I blinked at her before saying, “No. He annoyed the hell out of me. He was loud and obnoxious and so arrogantly inappropriate, I pretty much wanted to smack him. But then he left, and I found myself sending glances toward the door as if I was looking for him to return or something. It was freaky, so freaky that I went ahead and asked Brandt out because, I don’t know...nothing was freaky or scarily intense with Brandt. But then that bombed, and I have to say, I wasn’t really that disappointed. I was just sad, sad because he’d finally settled with his soul mate, and you’d started seeing Theo.”
I pointed to Tyla before glancing at Sasha. “And you’ve always had Chad. I just felt so alone. The only time I ever felt truly alive was when Colton stopped by to see Brandt at the bar. I think he got a kick out of pissing me off because the more I reacted the more he flirted. After a while, I realized I was getting a kick out of his visits too. We had this bizarre game of him pursuing me relentlessly while I told him to fuck off. But nothing ever came of it. Not until the night of Brandt’s wedding.”
Tyla gasped and waved her hands excitedly. “What, girl, what? You’ve been holding out on us. I knew it! What happened at that wedding? This is going to be juicy, isn’t it? Ooh, this better be fucking juicy as hell.”
Oh, it was juicy all right.
“I was extra depressed,” I admitted. “And bitter because I felt so alone. I was reflecting on how things could’ve ended up if Brandt and I had actually worked out when the best man sat down at my table.”
“Colton was the best man?” Sasha guessed, grinning wide. “Mmm, are you telling us you made it with the best man at your crush’s wedding, and he also happened to be the groom’s brother? Holy shit, you naughty woman. I am so impressed.”
When she hugged me, I burst out laughing. “It felt really, really wrong. We were this close to having sex.” I put a centimeter of space between my thumb and index finger. “And I mean this close. But then I blurted out something about loving Brandt, and he took off and—”
“You did what?” Tyla exploded. “Why would you do that?”
“I don’t know!” I wailed. “I was drunk and still moody and depressed from not having anyone. I think I’d been trying to convince myself all day that I still liked him. So when I hooked up with Colton, it just came out. It felt like he was pissed at me forever over that, too.”
I continued to tell them about everything that had happened since then.
Meanwhile, Tyla found the stash of candy Colton had bought me the night before—dear Jesus, had that only been the night before?—and the three of us tore into it while I spilled everything, and I mean everything.
When I got to the part about the bitchy gossipy girls at the restaurant, the drunk asshole who’d harassed us, and the condescending paramedic, Tyla clutched her face in her hands and moaned, “Then you came home to Theo and his big, stupid fat mouth. JuJu, I am so sorry. Will you please forgive me?”
I shook my head. “There’s nothing to forgive. You weren’t the one who said anything.”
“I know, but…he’s my boyfriend. My responsibility. I should’ve…I…” Her eyes filled with tears. “I don’t think he and I are going to make it.”
“What?” Sasha screeched. She seemed more startled to hear this than I did.
“He always flirts with other girls,” Tyla said. “Like right in front of me, usually when I’m trying to tell him about my day. He never pays attention when I talk to him, and some of the cracks he’s said about my friends or things I like are really starting to bother me.”
“What’s he said about me?” Sasha had to know.
Tyla seemed to wilt under our gazes. “You don’t even want to know.”
Sasha’s mouth dropped open with a gasp. A second later, she said, “Okay, you can dump his worthless ass.”
Tyla laughed, only to sob out a hiccup and wipe her wet face. “I just don’t know if I can. I’m afraid to be alone.” Her gaze shifted to me. “You were so brave when you dropped Shaun flat after he slapped you. You weren’t afraid to be alone, or stand up to him, or…any of that. And I just know I never would’ve been able to do that. I would’ve given him another chance and another and another. I’m just…I’m not that strong.”
“This is so insane,” Sasha uttered, shaking her head. “I thought you and Theo were happy together.”
“Well, I had to make you think that. You and Chad are the perfect couple. It’s sickening. And I wanted to be like that.”
“Oh my God.” Sasha snorted out a laugh. “And here, I’d been depressed because it felt as if he and I were the boring old practically married couple that never did anything new.”
“Hey, you guys skipped class and had sex all afternoon last week,” I offered helpfully. “That’s not so boring.”
Sasha and Tyla burst out laughing until tears ran down their cheeks.
“We need to do this more often,” Tyla announced as she popped a Starburst into her mouth. “This is nice.”
“I know,” Sasha said, reaching out to squeeze both our thighs. “I miss just talking to you guys.”
Feeling a little too chatty, I blurted, “I sometimes don’t feel like I can talk to you because you two are, you know, so close, and I know I’m the pathetic third wheel.”