I am.
“Did you tell Austin that it wasn’t you?” Rachael asks. She pats Tiffani’s knee as though it will comfort her.
“Of course I told him,” Tiffani murmurs in between even more sobs as she starts tearing up again. “He said he definitely saw Tyler ‘getting it on’ in his car in the fucking parking lot. He automatically assumed it was me, because obviously he’s going to assume that—I’m Tyler’s girlfriend.”
“You shouldn’t be,” Meghan murmurs. “He doesn’t deserve you.”
Tiffani squeezes her eyes shut for a moment before taking a deep breath. “I asked Austin if it was definitely Tyler’s car, and he said he was positive, he’d recognize it anywhere. He said it was definitely his license plate. So of course I asked if he remembers seeing anything about whoever this girl was, but he told me it was only outlines.” A sudden growl erupts in her throat as she hurls her fist into the closest pillow. “Why the hell does Tyler have tinted windows? I thought they were illegal and now I’m starting to understand why. They let the cheaters cheat!”
Oh my God, I think. This is all my fault.
“He told me he was with the guys, but he told his mom that he was with me! He’s a fucking liar!” More fist slams and punches and clawing as she destroys everything within reach. I can’t even begin to imagine how she’d react if she knew it was me. “The entire time he was just hooking up with some whore! I feel so sick. I’m actually going to throw up. Oh God.” She clasps her hands to her stomach and drops her head low.
“You need to just break up with him, Tiffani,” Rachael says, her tone slightly condescending, as though she’s speaking to a small child experiencing their first kindergarten romance.
“But I just can’t!” she wails as her hair falls over her eyes, and off go the tears again. She pulls her comforter up to her face to dry her cheeks off. It doesn’t take long for the material to get soaked straight through. “I need him.”
“Maybe Austin just misinterpreted it?” I try, forcing the words out of my mouth. My throat is completely dry, but I try my hardest nonetheless to keep my voice from cracking or trembling. Act clueless, I tell myself. Act innocent.
“Okay,” Rachael says, straining her neck to give me a disapproving look. “Eden, I know he’s your family and all, but please don’t defend him.”
“I’m not,” I try to object. I feel as small as ever, and the truth is, I’m not defending Tyler. I’m defending myself.
For twenty minutes, we listen to Tiffani rant and vent and curse until she calms down. The entire time, I sit in silence in fear of saying something that’ll give myself away. Rachael suggests different methods of retribution while Meghan offers to go out and get ice cream, but Tiffani says no, because, “If I’m fat, he’ll only want to cheat on me even more.” This comment doesn’t sit well with me. Is she trying to imply that bigger girls aren’t attractive? That guys don’t go for girls that have a bit of body to them? I don’t know. But it still pisses me off.
Eventually she claims that she just wants to sleep, so we take it as our cue to leave. She needs space, and I’m certainly grateful to finally be getting out of there. Rachael offers to give me a ride back home again, saving me from having to walk across the neighborhood barefoot.
“Call us again if anything else happens,” Meghan says as we all hover by the door. Tiffani is still sprawling out across her bed, rolling over every so often. “You have to keep us updated.”
“I will,” she sniffs. “Can I talk to Eden for a second?”
Rachael and Meghan exchange glances with me, and I contemplate begging them not to leave me here alone with her. But before I get the chance to even plead for mercy, Rachael says, “Sure. I’ll wait for you in the car, Eden,” and they both leave.
The room falls into silence as Tiffani buries her face into her comforter. Her words are muffled as she speaks. “What we say in this room stays in this room. Don’t even think about telling Tyler anything we just said.”
“I won’t,” I almost squeak, my eyes drifting out into the hall as I stare longingly at the staircase. “I hope you’re okay.”
“I’m not,” she says. “But, Eden?”
“Yeah?”
Pushing her body up, she crosses her legs and stares across the room at me with her swollen eyes. Somehow she presses her lips together, her jaw clenched, eyebrows furrowed. Something flickers within her blue eyes, something new that I’ve never seen before, an expression so twisted and so sharp that for a moment she frightens me. “I know you weren’t with Meghan last night, because I was.”
Chapter 23