Chapter 11

I stumbled back to my house in a daze. I didn’t want to talk to my parents, I didn’t want to eat food, and I didn’t want to pretend like I had a life anymore. Even if Mom said something when I walked inside, I didn’t hear it. I would have ran up to my room, but I didn’t have the energy, so instead, I walked like a zombie up the stairs, closed the door to my room behind me, texted my mom that I had a rough day and would like to be left alone, then shut off my phone, throwing it in the corner. Shortly after, my head hit the pillow, and I started to cry all over again.

Even though I was in bed way before anyone else, I probably didn’t go to sleep until way after both of my parents. I couldn’t have slept even if I wanted to. I just lay awake, staring at the ceiling, thinking about everything and nothing.

Same time, same place? I need to talk.

I sent the text before I even realized I had the thought. On some level, Megan was the last person I wanted to talk to, but on another, deeper level, it just felt right.

Within minutes, she replied with a confirmation, and I got up and started walking right then and there. I was a zombie anyway. It was like some kind of disaster. It felt like my life was over. Maybe intellectually I knew there were other things in my life, but emotionally, it felt like there was nothing. Nicole was my life. Now that Nicole was gone, she had taken my life with her.

Luckily, it was a weirdly warm night, especially for the awfully cold winter we got, so I was able to go with a slightly lighter jacket and thin gloves. I got there a good chunk before midnight, and was surprised to see Megan already there. As soon as I saw her, I stopped in my tracks.

“You’re here early,” I nearly croaked, clearing my throat afterwards.

“So are you,” she said in an indifferent-yet-happy voice. “Good to see you.”

“Yeah,” I mumbled. “You too.”

“You look, uh...” She fidgeted with herself. “ ... Troubled. Did something...?”

“Yeah,” I chuckled sadly, nodding and starting to walk into the woods. “You can probably guess what happened.”

“I’m not going to presume, but I’m listening.”

“Nicole, uh ... we’re not ... I mean ... Broke up. We broke up.” I held back tears as I spoke, which got difficult as I pushed the truth out. By the end, I was standing there, in the woods, with my eyes squeezed shut and my fists clenched.

I felt a hand coax one of my fists open, and a hand slipped inside. “Adam, I’m so sorry,” Megan replied, her voice full of concern and sympathy. “I know she means the world to you.”

The tears started coming. Finally, the tears were there. After so long, shock holding them back, I was crying, and Megan was there to hold my hand through it all. I squeezed her hand in sympathy as I cried, just standing there like another tree in the woods.

Eventually, I stopped crying and was able to open my eyes again. I didn’t really want to look directly at Megan – it felt weird crying in front of someone else, especially when poor Megan didn’t even do anything. So instead, I just walked, with Megan following me. We didn’t say anything for a bit.

“I’m really sorry,” she eventually repeated. “Did you want me to ask how it happened, or...? I’m really sorry, I’m so bad at these kinds of things.”

“No no, it’s fine,” I soothed her, exhaling. I paced around for a bit, and leaned against a tree, folding my arms. “So, first of all, she knew about me and Athena.”

Megan scrunched up her face. “Oh no,” she said sympathetically, then let my words hang in the air. “Well ... not to be a jerk or anything, but...”

“Yup, whatever you’re about to say, I agree,” I said with a sigh. I’d had enough time to process it. “I was a douche. This is what happens to douches.”

“Well, I wasn’t going to word it as strongly as that,” Megan said to the forest floor, then looked back up at me. “But that kind of thing is ... wait, did she explicitly say-”

“Couldn’t have been clearer. ‘Starting now, we are monogamous’ or something like that.”

Megan’s eyebrows shot up in slight disbelief. “And you still went for Athena at the party? Kinda bold, Adam.”

“No no, she said that after the party. After I got home. So I met up with Athena to let her down easy and-”

“Adam’d up the situation?” Megan asked with a slight smile.

“Oh come on, I’m not that bad,” I said, with a sour tone at first. Eventually, I had to smile.

“You are a horndog, Adam,” Megan replied with a giggle. The humorous tone faded fast. “But yeah, I get it. You start something,, it’s hard to stop. Believe me, I get it.”

“Yeah, but you’re stronger than me. You quit cold turkey. You just stopped – I mean, is it a sore spot to bring her up, or...?”

She waved it off, indicating it was fine.

“Yeah, you just stopped even talking to Zelda. Y-”

“It helped that we were in the closet and got found,” she scoffed, cutting me off. “I mean, try having intercourse with Athena ever again. I bet you’re going to realize that you’d rather throw up.”

I digested her words silently. The more I thought about it, the more right she seemed. I wouldn’t be able to have sex with Athena again without thinking about how not being able to resist her cost me my relationship ... Except...

I shook my head. “It wasn’t Athena,” I said in a low voice. “It was just me being me. I was being a douche. Like, not just during the whole Athena thing, but, like, the whole time.” I glanced around me. “I think I kinda felt ... invincible. Girls found me hot, I was the VP, people loved me, I could do anything. So I ... did anything.”

“You were already disrespecting Nicole,” Megan inferred with a non-judgmental tone.

“Yeah, I was.” I banged my hand against the tree. It actually really fucking hurt. Gingerly rubbing my hand, I continued. “I kept fucking around on school property even though she told me not to, and I kept ignoring what she told me to say, but ... can I be a hundred percent honest here?”

She shrugged, coaxing me.

“It’s always about whether I listened to her,” I continued, beginning to pace again. “Like, I loved Nicole – love her, but man, that relationship was one-sided. She always got to set the rules. I had to follow them. Like, sure, I was being douchey, but why did it have to be like that? And I know I could have just not followed them, but Nicole ... she made it like...”

Megan cleared her throat. “You had to play by her rules or not at all?”

“Exactly!!” I replied with enthusiasm, pointing at her. “Like, why couldn’t we just have a relationship? Why did it have to be that I’d need to be okay with her sleeping around or we just weren’t a couple? Why did she get to say, ‘do this’ or ‘do that’ and when I finally got to have some kind of control, suddenly it was all about her again?”

Megan looked around, crossing her arms. “To be honest, I don’t know about that.”

“Huh?”

“Well, Nicole was just letting you know what relationships with her are like. When you say, ‘why did I have to be okay with her sleeping around or we weren’t a couple,’ first of all, that just sounds like you wanted to change who she was. Second of all, she did stop sleeping with othe-”

“Yeah, but on her terms,” I replied emphatically. “She got to tell me to do something or not do it, but I never got to tell her to stop doing things because she would just say ‘that’s me in a relationship. Take it or leave it.’”

“Couldn’t you have said that same thing? Take it or leave it?” Megan argued.

“Yeah, but she would have left me in a heartbeat if I did,” I argued back.

Megan just stared at me, and I digested what I said. I stared back, eventually looking away. “I’m allowed to be upset at her double standard,” I said weakly.

“I’m not arguing that,” Megan replied soothingly. I felt her hands rub my back supportively. “But do you want me to lie?”

I scoffed. “No,” I admitted. “Your hands feel really good. Keep doing that.”

Megan laughed. “That’s all my hands are going to be doing tonight, horndog,” she joked.

I looked back to grin at her. “Shut up, I know,” I laughed back. Megan kept rubbing my back supportively as I sighed. “I didn’t even want her to change. Or, like, yeah, of course I’d selfishly prefer it or whatever, but I wouldn’t have asked her to do that. But I would have liked it if there was give and take in the relationship. Nicole runs relationships like she runs Council.”

“And how’s that?” Megan asked.

“You ought to know,” I replied slyly. “You politely told her to just call you Megan and she stopped Council and made a song and dance about it.”

I felt Megan’s hands stop. Even then, I didn’t look back at her. Eventually, the hands started up again. “Okay. I see what you mean,” Megan’s now-dry voice told me.

“Yeah, so imagine that, every day. Every date, every time you have sex, every time you even talk. You behave a certain way for Nicole, or Nicole breaks up with you. If you don’t like how Nicole asks, too bad, maybe you should break up with her. Maybe you can roll the dice by talking to her about it, but odds are, she’ll just suggest breaking up. She calls herself free-spirited or independent or whatever, but honestly, that’s just code-talk for people who are so used to getting everything their way that they view even compromising as a fucking personal attack.”

Megan’s hands stopped again. “I have an opinion,” she began. “But you’re not going to like it.”

“Hit me with it,” I sighed.

“I don’t think you and Nicole would have lasted long anyway. I get you’re attracted to her, bu-”

“Attracted? I love h-”

“Let me speak,” Megan cut in. “I get you’re attracted to her, but you two aren’t a good match. Definitely not right now. Look at how you’re talking about her.”

“We just broke up. Everyone talks shit about their ex after they break up. I bet she’s doing the same thing to Sydney or whoever about me right now.”

“All the more reason you’re a bad match right now,” Megan continued. “What do you want me to say? If you’re looking for some magic words to say to Nicole, I don’t have them. I can only go off of what I see, and you’re clearly feeling like you’re not having enough say in your relationship. Like, if you want sympathy, I’ll even tell you this: I get why you cheated.”

“It’s wild you’re saying that to me,” I replied, feeling my mood drop again. “Y’know, since I-”

“I’m over it, Adam. Why aren’t you?!” she asked, raising her voice for the first time since we got to the woods.

I turned around to face her, with her dropping her hands from my back. I eventually nodded in understanding. “I’m sorry,” I admitted.

“It was a genuine question,” Megan persisted. “Do you want me to yell at you or something? I’ve said I’m over it, but that doesn’t seem to be enough.”

I stared at her for a bit. “I guess, if you’re making me say something – and keep in mind this is just me thinking about it now, so my words might not be great – it feels weird that you can understand why I cheated on Nicole, if that’s even the reason why, but she tore me a new asshole for it, and I basically was just weak when I cheated on you, and you barely got upset at me.”

“I barely got upset at you to your face,” Megan corrected me with a humorous tone. “Well, can’t we just let it be? It actually upsets me more when you bring it up at this point.”

“Okay. I’ll do my best not to bring it up.” I grabbed one of her hands and started to play with it. “I’m surprised you’re this okay with the stuff I’ve done.”

“Forgive the sinner, not the sin,” she said with a shrug. “Whatever. People cheat on other people all the time. There’s a lot of stuff I’ve heard about since coming to Council. If Nicole gets hurt because she’s over-controlling and you act out, maybe that’ll show her what being over-controlling does.”

I cocked my head in interest. “So there’s your angle,” I observed.

“Shut up,” she laughed, and we started to walk, with me letting go of her hand. “I dunno. If I’m speaking a hundred percent freely-” She glanced at me, then back forward. “-then this is just a win-win. You’re right, you were acting like a jerk, and you got a huge wake-up call. Plus you’re out of a relationship which was clearly causing you a lot of trouble. Yeah, it might hurt because you’re still attracted to Nicole, but Adam, there’s a whole world out there. Even without romance, a whole world. If you think you were being a jerk, and you wanted to pick up the pieces and become Adam again, you know what I would do first?” She paused for effect as we walked. “I’d start by thinking long and hard about what ‘being a good person’ is and try to change to be that person. Heck, I bet if Nicole would ever take you back, she’d only do it if you mastered that. So whether you want to move on or get Nicole back, for both of those, becoming a better person again is your first step.”

I was genuinely impressed. “Wow, Megan,” I mumbled out loud, and said nothing more. I took a few steps before remembering something. “You said this was a win-win.”

“Yes, okay, I didn’t like how Nicole was acting either. I just don’t want to lead with that because, no offense, I don’t want to make you think you can just pin this on her controlling behavior.”

“I won’t think that. I promise,” I told her sincerely. The two of us reached that rock that overlooks the town, and just stared into the distance.

“Then yeah, Nicole likes to live exactly how she wants to live. She thinks she’s immune to consequences, and it’s getting annoying. I want her to feel like she can’t just boss people around. I want people to enable her less, and push back more. And I don’t want her to feel like she can make this ‘my way or the highway’ style of hers apply to everything.”

“So that’s why you told her to stop with the nicknames,” I clued in.

“Kind of. I also just don’t get why she does that. It seems like she wants to control me, or like, keep me as a pet. But I’m not a pet. I’m ... I want to say I’m her equal, but I know she’ll never accept that. Especially since she gets to be the President, so she gets to decide what tasks I do, and she gets to decide if I did a good or bad job, and she gets to decide if I’ve been a disappointment or not. When she thinks I can do better, it’s like she stops seeing me as her equal. Or even ... like we were never equals at all, and this just brought it to light. She clearly thinks of herself as way better than anyone else.”

She definitely had more thoughts on Nicole than she initially let on. I let her words linger for a bit, before chewing on the side of my tongue for a bit. “I mean, Nicole also clearly doesn’t like herself...”

“Self-loathing is still self-obsession,” Megan replied, her tone visibly changed. She riled herself up with that speech. “She’s still just always thinking of herself.”

“Well ... I mean, yeah, to a small extent I guess, but I mean ... she’s cutting, Megan.”

“That’s just another way she thinks she’s immune to consequences.”

“Woah,” I said disapprovingly, tearing myself away from the cityscape to look at Megan.

She just shrugged, her eyelids and eyebrows lowered, clearly ticked off. “Judge me. I don’t care. She gets caught up in her own emotions, and it means she gets all of her friends to fawn over her. You drop everything for her. I bet when she’s at her worst she tells you to do things and she threatens to cut herself if you don’t do it.”

I stared at her silently, my breathing becoming louder through my nostrils.

“Thought so,” she lazily added. “So she tries killing herself, and if she doesn’t succeed, she gets attention and leverage. And even if she does, she just leaves a huge hole in other peoples’ lives. She leaves a mess. Her parents will have to clean it up, you will have to clean it up ... We all have problems. I’m trying to deal with mine. Is she trying to deal with hers?”

“Maybe she is,” I replied in a low, angry voice. “Maybe there’s more happening behind the scenes.”

“Oh, I bet there is,” Megan replied genuinely, unfazed by my shifting tone. “In fact, I know there is. But it doesn’t change the fact that she’s doing everything in the most selfish way possible. Why wouldn’t that also be the case for her cutting?”

I breathed heavily. This wasn’t fair. I couldn’t articulate it, but Megan wasn’t being fair somehow. This was over the line.

“I’m sorry, I’m not trying to upset you,” Megan continued, reading my mind. “I get that’s a hot take. And it’s not great to hear it. I’ll stop talking about it.”

“I appreciate it,” I replied back simply, my low voice not leaving.

“Are you mad at me?” she asked, turning again to face me.

I paused. “I’m mad, but just at what you said, I think,” I slowly said, processing my own emotions. “This has been a fuckton of a day.”

“Yeah,” she agreed, looking at her watch. “We should probably go home soon. We still have school tomorrow.” She started to walk back, and I followed. “If you need anything, you have me. And Carson, and ... well, yeah. Us.”

I laughed. “Yeah, can’t imagine Jason or Athena really sticking with the group now,” I admitted. “Thanks, Megan. I really appreciate the support.”

She smiled. “It’s what friends are for.”

Megan may have changed, but she was still a really important friend. With Nicole out of my life, at least for now, Megan had quickly become my best friend. Even with that weird thing she said about Nicole, and our ... flirting, I guess, at the party, things weren’t awkward or tense between us. We weren’t fighting, and we didn’t feel like we needed to air out the sexual tensin. We could just be ... us.

Carson was over the moon to discover Megan hanging out with us again. He didn’t even mind that Megan had clued into his crush on her and made it clear that she didn’t feel the same way. Clearly, Carson had some sort of epiphany in that time, because he didn’t even mind. He was just glad Megan was back in his life again. And speaking of epiphanies...

“It’s called being ‘stoic’ or something,” I explained as Megan and I walked out of history class. “You basically just don’t pay attention to the world or what other people think about you. You just keep on going, never showing anyone anything.”

“Doesn’t sound like you,” Megan pointed out.

“Exactly!” I exclaimed with a happy tone. You got to reinvent yourself, so I was thinking, this would be the perfect way to reinvent myself. I’m just gonna stop caring. No whining about Nicole, no whining about ... I dunno, anything.”

Megan chuckled, shaking her head. “Adam, you’re the exact opposite of stoic, and that’s just just a bad thing,” she pointed out. “Why can’t you just embrace it and work on yourself instead of wanting to reinvent yourself?”

“I dunno, I’m just excited!” I replied. “Like, this is a new chapter for me. I can feel it.” The two of us reached her locker, and I leaned on the one next to hers. Megan opened her locker, then looked at me, shifting to look behind me. She started smirking, and looked back.

“What?” I asked, knowing that smirk.

“Someone wants to get into their locker,” she said softly.

I whipped around to see some timid girl with black hair, brown eyes, thick glasses and braces looking timid as all get-out. Even as soon as I made eye contact, she cringed a little in nervousness.

“Oh hey, sorry. Is this your locker?” I asked, gesturing behind me. The timid girl nodded, and I pushed myself off the locker. “My bad, was just talking to a friend. My name’s Adam.”

“Hi, Adam,” the girl said, in a voice that was interestingly non-timid, contrasting her timid appearance. “I’m Sophie. Nice to meet you.” She walked past me to get to her locker.

“Sophie, huh?” I asked, trying to keep up the conversion...

“Down, boy,” Megan joked. “Roll over.”

“Hey,” I replied, half using the same tone, half in annoyance. Megan gave me another smirk then shut her locker, walking away towards the cafeteria. I tossed a “Nice to meet you, Sophie,” over my shoulder before catching up to Megan.

“See, that?” Megan asked me as we walked. “That was the exact opposite of being stoic. You’re a politician through and through.” She lowered an eyebrow and smiled at me. “And girl-crazy.”

“I was just saying hi,” I defended myself. “It’s not like I’m gonna even see her again.” I passed by Jarrod in the halls and made eye contact. “Hey, buddy! Good luck during the performance today. Don’t let Salvador see you sweat, huh? Give him hell.” I didn’t break my stride while saying my piece, and by the time I ended, Megan was giving me a look. “Alright, I can be a politician sometimes,” I conceded.

I chewed on my pencil eraser. I really did think I was invincible, didn’t I? I barely studied at all for my math final, and even though Sikorsky was no Graves, it didn’t mean that this stuff came easy. I looked around me – I was one of the last people left in the classroom.

Sikorsky glanced at his watch. “Ten minutes, guys,” he informed us.

“Asshole,” Carson grumbled under his breath, his arms on his desk. He was clearly struggling even more than I was. I looked back at my final and sighed. One more problem, but I had zero idea how to do it. I did my best guesswork and looked over the pages before standing up and handing in the paper.

“Sorry for taking so long,” I whispered sheepishly to Sikorsky. Technically, our time ended ten minutes ago, but Sikorsky gave the rest of us an additional twenty minutes.

“As long as you did your best,” he diplomatically answered.

I shrugged. “Enough for a pass.”

“Did you study?”

I sighed. “I had things to do,” I mumbled half-assedly. Sikorsky gave me a ‘tsk tsk’ look and put the final on his desk, returning his attention to the rest of the students. Once I was out of the classroom, I shut the door and leaned the back of my head against the wall, sighing. The final was one thing, but what was about to happen was the true test.

I remained against the wall for a solid minute, eyes closed, trying to let my mind go blank. I knew I was already in trouble for being late, so I tried to steel myself, repeating any mantras I had learned, before I pushed myself off the wall, making my way towards room 203.

Sure enough, by the time I got there, the meeting had already started. Dave was mid-sentence when I opened the door, and cut himself off.

“Ah, the VP decided to join us,” Nicole replied, a cocky grin on her face.

Internally, I shivered. It was so real-looking. She was so committed to looking like nothing had happened, like we were still joking around. I shrugged and smiled back. “I’m not gonna claim to be the world’s best at math,” I countered, getting to the desk in the back. “What did I miss?”

“Everything except for the Art Club,” Rick confirmed. “But Advertisement has agreed to help with that.”

“And you can get that done for this week?” Nicole turned her attention to Eugene, the rep for Advertisement.

“No problem,” Eugene diligently replied.

“Like clockwork,” Nicole replied happily, checking over her little agenda. “Oooookay, that seems to be it from me. Any other business from anyone?” She was met with silence. “How’d everyone’s first final go?” She was met with an unenthusiastic “enh” from the crowd, which gave her a chuckle. “Alrighty then, so, biggest fire is, we wanna make sure students next semester know about the changes. Extracurrs, keep on it. VP, you’re responsible for coordinating the newbies on day one.”

“You got it,” I replied, nodding.

“Okay all, you got angels on your shoulders. Get home and rest up, you all have another final tomorrow.” Nicole’s voice barely had time to leave her mouth before people started packing up their stuff and leaving, with the most dedicated among us staying behind. Megan gave me a smile and a polite wave before she left, which I returned. I went back to packing my stuff up, and I clearly was slower at it than anyone else; by the time I slung my backpack over my back, it seemed to be just me in the room.

Correction – Nicole was lingering in the doorway. Something made her stop. She was looking right at me. I caught her gaze, and stopped in my tracks, but said nothing back. She cleared her throat nervously.

“You, uh, you’re...” she trailed off. Her voice was flat, but ... meaningful. “You were respectful today. You’re putting in effort. I see that.”

“Thanks. I’m, uh, trying,” I replied, matching her tone.

“You’ve got a ride home, right?” she asked.

“Oh yeah. I’m all set. No need to worry,” I said, as casually as anything. Well, I tried to be casual, and so did she, but ... it was that ‘we’re pretending to be casual’ tone. Both of us knew. Both of us felt the meaningful awkwardness in the air.

“Right on. Keep it up, VP,” she said, locking the door and walking out of the room. The entire time she looked at me, it was both really sweet and ... nothing. Like we were rebuilding from nothing. It hurt, but ... it was a hurt I kind of deserved. Hell, it was Nicole. I was kind of surprised she was kicking her heels around as much as I was. I expected her to be ... well, more like Nicole.

Not bothering to hang around for much longer myself, I quickly went for the exit myself. Before shutting the door, I glanced down the hallway, and chanced upon a particular sight. Nicole, walking alongside...

“Are you sure it’s okay?” Jarrod asked as he walked beside Nicole.

“Hundo,” Nicole replied flatly. “I give people rides home all the time.” The pair of them turned down the hallway and walked off together. Nicole and the unsuspecting grade nine that fell for her.

Nope. Nope nope nope. Be stoic. It doesn’t affect me. It doesn’t ... it ... fuck. Fuck. Fuuuuuck. I paused for a few seconds, my hand on the door handle, gripping it hard enough to possibly change the doorknob’s shape. It was impossible to stop my mind from coming up with vivid ideas of what those two would get up to. The way I met Nicole was from me getting in a car with her and her nearly immediately flashing me. It was not the craziest idea ever that she would do the same to him. Maybe she just did this. Nicole Baker just found young would-be Council material in grades below her and offered them rides home, seducing them along the way. It was just a pattern with her. Hell, maybe her entire backstory was bullshit. Jeff Love and all that. Maybe it was all made up. Maybe I wasn’t the first, and clearly, not the last, young boy she seduced just for fun. The fucking hussie.

I finally exhaled, releasing the doorknob. On some level, I knew this was going to happen. I dated the school slut. Of course she was going to rebound. I just didn’t want it to be someone...

... exactly like me.

I don’t know how long I stood there like an idiot. All I knew was, at some point I just trudged back to the main hallway, where I ran into a friend.

“Jeez, you look like death, buddy,” Carson observed as he walked into the main hallway from the other side. “I thought you were better at math than me.”

“The final kind of kicked my ass,” I said with a shrug. “And plus, I got a lot on my mind. Nicole b- ... I broke up with Nicole. I’m a free man now, so hey!”

“No shit?” Carson asked, shocked. “Dude, never thought you’d do it. Honestly, congrats.” He offered me a high-five, which I readily accepted. “She wasn’t good for you anyway. Plus, I’m sure you could get any girl you set your mind to here. Any of ‘em.”

I paused. I had a real opportunity to just slip back into the old Adam here, didn’t I? I could have really ran with what Carson said and let my head get so full of hot air I’d sail away into the clouds. I already instinctually lied to him that I was the one to break up with Nicole and ... I don’t even know why. It was time to unlearn some bad habits.

I slowly shook my head. “Nah, man,” I admitted. “I need to work on myself. Honestly, you didn’t see it, but I wasn’t my best self there. If I didn’t break up with her, she woulda broken up with me. If I’m gonna get with anyone else, I need to make sure I actually care about the woman’s needs too.”

My response clearly caught him off guard. “Well, sure, I guess, but look out for number one first, right?” he asked, nudging my shoulder. He pulled out his phone, looking at it. “You got plans? Let’s do some Halo, I’ll text Megan. Dad can drive you home.”

“Honestly, that sounds amazing,” I admitted.

While Carson was in the bathroom, I caught Megan up to speed, although she was less worried than I was about Nicole and Jarrod.

“She gave me a ride home several times last semester,” Megan pointed out. “She didn’t try anything on me.”

“Jarrod is a boy,” I pointed out. “A naive boy that will likely go along with everything she says. The dude even kinda looks like what I looked like last year. You yourself said Nicole wants to be around people who will bend to her will and just agree to her opinions and her methods and all that.”

“Did I say that?” Megan asked, sniping me.

“You implied it,” I replied swiftly.

“Just because the person she’s driving home has a ... thingy doesn’t mean she’s going to jump on it like she’s in heat,” Megan countered again.