least for now, until I can get to somewhere private and wallow in my heartbreak.

---