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While I’m sure she grew up to be a nicer person than she was back in high school– well, at least I hope she grew out of rolling her eyes and giggling at other people’s expense and calling people (me) ‘stocky’– she was by his side… and wasn’t that supposed to be my place?
Honestly, her being with him made me want to jump her and pull each and every one of her stupid, fake extension hairs out of her head. I knew I didn’t really have any right to say that because I had no real claim to Duke…. but I just had this unexplainable feeling that him and I were meant to be together. I had tampered down that feeling for so long, but this week, I finally let that stupid hope grow…
Just for it to be squashed on the sticky floor of Bullfrogs.
Because here he was, still finding other people to fill the space that I thought was for me.
“Sure,” Tyler answered beside me.
I turned away from the tables and took a deep breath.
“You okay?” Tyler whispered down to me with wholesome, worried eyes. “Is that a problem? I thought you wanted to play?”
I rolled my eyes disdainfully. Guys were so oblivious sometimes. I wanted to come over to the tables so I could be further away from Daniella and her cronies.
“If you don’t want to play that’s fine–”
“No.” I stubbornly crossed my arms over my chest. “We’re playing, and we’re winning,” I said through gritted teeth. I grabbed Tyler’s hand and turned back toward the beer pong table with a fake smile planted on my face. Duke eyed me curiously, but I completely ignored him.
Once the game got started, it became obvious that we were going to crush them because Daniella sucked so bad. I wasn’t sure if she really threw that pathetically, or she was just trying to be girly and use her feminine wiles to attract Duke by making him feel more confident in his own abilities… Whatever it was, it annoyed the fuck out of me. I wasn’t sure how some girls could allow themselves to suck so badly just so that boys wouldn’t feel threatened. You had to win these types of things– because if a boy was threatened by your athleticism, why would you want him in the first place? And that was definitely not the kind of guy Duke was… he wanted competition; he craved it. He’d be bored with someone like her, and I could tell he was getting annoyed with her fake terribleness. The girl was playing him all wrong, and that made me smirk.
But when she did finally make her ping pong ball land in one of the red solo cups, she practically screeched and jumped up and down happily, making her boobs almost fall out of her shirt. I swear to God, almost every guy’s head turned toward her… And then, she had theaudacityto loop her arms around Duke’s neck and plant a sloppy ass kiss right on his lips.
Red hot fury pumped through my veins and Tyler had to nudge me kind of hard to make me quit glaring.
I set myself up for this though.
I knew Duke was an expert at not choosing me. I fully knew it. Yet I still let that hope that we’d be together. And now this felt like betrayal.
I grinded my teeth together. I needed to rethink this whole thing. Maybe I needed to use my own feminine wiles. I had some, didn’t I?
I turned away from the table where Duke and Daniella were flirtatiously whispering to each other, and I pulled Tyler’s waist closer to me.
I could do this,I pep-talked myself.
I kept my head kinda even with Tyler’s chest and looked up at him with big, doe eyes, and licked my lips.
“So, Tyler,” I began. I put my hand up on his bare chest— he was wearing a baseball jersey that he had neglected to button up. “How was this season for you?”
He cringed and looked away from me uneasily and it felt like a slap to the face. I quickly backed up, feeling embarrassed. Why was it that girls like Daniella could make any guy eat out of the palm of their hand, yet when I tried to interestanyoneit seemed like I got this same reaction.
“Ah… Don’t look like that Claire,” Tyler murmured awkwardly.
“Like what?” I snapped.
“Like I just kicked your puppy,” he whispered calmly. “It’s not that I don’t like you, it’s just that…” His eyes darted around quickly.
“It’s just that what?” I demanded. I peered over at Duke, and they were still freaking flirting.
“You know you don’t like me like that and I don’t like you like that,” he said in a resigned voice.
My brain started turning then. I needed to quickly fix this.
I looked back up at him with a sickly sweet smile. “Well Tyler, fucking act like you like me or I will tell everyone that you pooped your pants during beer league last summer.”
His face dropped. “You wouldn’t.”
“I would.” I cocked my head to the side. “Besides, you called me fugly in middle school. You owe me.”
