Broken and Screwed 2 (BS #2)

“Chandra? What the hell?”


She jerked a shoulder up. Her gaze never lifted. “The girl talked back to her. You know how Tiffany is.”

Kara groaned, tipping her head back. She was hugging her clipboard to her chest. “This is great. Just great!”

CHAPTER THREE

The floor meeting was held in Kara’s room. Since there were thirty girls, half of us were in the hallway as she went over the rules. Grant West was still privately funded so there were rules, lots of them. Handouts were made and after the sixth question, I slid down to the floor and rested my head against the wall.

We’d be there for a while. My only excitement was a text from Jesse, but then it wasn’t. He couldn’t get away from wherever he was. I asked him where he was, but the response was vague.

Family thing.

A girl sat beside me, except she tucked her head and rested her forehead to her knees. It wasn’t long before the snoring sounded. I wished I could’ve done that, hadn’t slept a full night in a long time. But right when my eyelids started to droop, Kara called for the last question, which she gave a short answer and then proclaimed, “All right, everyone. We’re a little behind schedule. I wanted to take you to the cafeteria and show you how to get your card registered, but since it’s after seven and the cafeteria is closed, I think a better alternative is pizza! Everyone up for that?”

A collective cheer went through the group.

Not me. Pizza was good, but I didn’t want to spend any more time with people.

“You think we can ditch?” The girl beside me had woken.

I was tempted to go with her, wherever she wanted.

As we stood and the girls emptied from Kara’s room, the resident advisor pulled her door shut and locked it. As she did, surprise came over her again. “Beth, I had no idea you were on my floor.”

She wasn’t looking at me. I turned my head.

“Hi, Kara.” Ditching Girl gave her half-hearted waved. As her arm lifted, the leather bracelets around her wrist slid down. They didn’t go far. Her entire arm was covered with them. They had an inch until her elbow stopped them. As her wrist was bared, I saw a small tattoo of interloping circles.

“That’s wonderful.” Kara’s delight doubled when she saw me next to her. “You two should be friends.”

“Huh?” Beth glanced at me. “Why?”

“Um. Just…” She bit her lip. “Just cause. I think it’d be really great. Is Hannah coming over tonight? You could invite her to pizza?”

Whoa. The turn of events had me dizzy. Who was Hannah and why was she pushing this friendship? Though, I had to admit, this girl was the first in a while that I hadn’t minded sitting beside. That didn’t mean I wanted to be friends with her.

Still. I was curious. “Who’s Hannah?”

“No one.” Beth threw me a scowl.

Kara jumped next to her side, but realized all the girls were still waiting in the hallway. She motioned towards the doors. “Go ahead, girls. The pizza will be here shortly. I reserved the downstairs lobby until ten tonight anyway.”

A few grumbled as they headed down. I stayed behind. Something was going on and I knew it had to do with me and Hell Bitch from before.

Kara turned back, biting her lip, and wringing her hands together. The clipboard had been left behind in the room. She seemed to be eyeing me up and down, measuring for something, but she switched to Beth. “Call Hannah. Be friends with this girl.”

Then she flounced away, hurrying after the rest.

I shifted back to my heel and reassessed this girl. Dressed in baggy jeans, a black T-shirt with a rock band on the front, and she had a lip ring—make that an eyebrow ring as well, she didn’t seem like any sort of help against Hell Bitch.

“Who is this Hannah and why does she want our friendship so bad?”

Beth shrugged as she bent to grab a backpack. Glass clinked together inside, but she put her arm through one of the straps and slung it over, uncaring about whatever was fragile inside. She flipped her straight brown hair over her shoulder. As she did, I caught another small tattoo of a hummingbird behind her ear. “No idea. And Hannah would not come to something like this.”

“Still.” There had to be a reason. “Who is Hannah to you?”

“She’s my cousin.” She grew suspicious. “Why?”

“Because when someone throws a girl at me and commands our friendship, I want to know why,” I snapped.

“Oh.” The suspicion melted away. “That makes sense. I’d want to know too.”

“You’re not curious why she said that?”

Checking her pockets, she started towards the stairs. I fell in step beside her and heard her say, “When it comes to Kara and her friends, I don’t really give a damn. They’re too loony and pretentious for my liking.”

“Wait.” My arm caught hers. I hauled her to a stop on top of the stairs. “You said Kara and her friends?”