“I mean, like, what’s happening around town? Can we decorate our room yet? All those things.”
“Oh.” Her nose gives a small scrunch.
“You don’t have to help decorate,” I reassure her, making her laugh.
“I’ll help with the putting the stuff up part.” I would rather she not. Georgia is an adorable klutz. I’m convinced that she’s so smart and in her own head so much that simple shit just passes by.
“Thanks, Jenny,” I tell the barista when she sets my apple turnover down in front of me. “Good luck tonight, not that you need it.”
“Oh, I need it.” She lets out a small laugh. “Thanks, though.”
“You know her?” Georgia asks when Jenny heads back behind the counter.
“I mean, not really, but she’s worked here for a few years, right?”
“Yes, but I only know her name.”
“We talked at the counter.”
“Of course you did.” She picks up her drink and takes a sip. “Always the social butterfly.”
“I’m not a social butterfly.” Her brows rise. “Okay, compared to you, I’m one.” I enjoy talking to people. It distracts the mind.If you say you are happy and appear happy, you’ll often start to feel that way. Though it’s not working so great at the moment. There is this hole in my chest that keeps on growing, and I don’t know how to fill it.
“If you say so.” She takes a bite of her cherry Danish.
“So—” I circle us back to the topic at hand.
“If you mean with school, there is a pep rally, and Caleb always throws a big party.”
“Hockey player Caleb?” That fucker is on my shit list. In fact, the whole hockey team is.
“The one and only.” She rolls her eyes.
At my last high school, I could float around from group to group. I have always gotten along with most people—until I’m pushed. Bet my ass will push right back. Let’s see if they do that shit in front of me. Then I’ll make it everyone’s problem.
“We don’t have to go,” I tell her. I more mean the party. I think it’s required that I go to the pep rally.
“I’ve never been.” Georgia folds and unfolds her napkin.
“Do you want to go?”
“Might be nice to experience one before I graduate.”
“Well, now you got a wing-girl.”
“Wing-girl?” A soft, shy smile forms. “I was only going to see it. I’m not hooking up with anyone around here. I might not be in the gossip mill, but I hear it. And I promise what happens at Kingmakers doesn’t stay there. Not in these circles.”
Georgia does live in a different world than I do. She may be hundreds of miles from home, but in the world of elite social life, news about a family name spreads quickly. I guess because they all have fancy planes and shit, that location doesn’t matter. They must bump into each other all over the freaking place. That’s why all these families have to have a handful of houses. Gosh, bet that’s hard to keep up on. Oh, the problems of the filthy rich. Ones I’ll never know in my lifetime.
“With everyone being housed kind of together, does it get catty over boys?”
“You have no idea.” She puts her face in her hand as she shakes it.
“So the same people hooking up with each other?”
“Pretty much, but I try not to pay attention to it. It’s stupid when the girls fight over the hockey players.” I couldn’t agree more with all the things Georgia has told me. They’re all a bunch of douche canoes. Cocky assholes who think they’re God’s gift.
My phone goes off with a reminder. “Shit, I was supposed to collect my gear.” It completely slipped my mind.
