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Aside from Penn, I’m not comfortable around other women. I don’t make friends easily and have always been more of a loner. Mandi completely overwhelms me with her outgoing personality.
“What does Mandi do that’s so bad?”
“Why do you want to know?” I prod.
“I’m curious.”
“Hmm. Aside from her pre-dawn, rocking, stomping workout routine, complete with yelling, clapping, and enthusiastic ‘whooohooos,’ you mean?”
Eli freezes, his water bottle halfway to his mouth. “Are you for real?”
“Uh huh. Every day. Every. Fucking.Day.”
“Ouch,” he says, grimacing. “What else?”
“It’s honestly too much to get into. She’s just so upbeat, friendly, and outgoing that it’s obnoxious. Aside from the bunnies, anyway.”
Eli stares at me, both eyebrows raised. “Bunnies?”
“Yeah. She is obsessed with rabbits. Didn’t you notice her phone? It has a case with ears on it.”
“Lots of girls have those.”
“None at this school. Anyway, she has these pink stuffed bunnies that she lines up on her bed every single day. Do you know what it’s like to have a row of stuffed bunnies staring at you while you’re trying to study? It’s super creepy.”
Eli starts to laugh. “Okay, okay, wait. How many bunnies are there?”
“Ten, I think.”
“Of all the things I thought you’d say about her, that definitely wasn’t one of them,” he says, shaking his head.
“She’s nice, okay? I don’t want to be a complete bitch about it. But we’re total opposites. I never thought I’d miss my old roommate, but I do. Georgia was a horny pothead, but at least she didn’t want to talk to me every two minutes. She was too busy humping her boyfriend Dean to even realize I was in the room.”
“Thatwas better than the bunnies?” Eli asks, an incredulous look on his face.
“No, but it was better than Mandi.” I shrug, then take a bite of my brownie. “I wasn’t kidding about her being obnoxiously oblivious, or about the stuffed rabbit boiling in a pot on your hotplate. She isn’t good at taking no for an answer, and she likes you. She really,reallylikes you. Consider yourself warned.”
Eli studies me for a moment. “Does she, now?”
“Don’t act surprised.” I give him a knowing look. “You saw how she acted around you at the coffee shop.”
He shrugs and leans back in his chair. “No different than how most girls act around me.”
I give a derisive snort and roll my eyes. “Yeah, no doubt.”
Four girls, all incredibly pretty and dressed in brightly colored mini skirts with black tops approach our table. They remind me of the Plastics fromMean Girls.
“Hey, Eli,” they chorus, flashing him their best smiles. The prettiest one, who has shiny, chestnut-colored hair, sets her phone down on the table and leans over, giving him an eyeful of her impressive cleavage.
“I just wanted to let you know that we’re going to the hockey game on Saturday,” she says, batting her long, dark lashes at him. “We’ll be there cheering you on. And the rest of the Oakmire team, of course.”
“Great,” Eli replies, giving her an easy smile. “The more fans we have in the stands, the better.”
“Are you going to Sal’s afterward? Maybe I’ll see you there.”
“Maybe,” he says. “I’ll look for you if I do.”
Taking a long pull on my coffee, I watch this exchange unfold in front of me. This chick has deemed me not only irrelevant, but invisible—and not worthy of acknowledgment.
