Page 10 of Apparently, I’m Torture

“Any chance you know a tutor I can wrangle into working over the summer break?” I asked Mia as we walked into the convention center. The air conditioning was in full swing, and walking in here was like being thrown from an oven to a freezer.

“Oh, fuck me,” Mia grumbled, hugging herself. “They couldn’t turn down the fans, could they?”

Other than the air conditioner being aggressively good at its job, the center was nice. Cluttered, but nice.

The red and brown brick walls were industrial chic, painted with a thin layer of white that was no doubt meant to be transparent. The flooring was click-tile, a thick greyish kind of tile that resembled wood. It was indestructible, which was great for the purpose of entertaining crowds.

Stacks and stacks of chairs and folded tables lined the walls. They framed a boxed-in and curtained stage, and standing in front of that stage were about twenty or so of my colleagues from various schools.

My traitor eyes were trying to pick out a six-foot-two, wide-shouldered, hard-chested, hazelnut-skinned man with great hair and an even better smile, (it was unfair that assholes could also be pretty) when Mia let out a strangled noise and straightened her pint-sized legs.

“That bitch. I can’t believe she’s here.”

My glance found the pretty blonde with sharp, angled limbs and features. Stacey. Ah, of course. Why wouldn’t she be here?

“Looks like it’s a reunion,” I grumbled.

Without warning, Mia took off in her direction, and I cursed under my breath before following her.

“Mia, wait. It’s been so long, she’s probably–”

“Well, well, well,” Mia started, choosing to sound like a cartoon villain as she stopped short of Stacey’s back. “Look who it is.”

Stacey turned around, and her eyes went as wide as her smile. “Mia? Mia Walker? No way.” Her excited squeal was very familiar, very loud, and I had to cover my ears at the sound of it.

Stacey gathered Mia up in a hug, and Mia fought her off with more force than I expected. “Don’t you try to hug me, you backstabbing bitch. Not after what you did to Lilly.”

Confusion crossed her face as Mia pushed herself free. “What? You mean Trevor?”

“Obviously.”

Stacey rolled her eyes and said, “Who cares about my cousin?”

“I care. We still have to work with him, and Treviboy is awful.”

“Is he? Well, you can’t blame me for that. It’s not like I’m there to reign him in.” She laughed it off as her gaze landed on me. “Lilly? Lilly Fares? It’s been years.”

She pulled me into a hug as well, and unlike Mia, I didn’t fight it. What was the point? But as I stiffened in her arms, Mia latched onto Stacey’s shoulders and yanked her away.

“You don’t get to hug her until you apologize–”

Stacey struggled against Mia, their feet tangled, and then they were falling. On top of me.

My grunt was muffled by the sound of us barreling into the stack of chairs, and they came tumbling down, landing on the three of us. Searing pain shot through my head, down my back and rang against my right knee. All I could hear were Mia’s and Stacey’s groans, my own whimpers of pain, and the chorus of noises our colleagues made as they started digging at the pile of upended chairs.

“I can’t leave the room for five minutes without something like this happening?” A dark, deep, velvety voice. I knew that voice.

Nerves swam and spiraled. It was him. He was here. And he was about to see me like this.

“Sorry, sir. We had no idea–”

“Just get down here and pick up a chair.” That same voice was grunting, and it sent me back to a place filled with pastries, coffee beans and paintings.

I braced myself by sucking down the pain as I fiddled with my freshly trimmed, washed and styled hair, before wincing down at my bare knee. My sundress wasn’t going to be long enough to cover the unsightly bruise I’d no doubt have after this.

I probably looked terrible; disheveled and hunched from my battle with the stacked chairs. And did I have a bump on my head? As the last chair lifted from my line of sight, I touched the top of my sore scalp. It felt more… indented than anything else? Great, now I had a misshapen skull. Add that to my list of repellent traits.

I wanted to groan, shut my eyes and lean my head against the brick wall, but fought the urge. It shouldn’t matter that this was the version of me he’d see after all these years, but it did.