AllFreeNovel
Share Us
It had mainly been friends I’d fought with. Damn, if I’d accidentally killed a friend—
I suddenly realized my question had the same awkwardly quiet response Bailey’s initial foray into this conversation had brought. I glanced around, wondering why that was such a bad question until Paige cleared her throat and quietly admitted, “It was my brother.”
Oh…shit. Logan had killed Paige’s brother…and now they were dating. I bet that was quite a story.
My mouth opened, and I could feel the foot being inserted.
“I-I’m so sorry,” I fumbled out, but that felt like the lamest apology a person could give at a time like this.
I glanced at Bailey, seeking help out of this. But she only waved a hand, unconcerned. “Don’t worry about it. I spread more awkwardness than this around the table on a nightly basis.”
“She really does,” Jonah agreed dryly.
Bailey scowled at him. “Suck it, asshole. You’re just jealous.”
When he chuckled in return and flipped her off, I figured those two probably swapped insults regularly. Tess, stuck in the middle of them—both literally and figuratively since she was the best friend of Bailey and girlfriend of Jonah and they were currently sitting on either side of her—didn’t seem concerned by their bickering at all, which supported my theory.
I watched the redhead for a second. She seemed so quiet and shy, it was hard to imagine her as Bailey’s best friend. They were like polar opposites.
She must’ve felt my gaze on her, though, because she glanced over, only for her eyes to widen and her face to brighten with embarrassment before she quickly darted her face downward again.
I blinked. Huh. I didn’t think Bailey’s best friend liked me. And I didn’t like that. Jana’s friends had always adored me—
And where had that thought come from? I wasn’t dating Bailey. Why did I feel the need to make her friend like me?
Like a wakeup call, that thought kept me quiet throughout the rest of the meal. I didn’t need to try to fit in with these people. I was just here temporarily, and then I’d move on. I’d already learned the hard way that putting any kind of trust or expectations in others—ahem, thanks a fucking lot, Max—was a bad idea. So I decided not to let myself get too close to Bailey’s people.
When I finished eating, however, I offered to clean the dishes, still hoping to catch some favor with the redhead. I just couldn’t help it. It was as sickness. I must be one of those needy, approval-seeking dorks and just hadn’t realized it until now. But Tess didn’t seem to catch my efforts. She trucked it out of there with her boyfriend and the other couple.
Bailey, however, lingered behind. When I stood to pick up a handful of dirty dishes, she did the same.
“Hey, you don’t have to help,” I scolded lightly. “You cooked, so you should be excused from cleaning duty.”
She laughed. “Yeah, I really cooked. Besides, I don’t mind.”
Since I liked her company, I stopped protesting.
We gathered and loaded the dishwasher together, standing on either side of it to file in plates and cups. At one point when she leaned down to slot some silverware into the holder, a curly lock of her hair slid down into her eye. She brushed it away without even seeming to notice, but I couldn’t take my attention off that lock as it tangled around a mass of other curls over her ear.
“What colors have you dyed your hair?” I asked without thinking.
She glanced up. “What?”
I shrugged and cleared my throat, backing up a step to appear more casual and less interested. I waved my hand toward her head. “You said earlier you dyed your hair when the going got tough.”
“Oh.” She went back to work loading dishes. “Well, you saw the rainbow.”
“I did.” I nodded.
“And before that, it was another mix of colors like brown, blond and red, regular hair colors but a bunch of different thin strips of them. Then once, it was pitch black with a streak of red. I tried to make it completely red like Tess’s once but that didn’t work. And I was a brunette once.”
“What’s the original color?”
She glanced at me and winked. “Oh, I’d have to kill you if I told you that.”
I sniffed out an amused smile, but another part of me stirred because I knew another way I could find out her true hair color.
But that was wrong to think, and I was going to stop thinking it.
