Page 51 of The Bet
She glances over at me, face softening. “You’re not a bad person, Andie. You just got caught up in something with those girls you hang out with.”
“You’re friends with them too!”
She nods, a frown on her pretty face.
“Yes, but I’ve grown apart from them in the last year or so. I mean, I met Liam and everything changed. The stuff they’re interested in seems so childish now. I don’t know,” she says. “I love Kayleigh, Mary Kate and Stella, but we’re just on different planets.”
I nod.
“Totally get it. You’re different, Sim, since dating Professor Thomas, and I hope things work out for you.”
A shadow crosses her face for a moment as her hand slips over her lower belly.
“I think it will. I know it will,” she says in a more determined voice.
With that, I smile before lying back on my mattress and staring at the ceiling, thinking about Thomas Moreland and our intimate video. What should I do? God, I have no idea.
Simone goes back to her packing, but she keeps talking, her voice gentle and low. “I think you really like him,” she says. “Maybe even love him, a little.”
I close my eyes, let the word love fizz around my ribcage. “No way,” I say. “It’s way too early.”
She smiles, just a little. “That’s what I thought with Liam too, but within months we were serious. I just hope your new guy deserves it.”
For a long time, neither of us speaks. The music next door gets louder, then stops abruptly, replaced by the muffled thump of aheadboard against a wall. The light outside shifts, going blue and hard as the sun slips behind the campus library. Simone tapes another box shut, the sound slicing the quiet.
My phone buzzes on the mattress. I reach for it and see the group chat lighting up: “Update time, ladies. Coffee tomorrow? Who’s got news on the bet?” Stella’s name at the top, followed by Kayleigh and Mary Kate. The notification lingers, waiting.
I don’t respond. I just set the phone face-down and stare at the slanted bands of sunlight on the wall. Oh god, what would Stella do if she knew I had video of me and her dad banging? If she watched his dick withdraw from my just-fucked pussy, slick with his sperm and my first blood? Oh god, she’d die.
Simone watches me. She doesn’t say anything, but her hand drifts to the sweater she packed earlier, fingers brushing the soft wool over and over, like she’s comforting herself.
I feel the warning settle inside me: a lodestone, a compass, a promise. I don’t know what I’ll do with it yet, but I know I’ll never forget it.
My hands go still in my lap. I close my eyes and let the silence hold me.
For now, it’s enough.
13
AM I JUST HIS LOCAL HOOK-UP?
Andie
The Juicery always smells incredibly fruity: a damp, syrupy undertone to every surface, even the air, as if every smoothie ever blended here still haunts the room. It’s late afternoon, slow enough that the blender only roars every couple of minutes, but loud enough that the four of us can talk without worrying about being overheard. Stringy pendant lights dangle at uneven heights above the round tables, and the sticky rings on the table reflect our faces in little warped ovals.
The usual: Stella, Mary Kate, Kayleigh, and me, slouched in the corner booth where the bench seat is permanently canted to one side, like the juice bar was built on a fault line. Our drinks sweat into puddles on napkins, and the only sign that finals are a week away is the open laptops blinking blue on the tables around us. Our table is all chaos: two tote bags, a lopsided paper tray of cold fries, a spiral notebook with “Endgame Bracket” scrawled on the cover, and the faint whiff of coconut-scented hand cream from one of the girls.
“So where are we with our fun little bet?” Stella asks with a wicked grin. “Kayleigh, you want to go first?”
Our pretty blonde friend rolls her eyes, but agrees. She’s got her elbows on the table and her fingers wound in the straw wrapper, twisting it into a cord tight enough to strangle a hamster. Her voice, when she finally speaks, is pitched low, like she’s about to let us in on a huge secret. “Okay, girls, here’s my update: my mom’s getting remarried next week, and my stepbrother is flying in from San Francisco. He’s only thirty-three, and he’s basically—” she glances at Stella for the proper word, “—a douche, but, like, a billionaire douche?”
Stella giggles, but it’s not mean, just an “I’ve seen this show” kind of sound.
Kayleigh leans in. “I think I can seduce him. Or at least, you know, give it a college try.”
She finishes winding the straw wrapper, then splits it in two with a single jerk of her pinkies. Her cheeks are red, and her eyes are wide. “I mean, he’s hot. Most tech bros are five foot three and pudgy, but not my stepbrother. Somehow, he was blessed in the looks department, and oh my god!” she says, fanning herself theatrically. “This guy has abs. The only question is if he has cock too,” she says with a naughty wink.
Mary Kate, who habitually does her eyeliner like she’s prepping for the Oscars, jumps in. “You know what’s so hot about that?” She doesn’t wait for an answer. “If you seduce him, your mom’s wedding night will be totally overshadowed by your own sexual debut. You won’t remember a thing from the ceremony because let’s face it. Weddings can be boring.”
