“What do you mean, we’re not playingDungeons and Dragonstonight?” Mia exclaimed as Rosie slipped unseen through the unlocked door to Nadia’s apartment and into minor chaos.
Nadia sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose under her glasses. “Olivia and Jake aren’t coming, and we can’t really play without them.”
“I still think we should keep going without ‘em, darlin’. She’s being ridiculous.” Caleb was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest.
Rosie’s throat squeezed. “Because of me?” Her friends’ heads snapped to look at her.
“Rosie! Honey, no …”
“Don’t lie to me, Nad.” Tears burned behind her eyelids as her voice trembled. Even through blurred vision, she could watch Nadia and Caleb have one of those telepathic conversations couples had. That she and Matt were learning to have.
“She told me she wasn’t feeling well and couldn’t make it,” Nadia started.
“And when I asked Jake about it, he said she was so upset about you dating Matt that her stomach was sick,” Caleb finished.
Rosie wrapped her arms around herself and shut her eyes against the pain. She couldn’t look at her friends. This was all her fault. She’d known Olivia wouldn’t take kindly to her dating Matt. But she’d gone and fallen for him anyway.
A gentle arm wrapped around her shoulders, and she opened her eyes. Mia urged her to sit down on the couch. “She’ll come around. It’s only been a week that she’s known.”
Rosie shook her head. She hadn’t heard from Olivia since the incident at Fabled. Olivia hadn’t even texted the squad in their group chat. Rosie knew it was because of her. And now it looked like Olivia wouldn’t even give them a chance to stay friends.
Mia sat down on her left. Jade came out from the kitchen and handed her what looked like a shot of whiskey and sat on her right. Caleb walked out to the hall, and Nadia followed him.
“I’ll be right back, girls.”
They sat in silence on Nadia’s couch, her friends rubbing her back. But Rosie’s heart was being torn in two. Her squad was divided because ofher.
“Drink up, sugar. It’ll make you feel better,” Jade murmured.
Steeling herself against the burn, Rosie tipped the shot glass back. Grandad would be proud that she didn’t cough. The alcohol licked fire down her throat, and then a pleasant numbness followed. But it didn’t make her feel any better. She set the glass down on the old brown coffee table as Nadia returned.
“Where’s Caleb?”
“He went home so we can focus on you. And this has definitely evolved into more of a girls’ night than a game night.” Nadia moved the glass then sat down on the coffee table in front of her, and the three friends she had left wrapped her up in a big group hug.
“I’m sorry,” she choked out. It was all she could say, over and over. “I’m so sorry.”
Jade clicked her tongue. “Sugar! You’ve done nothing wrong.”
She should quitDungeons and Dragons. She should stop coming for game nights. It wasn’t fair to the rest of the squad for them to lose Olivia over this. She could maintain friendships with the other girls individually, it would just be harder with her schedule.
“I’ll leave. We can say Deidre got killed by goblins and then I won’t come to D&D anymore …”
“Absolutely not! You keep your ass right there.” Nadia hung on tighter.
“But it’s myfault!”
“No, it’s not. Olivia’s being ridiculous.” Mia reared her head back. “Don’t let her go anywhere, I’ll get the tissues.”
Rosie sniffed, and it was only then she realized her cheeks were streaked with tears.
Mia returned with a box from the bathroom and pushed it into Rosie’s hands. “Let’s talk about something else. You know, Matt told me he’d had a crush on you since high school.”
Jade gasped. “Oh my God, really? That’s so cute.”
A strained laugh bubbled up from her chest, and the girls relaxed their hold. “Yeah, he told me that, too. He was such a kid then. And then, poof! It was like he grew up overnight.”
“When did you start noticing him like that?” Mia sat on the edge of her seat; her chin propped up on her hands like a little kid at story time.
