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Beth tenses and turns slowly. Her face is unreadable. I’m not sure if she’s going to chew me out or charge forward to kill me with her designer bath caddy. Death by bath caddy would suck. It’s a super-lame way to die.
She nods slowly. “Okay.”
“I’m sorry,” I say, softly.
“I know. I may have overreacted.” She walks over to me, avoiding my gaze. “I’ve seen Josh at his best and his worst. I still can’t believe he hurt anyone, but he says he did. I don’t want to see him hurt again, and I don’t want to lose another friend when you guys break up.”
“It was stupid. I shouldn’t have—”
Beth holds up a hand, silencing me. “It wasn’t my place, and you tried to respect my wishes, but who am I to stand in your way? If you guys want to get together, I’m okay with it.”
I blink at her. “Beth, that’s not—”
“It’s okay, Kerry. I know the thing with Nate isn’t serious, and you seem serious about Josh. Just don’t hurt him. He’s been through enough already, okay?” She waits for an answer, her eyes filling with worry.
“I won’t hurt him. I won’t hurt you either.” I smile at her.
Beth nods. “Then cake and drinks tonight. I’ll drive—unless you got a muzzle for that raccoon.”
“I’m not muzzling Pita.”
She laughs. “You named him after the guy from the Hunger Games? The raccoon is Peeta Bread?”
That’s really funny. I grin and chuckle. “No. His name is Pita, as in PAIN IN THE ASS. Peeta Bread.”
“What? That guy is hot!”
I swat a hand at her and push open the bathroom door. Maybe today won’t suck after all. Things with Beth are on the mend. Getting permission to screw her brother is really weird, but that problem should be gone. Now I just need to get Nate to sell his house, making a moral decision that will cause him to resent me for the rest of his life. Then I can bang Josh to get over Nate. And we’ve come full circle for needing a random hookup to get over a guy.
Perfect.
CHAPTER 7
I sit in class thinking until my head hurts. I feel Carter’s glare on the side of my face, but when I look at him, he turns away. I wasn’t with Nate last night as far as Carter knows. I kept the Fitbit on, and the only anomalies in my data were my heart rate being sky high. It didn’t record movement since Nate had my wrists pinned most of the time. Carter probably thinks I’m stressed. He knows I was in the art building, and that’s it. I need to ditch this stupid thing without Carter knowing about it.
I have no idea how to do that. The rest of the day crawls by and, around three, I’m headed across campus when I run into Josh. He’s alone, head down, hair covering his eyes. I stop in front of him. “Hey.”
He looks up, startled. He yanks a pair of earbuds from his ears and grins at me. “Hey, didn’t see you there.”
“Wow, a smile. Am I forgiven?”
He tips his head to the side. “No, but I’m sick of being mad at you.” He starts to walk away, but I grab his wrist. Butterflies whisper inside my stomach, and I let go. The way he looks at my hand makes me think he noticed too.
“Beth forgave me.”
“Good for you.”
“Did you talk to her?” I’m about to give up and walk away when he answers.
“Yeah, she said I had her permission to nail you. Isn’t that nice? Kid sisters are so thoughtful.” His caustic tone matches the smile on his face. He starts to walk past me, but I grab his elbow and whirl him around.
“I’ve had enough of your super PMS, Josh. Either we’re friends, or we’re not.” He stares at me. I glance to the side, annoyed, and let out a huff. I raise my hand, press my palm to his forehead, and shove.
“Hey! What was that for?” He swats me away.
“For being an asshole. I don’t care who you were or what you did before. I already told you that. If you don’t condemn me, I won’t condemn you.” I fold my arms over my chest and try not to tap my foot.
“You haven't done anything wrong.”
