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“Casey,” I warned, backing up a few steps, only to have her close the space between us. “Back off.”
“Why’d you do it, Joey?” she demanded, shoving at my chest until she had me cornered with nowhere to go. “You could have left her alone,” she slurred, wobbling in her heels, and I, for some unknown reason, reached a hand out to steady her.
That’s right; I was the eejit who stopped the girl who was attacking me from falling over. As a thank-you, she slapped me again.
Lovely.
“Listen here, you good-looking son of a bitch,” she slurred as she poked me in the chest with her finger. “I don’t care how slick you can move your hips on a pitch—or on a mattress, for that matter—we both know that you are punching way above your weight with my girl.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” I demanded, feeling my temper rise. “You sound like a head case.”
“I’m talking about you breaking my best friend’s heart,” she hissed, poking me again. “Aoife is worth ten of every other girl at this party, and you’re a stupid asshole if you can’t see that.”
“You think I’m fucking around?” I gaped at her. “Are you insane?”
“Oh, I know you are. I just caught you red-handed.”
“Talking,” I spat back. “You caught me red-handed talking to my sister’s childhood friend.”
“Deny it all you want. I know what I saw.”
“You’re deluded.”
“And you’re a dickhead,” she continued her rant. “Aoife was fine with Paul. She was okay. Her life was stable. It was consistent. He was good for her. But you just couldn’t leave her alone, could you? No, you just had to keep chipping away at her heart until she threw it all away for you. And look where it got her.”
“Now, you listen to me,” I seethed. “If you so much as think about trying to sink your toxic claws in Aoife and twisting this into something it’s not, then I swear to Christ, Case, I will lose my mind.”
“You lost your mind the minute you decided to break my best friend’s heart,” she snapped. “Aoife Molloy is the single best thing that’s ever happened to you, Joey Lynch, and everyone knows it. She loves you, asshole, despite your reputation and all of the horrible things you’ve done in your past, and instead of treating her with the love and respect she deserves, you trample all over her with your bullshit.”
“You don’t know a damn thing about it,” I snarled, furious. “You have no clue of what’s happening between us, so don’t start harping to me about shit that doesn’t concern you.”
“I know that you fed her some asshole line about needing space and then sauntered off without a backwards glance,” she replied, sounding just as furious.
“Casey, stop it!” Molloy’s achingly familiar voice echoed through my head, causing every hair on my body to stand on end. “Stop it right now,” she ordered, dragging her friend away from me. “Don’t do this.”
“He deserves it.”
“You don’t know anything about it. Now stop.”
“I know he hurt you.”
“Casey! I mean it. Let’s go.”
Struck fucking dumb at the sight of Molloy in a skin-tight, backless red dress, I could do nothing but watch as she completely ignored me, focusing on her friend instead.
“But he hurt you,” Casey continued to slur, pointing her finger in my direction. “You’re so sad, and eating all that chocolate, and it’s all his fault.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Molloy told her, wrapping an arm around Casey’s waist and pulling her toward the door, never once looking at me the entire time. “Come on,” she continued to say, coaxing her bitchy gal pal away. “I’ll get us a spin home.”
“Molloy?”
“Not right now, Joe.”
My heart bucked wildly in protest. “Molloy.”
“No,” she choked out, before hurrying out of the kitchen with Casey draped around her. “I can’t do this right now, okay?”
No, it wasn’t okay.
