“We’re coming,” TJ said and I couldn’t tell if he sounded apathetic or angry. I’m sure he couldn’t be happy at the fact that Barbie was now flirting with Cody as well. Unless they shared her. Ugh, I felt sick even thinking about that. Was Sally right? Did Cody and TJ really share women? That was just gross!
“Cody, go and get Sally,” TJ said and I saw my brother look over at him, sigh slightly and then head out to the lake to get Sally. I frowned slightly as I watched my brother just walking away. I heard Troy let out a deep sigh of relief as Cody walked away and he turned to me and whispered, “What’s the plan for tonight?”
“What?” I asked, my voice louder than I would have hoped.
“Who are you?” Barbie turned to Troy, looking pleasantly surprised to see another good-looking man in the mix. Maybe she was hoping for a foursome? Ho! I immediately felt guilty about my thoughts and tried to tell myself that she was a perfectly nice girl and that I was just jealous because she had arrived with TJ. Though I knew that what I was feeling stemmed from more than just jealousy. And while I didn’t like women to call other women hoes because I felt the term was offensive, I just couldn’t stop myself from thinking that about her.
“Hi, I’m Troy. Who are you?” Troy said, his eyes widening in that way that guy’s eyes always did when they saw a completely hot chick and got super excited as if they thought they had a chance with her. I glared at him for being so eager and I knew it was irrational to feel so pissed because I didn’t know him or really care to.
“Barbie.”
“Perfect name for someone like you.”
“Oh?” she asked, looking up at him with a questioning look. I started grinning as I thought that perhaps Troy was on my side. Maybe he could see Barbie for what she really was, even if TJ and Cody were both blinded to her true self.
“You’re as gorgeous as a doll,” he said, practically salivating as he spoke. “And what doll is prettier than Barbie?”
“True.” She giggled and pushed her breasts out. “I think I’m going to like you, Troy.” She grabbed his arm. “Come inside with me and let me get you a drink.”
“Okay,” he said eagerly and then paused and looked at me. “Is that okay? We can talk about tonight later.”
“Uh huh,” I said, feeling pissed. Even my fake boyfriend was leaving me for Barbie. I looked over at TJ to see if he was laughing at me, but his eyes were focused on Barbie, and he looked annoyed. And that hurt me even more. At least he could have given me a look of compassion. Here I was, standing like some loser, while my ‘boyfriend’ left me alone.
“See you in a second, my love,” Troy cried back at me as he walked into the house, his mind obviously off of me.
“So, I guess Troy is real.” TJ walked closer to me and his eyes searched mine. “I owe you an apology.”
“Yeah, you do,” I said and I felt proud of myself for not technically lying. I didn’t confirm that Troy was real, and TJ owed me an apology for many different things, so me saying he owed me an apology wasn’t really lying.
“So you find him attractive?” TJ’s eyes narrowed.
“What do you think?” I shook my head at him. “That’s a stupid question.”
“Why is it stupid?” He looked at me with a raised eyebrow.
“Why would I date someone I wasn’t attracted to?” I bit down on my lower lip. Okay, I was definitely furthering the lie now. There was no technical glitch getting me out of this lie. I was basically confirming that Troy and I were dating. Ugh, I was going to kill Sally.
“Hold on, Cody is calling me,” TJ said as he pulled out his ringing phone. “Hello?” he said as he opened his phone, his eyes not leaving my face. “Okay.” He nodded as he spoke and I watched as his tongue darted out of his mouth to moisten his lips. I looked away from his lips and up to his eyes. “Yeah, I can tell Barbie.” He paused as he waited for Cody to say something else. “Yeah, I’ll keep an eye out.” He winked at me then and laughed slightly. “I’ll talk to Mila.” He nodded at something else that Cody was saying and I wondered what he was agreeing to talk to me about. “Yeah, okay. See you soon,” he said and he hung up. “So, Cody and Sally are going to walk to the store.”
“The store?” I frowned, though I was slightly happy for Sally as she was getting some alone time with him.
“Not in town, the one on the lake,” he said with a smile. “Let’s go inside and tell our better halves.”
“Yeah,” I said weakly and followed him into the house. I watched as he walked to the kitchen and I called out, “I’m going to go to my room. Tell Sally to come and get me when she gets back,” I said as I hurried down the corridor. I didn’t want TJ to convince me to go to the kitchen with him. I knew that only a hot mess could result from me being in the kitchen with just Troy, Barbie and TJ. And I was not ready to lose it. Not yet, anyways. There was plenty of time left in the weekend for that to happen.