Page 16 of Mistakes Were Made

When Acacia’s mom had said, “You here all by yourself?” Cassie had crossed her arms and said, “So?”

But when Mama Webb—of course this was before Cassie knew her as Mama Webb—had offered Cassie a sandwich out of their picnic basket, she hadn’t said no. The Webb family had been a fixture in Cassie’s life ever since. Acacia, obviously, but Mama Webb and Mr. Ben and Emerson, too.

That was what Emerson was: a fixture. Like furniture that came with her dorm apartment. Always there. Cassie had never thought of him in any sort of romantic way, and she didn’t the night of the a cappella concert, either. It was just that she got good and plastered. That was why they ended up making out half the night. That and maybe the fact that she’d wanted to forget about Erin.

She expected Acacia to be pissed, maybe, but instead Kaysh spent Cassie’s entire hangover teasing her about it, which Cassie supposed was a slightly better outcome than her being angry. And making out with Emerson had been amuchbetter way to spend the night than thinking about Erin.

Without distractions like Emerson, though, she ended up thinking about Erin kind of a lot. Not all the time, but enough that it bothered her.

It started with—well, Cassie had had a rough start to her week and she was looking for a little stress relief. It only made sense that she thought of her most recent super-hot experience to help her get off. That was what she meant to do, anyway, think of the experience, not of Erin specifically, but it all got a little muddled in her brain.

Then in her bio class, she wondered what kind of doctor Erin was. She thought through any conversations with Parker about her parents, but she didn’t talk about them much. Cassie only knew Erin was a doctor and Adam was an engineer, and they both had spent a lot of Parker’s childhood working. She wondered if that meant Erin was a surgeon, long hours and holidays on call.

When the professor released the class, Cassie realized she’d been zoning out thinking about Erin for almost ten minutes. Shit.

The next weekend came, and she found a party giving away free jungle juice. She went alone, without Acacia or Parker or anyone, and she didn’t plan on getting wild. But free jungle juice was free jungle juice.

She ended up dancing withGwen,of all people. Gwen might not have hated Cassie, but they weren’t anything like friends. Back when Cassie was a sophomore, her ambition may have gotten the best of her in a game of capture the flag, and theremayhave been an explosion as Gwen and her friend neared Cassie’s team’s flag. It had been more smoke and loud noises than anything that would’ve hurt anyone, but it certainly hadn’t endeared Cassie to her then-RA. Yet here they were, at the same party even though Gwen had started at the grad school this fall—getting her master’s in social work, Cassie was pretty sure. Here they were, dancing together, Cassie’s hands wandering a little too much.

When Gwen took Cassie’s hand off her ass and led her outside, Cassie thought she was getting lucky. She did not expect Gwen to dodge her attempt at a kiss.

“Gimme your phone,” Gwen said.

Cassie unlocked it and handed it over, not sure why she wanted it but still hoping they were going to make out.

“Which of your friends has a car and is most likely to be sober on a Friday night?”

“Parker,” Cassie answered without a thought. She was working on a painting due Monday.

Gwen scrolled through Cassie’s contacts. Before Cassie could get her shit together enough to figure out what was happening, Gwen was giving Parker the address to the party and telling her she’d wait outside with Cassie until she arrived.

“What the fuck?” Cassie snapped when Gwen handed back her phone.

Gwen’s gaze was flat, unimpressed. “You obviously need someone to take care of you, and it’s not going to be me.”

Cassie sputtered. She didn’t need anyone to take care of her, hadn’t for a long time. She just wanted to hook up with someone. It didn’t even have to be Gwen; she was just pretty and older and seemed to have her shit together. Cassie refused to think too hard about why she was attracted to that sort of thing right now.

“Fuck you,” she said, turning to go back inside and find someone else to make her night interesting.

Gwen put herself between Cassie and the house.

“Your friend is coming to pick you up.”

Cassie practically growled. “Get out of my way.”

“No.”

Cassie didn’t bother trying to maneuver around her. She considered walking away—heading toward campus on her own—but she was drunk and the idea of Parker chasing her down, catching her on the side of the road, was a lot more humiliating than waiting for her.

Parker thought it was funny and teased her the whole way to campus. At least that saved Cassie from having an obnoxiously sincere heart-to-heart about why she was getting drunk and hitting on older girls. She really didn’t want to talk about it.

Except she must have, because the first weekend in November she talked Acacia into a nostalgic movie night where they watchedHow to Train Your Dragon,just the two of them. Right before the battle against the Red Death, Cassie paused the movie.

“I have to tell you something.”

Acacia picked the last of the popcorn from the bowl in her lap. “Shoot.”

Cassie sighed. “Kaysh. It’s like. A thing.”

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