I could barely stomach hypocrisy on a good day. So being force-fed a hefty dose of my own was beyond what I wanted to deal with right then. I threw my hands into the air in exasperation.
“Yes, I decided to play the slut kitten last night and engaged in a round of barely conscious sex. I don’t remember much about it. I don’t think I want to remember anything about it. So let’s just put this all in the I will never drink that much again category and move on,” I said loudly. I blew out a breath and walked passed the pair, heading to my room.
Maysie followed me and stood in the doorway. “It’s okay, you know,” she said as I pulled back the blankets on my bed so I could crawl in and forget last night ever happened.
“What?” I asked with more than a little annoyance.
“That you slept with Garrett. It doesn’t make you a slut. I’m just a little surprised is all. But we can talk about it later. Get some sleep before you grow your talons and claw everyone’s eyes out,” she said good-naturedly and with entirely too much supportive understanding for this time in the morning.
“We will not be talking about this later, Mays. There’s nothing to talk about. So put that thought right out of that head of yours,” I said stubbornly. I kicked off my shoes and got into bed. “Now I’m gonna try to sleep this hangover away before I have to work this evening,” I said pointedly.
And thankfully Maysie left it at that. After she closed the door, I found that no matter how much I tried, I couldn’t get to sleep. I tossed and turned but every time I closed my eyes all I could see was Garrett’s face as I left this morning.
I had the feeling I had made a bigger mess than I realized.
“I’m so excited that we got chosen for this internship! Can you believe it, Riley? Out of all the seniors in the English department, we are the ones that get to work at the Bakersville Times for an entire semester! It’s gonna be epic!” Gracie Cook was practically bouncing in the passenger seat as I drove toward the local newspaper’s downtown office.
Even though I wasn’t as effusive as Gracie when it came to showing my enthusiasm, I could admit I was pretty damn excited. Gracie and I were both English majors with concentrations in journalism. We had been in the same classes for most of our college career.
At one time that had bugged the crap out of me. Gracie and I had only ever pretended to get along. We put on the happy smiles for Maysie’s sake since we were both friends of hers. However, last school year we had formed an uneasy alliance during the Maysie and Jordan Crazypalooza and had inexplicably become friends.
And once again the gods snickered in delight at throwing together the train wreck of all friendships. I seemed to have a lot of those. Gracie was the opposite of me in every way possible. She was perky and full of energy. I was…well…less perky.
But somehow, someway, over the last year, I found that I was less and less irritated by her chipmunk squealing and even found her…gasp…endearing. Sure, she looked like she stepped straight out of some deep south molly sue magazine. The girl spent way too much time on her makeup and lately was becoming entirely too acquainted with the drunk end of a bottle of vodka, but I dug her. She had a sharp edge to her that I could identify with. Even if she did hide it under layers of pastels and lip gloss.
The thing about Gracie is she played the part of the ditzy blonde but in reality she was one of the smartest people I knew. She had an almost photographic memory and I knew for a fact her GPA was almost as impressive as my own. Why she continued to act like the proverbial Scarecrow without a brain was beyond me.