Page 19 of Dirty Roulette
She hunches over, resting an elbow on her bare leg. “Last night was crazy.” Charlie groans and coils teepee around her fingers as she pees out gallons worth of terrible decisions.
“You can say that again.”
“So, are you gonna tell me who you landed on?”
“No one. Ryder cockblocked them... and he saw me naked and looked... I don’t know... like he was disgusted at the sight of me... I dunno how I feel.”
“He’s such an ass...I kinda regret going down on Noah.” Charlie flushes and pulls her shorts back up before washing her hands.
“Do you like him?”
Charlie dries her hands on the towel hanging on the maple-brown door. “I dunno. He’s a nice change of pace.” She shrugs. “I just can’t get over Brody sleeping with Brittni. No matter how hard I try to forgive him and give him another chance, my gut tells me he’s just gonna do it again.” I can feel her side-eyeing me and I exhale sharply.
“Will you believe me when I say I didn’t land on him?”
“But you landed onsomeone.” She ruffles her hair in the mirror, and the pillow head looks a million times hotter than I could ever pull off. “I’m not an idiot. I’ve known you since we had baby teeth. You suck at lying.”
“I’m not. Plus, Brody’s a douchebag that deserves blue balls.” I cross my arms and lean my back against the sink. She grabs a comb, tosses her locks up, and wraps it into a scrunchy.
“Stop beating around the bush and tell me.”
“How many times do I have to say, no one?”
I’m the worst bestie. If you’ve known a bro longer than a day, their siblings are off limits. I’m breaking Bro Code, which is close enough to Sister Code. No way, I can’t say it. My tongue is broken.
Confessing I liked Ryder running his fingers through my hair and shoving his tongue down my throat has “bad idea” written all over it. There’s no way in hell I can tell her I gave him my underwear and granted him my virginity, too. It’s on tape. Someone needs to pour gasoline on top of my head and hand over the matches so I can light myself on fire. I’d rather die in boiling oil than see my naked photos all over the internet for someone to jerk off to.
If I had a million fingers, that’s how many times I told Charlie I wanted nothing to do with this initiation bull. Now, out of stupidity and following along, I’m smack in the dead center of it.
Never have I ever kept a deep, dark secret from Charlie. This digs a grave for our friendship when it meets the noose. My skin crawls from the mere thought of Brody winning either way.
“Mhm...” Charlie runs a hand through loose strands of hair falling out of her bun. “Do you plan on hanging today?”
“I might head home. I’ve been sleeping over here for five days straight, and I ran out of clean clothes, and I need to finish packing up my room.”
“No way, it’s really been five days? What’s our record?”
“Three nights and I stayed ‘til dinner before Mum came banging on the door.”
“Let’s not forget, my mom insisted we need space,” Charlie adds, knowing that didn’t work out well. We’re sharing a dorm out of luck and begging the university staff in charge of assigning the housing arrangements. We did the obnoxious, leaping up and down and breaking our windpipes in each other’s faces when we got assigned together.
“I think I’ll shower and head out,” I say.
“When you’re done, do you wanna meet back around one? There are free demos at Smokey Vinyl.” Charlie wiggles her fingers at me and scuffs down the hallway in her pink slippers.
“That gives us four hours of space.”
“Shut up and sneak back later, hoe!”
“Do you want to go because Noah is there?” I ask.
“What if I do?”
“Fine, whatever. I’ll go.” I agree.
After a shower, I pack up dirty clothes and all the things I moved into the bathroom for the last several days. I throw the duffle bag over my shoulder and climb down the porch steps with the screen door slamming behind me.
Scottie P leans against the hood of Ryder’s Jeep. Smoke pools out of his nostrils and it reeks of sweet skunk. He pretends he’s cool as hell with his black sunglasses hiding the evidence of a bad hangover.
