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“Repeat that where Billie can hear it,” I replied. “See how well she takes you dictating who she can and can’t see.”
Morgan looked for a second like he might punch me, his fists clenching up, but then he visibly forced himself to relax. “Stay the fuck away from us,” he spat, and then he stormed out, back through the garage.
A moment later I heard the sound of a car engine revving up and tires pulling away. I sighed. Yeah, Jones was the same and some things were the same as well, and there was comfort in that, but I was still overwhelmingly getting the feeling that all those Christmas songs that would soon start blasting on the radio about being home for the holidays were lies. That you couldn’t really go home again.
10
Billie
I laid on Michelle’s bed with my eyes closed, as Michelle scoured the internet. “This is why you need a proper nine to five job,” she noted.
“Trust me, I’m aware.” Bartending made good money but taking care of drunks was not nearly as fun and I was tired of it. I’d had the same job for all four years of college, serving before I could even legally drink, and I was done with it.
I lazily poked her leg. “Michelle, c’mon. I want to be something sexy. Something daring.”
There was a massive Halloween party coming up and we’d decided to go as a pair, wearing matching costumes. Michelle wanted to go as the two halves of an avocado but I wasn’t into that. I wanted to show myself off and find someone to be with now that Pike was in town. I was seriously in need of distracting.
“Billie, no.” Michelle shook her head. “I want to be something creative, not random slutty cat number five. And I don’t want to, you know… I could never handle a sexy costume, I’d just be a mess the whole time.”
“You need to come out of your shell, hon!” I sat up at last. “Show off what you’ve got! You’re amazing and people need to start seeing that but they won’t notice until you start taking care in your appearance.”
“Unfair.”
“But how life works,” I countered.
“It’s too late to find another costume,” Michelle pointed out. “Halloween is in two days.”
“We can make one, a simple one. Something… not too daring but still a bit fun, what do you say? Please?” I batted my eyes at her.
Michelle rolled her eyes. “If you put me in a skirt where I can’t bend over…”
“No, something that’s—y’know something that’s still fun and cute. Cute-sexy.”
“That’s not even a thing.”
“It totally is, give me that computer.” I yanked her laptop over and started searching. “There’s got to be something that we can make that’ll be easy.”
It took a bit of scrolling and looking things up, but at last we decided we would be Thing One and Thing Two, from Dr. Seuss’s The Cat in the Hat. We could make it easily enough, teasing our hair up and then getting blue hairspray, and wearing red pajamas with Thing 1 and Thing 2 stuck on them from white paper. I could have a red footie pajama set where I wore a push up bra and undid the front buttons a little. It would be great, and easy.
“See?” I told Michelle, setting the laptop aside. “I’m going to run to the bathroom, be right back.”
Michelle rolled her eyes at me, but she seemed comfortable with the idea of the costume and even agreed it would be easier for us to relax and hang out at the Halloween party instead of in the avocado outfit, so I counted it as a definite win.
On the way back from the bathroom, though, I encountered Carter.
Carter was Michelle’s older brother. He’d been flirting with me since I was in high school, and I’d never responded. He was handsome, sure. He had the same blue eyes as Michelle, but his hair was a light brown, while Michelle’s had notes of honey in it. A lot of girls had wanted to date him and he’d had a couple girlfriends that I knew about, but he’d always been after me.
I hadn’t ever really been interested. He just didn’t have… that certain something. I couldn’t even put my finger on it. And no, it wasn’t because, or only because, of Pike. I’d just never felt anything with him.
But you know what? I needed a distraction from Pike. Carter was a good guy, far as I knew. And he was related to Michelle, how bad of a person could he be?
Well, Morgan was an asshole and he was related to me but, whatever. That was different.
I needed a distraction, and I needed Pike to see that I was off-limits and that we weren’t going to keep hooking up. I wasn’t going to be his random side piece or one of the notches on his belt. And Carter was… he was handsome, a good guy, there was nothing wrong with trying to date him and seeing where it could go, if maybe it could become something. And I had to give him props for trying his luck a few times, even if I hadn’t given him the time of day.
