Page 34 of Tempting the Player
The three of us get up and go over to the closet. One by one, she pulls out new dresses for all of us. For Daisy, a white dress with a tie in the front; she hands Dahlia a black strapless gown; for herself she keeps a cherry red dress with a deep V-cut; and for me a pale green dress with tiny straps and a square neckline.
“When did you have time to make these?” Dahlia asks, holding the dress up in front of her. She glances around at all of our dresses. “They’re all so beautiful.”
“Gavin’s been busy with basketball, and I thought we could all use a little pick me up.”
I hug her, taking her by surprise. It’s exactly what I needed. A night with my girls and an amazing new dress. “Thank you.”
She laughs it off. “You’re welcome. And it was fun. I want to make you a whole closet full of green dresses. All different shades. It’s your color.”
“I’ve never had friends like you three,” I tell them honestly. All the drama of the past month has me extra emotional and my eyes well with tears. “God, look at me. I’m a mess.”
“We love you, too.” Dahlia hugs me, then Daisy and Vi join in.
After trying on our dresses and another hour of girl talk, we head to bed. In my room, I stare at my bed. I replaced all the bedding, and the walls were painted to cover the graffiti, but it still doesn’t feel the same. My happy college bubble has officially burst.
I turn off the light and walk to Dahlia’s room. She smiles when she sees me, then tosses me a pillow.
“You’re the best,” I say as I take my spot on her floor. She built a pillow fort for me last semester because I kept crashing in her room. Then, it was because I wanted to stay up all night talking. Now I just don’t want to be alone.
“Are you kidding? I love a slumber party.”
I yawn as I settle into the blankets and pillows laid out for me. “I might be the first asleep tonight.”
She flips off the light and then climbs into bed. We’re quiet for a bit as we each get comfortable.
“Are you really okay with Grady being gone?” she asks.
“Yeah,” I say, letting some of my unease come out with the single word. “Nothing else has happened.”
“What about the stalker guy? You said your parents had a few weird packages and some threats. Do you think he’s behind any of it?”
“Outside of liking one of Ivy’s posts, no.”
“Oh right, I forgot about that. That’s really creepy that he’s still following you.”
“Super creepy,” I admit. “But I don’t think he’d come all the way to Valley to write bitch on my bedroom wall. That doesn’t fit with any of the other stuff that happened with him.”
“What did happen? You haven’t really said, other than he got clingy.” She lays on her side at the end of the bed so I can see her.
“We met at an audition. He was fun and part of the whole L.A. acting scene, which was nice. And he was older, so he knew a bunch more people.”
“How old?”
“He was twenty-two at the time. I was seventeen.”
“Did you date or hook up?”
“No. We kissed once, but mostly we just went to parties together. After a couple months I wasn’t really feeling it. To be honest, I didn’t really think he liked me that much either. He seemed totally cool with it when I told him I thought we should stop seeing each other, but then he kept popping up everywhere I went. It got creepy. He’d even drive by my parents’ house at odd hours like he was checking to see if I was there.”
“That’s super creepy,” my friend says.
“Yeah. Then I started getting random texts and DMs from weird spammy accounts. I couldn’t prove it was him, but I think it had to be.”
“Super, super creepy,” she reiterates. “How’d you get him to stop?”
“I filed a restraining order.”
“No shit?”
