AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Nice mouth for a preschool teacher!” Fletch says with mock horror. “You shape young minds!”
“You want her to drop kick you again? Because she totally could,” Perky goads as Fiona takes big mouthfuls of her drink.
“Try me, baby. Try me,” he calls out, face red with a combination of alcohol, mild embarrassment, and joy.
I never had a problem with Fletch in particular, other than the fact that he was one of the crowd of guys who felt entitled to tease anyone with an IQ even one point above average.
That, and pushing Fiona to drop kick him in seventh grade.
“Let’s not stain our tenth reunion with violent rehashings of our pasts,” I strongly suggest.
“No kidding,” Fletch mutters, eyeing me with the fresh gaze of a man shark who has discovered a bleeding seal pup. “How about we talk about your porn career instead?”
Will makes a growling sound in the back of his throat that forces Fletch to look at him and instantly, nonverbally, back off. His body leans away from me, a primally obvious sequence of small muscle shifts I feel rather than see.
“Kick him, Feisty,” Perky growls in her ear. “Kick him hard.”
“Feisty!” Fletch shouts, tipping his head to the sky, hands on hips like a superhero movie villain without the costume. “Haven’t heard that in years. You missed your calling. You’d make a great roller derby player.”
“You know I’m a preschool teacher. Your nephew is in my class.”
“He’s not that far off. Preschool teacher, roller derby,” Perky says under her breath. “Some of those hellions Fiona’s in charge of are brutal little fu–”
“Preschool teacher, huh? Good for you. You’ll be paying off those student loans forever,” says Alisha, who appears double-fisted, two drinks with pineapple in them. She sips one and gives Fiona a nasty look. “I always thought you’d go into something more violent.”
“Like being your Brazilian waxing technician?” Fi says, blinking sweetly.
“What?” Alisha doesn’t get it. Fletch rolls his eyes. A pang of something close to guilt hits me. She really doesn’t get it.
This is when I hate myself the most. When I overthink. My conscience is too large, grossly over-inflated like some people’s egos. But then my brain kicks in and analyzes and I short circuit, turning to alcohol, food, and Dance and Dairy festivals for comfort.
I look at the clock on the wall. Too late for the festival. Damn.
Will finishes his beer in one long series of gulps as Fletch asks, “Heard you’re using your parents’ home for porn production. That pay well? My grandparents have a property up in Rowley and–”
The playful punch Will delivers to his meaty shoulder makes me settle down. They’re kidding. They weren’t before, when Will made him stand down, but they are now. The familiarity between them says they’ve hung out recently. They’re friends who reconnected.
My stomach drops.
Is this just a replay of high school? Five-year reunions are nothing but repeats. But ten? Ten years is long enough to grow and change.
Right?
Fletch’s eyes narrow as he looks at me. “You’re the valedictorian. Mallory.”
“And a porn star,” Alisha gushes, eyes taking me in from toe to head, her gaze entitled, like she has a right to document my failings so publicly. “Was it for the chubby chaser section of some website?”
Even Fletch has the decency to give her a WTF? look.
Will’s arm snakes around my waist again. Fletch notices, one eyebrow arching as he looks at Will for a message. My date gives no quarter. His hand on my hip silently communicates what Will is saying.
Loud and clear.
I’m waiting for him to defend me. To say something to neutralize the sting of Alisha’s words. I didn’t earlier, when she was a gadfly, buzzing her nastiness with me, but now there’s an audience. My “date” is here, listening to her pettiness, her need to shame someone she hasn’t seen in ten years.
This cannot go unchallenged.
That’s how this works, right? The nasty insult has to be countered. If one of us doesn’t shut her down, she wins. Verbal judo works this way. The hierarchy of high school social groups relies on the mortar of put-downs, squeezed in between the bricks that make up the wall that keeps some people out.
