Chapter 14

No.

Fuck this. I was not going to let this slide. I already had experience with one too many parties where one person said one thing and another person said another thing. Without another word, I looked into the living room and darted into it. If Morgan was going to lie about me, I was going to confront her.

Not surprisingly, Allistair protested. “Hey- you can’ – Adam – Adam!” Soon, his protests were lost in the sea of voices and bodies in the living room as I darted around, looking for Morgan and her little friend group. Soon enough, I was looking right at them, and I marched forward with speed and determination. I wasn’t about to let Allistair stop me, and I sure as hell wasn’t about to let Morgan just drag my name through the mud for no reason.

“Morgan,” I barked through the crowd.

Morgan looked away from one of the girls she was talking to, meeting my gaze. Her face was a blank slate until she saw my face, at which point her expression twisted with worry.

“What are you trying to do here?” I asked, breathing heavily.

“ ... What?” she asked, more confused than anything, clearly playing dumb.

“Why are you telling people that I tried to force you to kiss me?” I asked, probably a bit too loudly. People from all around us were starting to look at us.

“ ... What?!” she repeated, her faux confusion reaching a new high. She was playing the part well.

The people around us were beginning to get quieter and quieter, which meant I could hear Allistair’s overly annoying, overly British voice getting closer and closer. “Adam, you go’a listen to me!” he barked as he beat his way through the crowd. I bet his accent wasn’t even that naturally thick and he played it up for the ladies or whatever.

I ignored him, pointing a finger at Morgan. “Allistair told me that you told him I pressured you into the kiss,” I growled at her. “I thought you were cool. I just want to know why you’d fucking do that, because we both know-”

“Squirt,” Nicole’s voice broke to me from my left, with Allistair still incoherently babbling on my right. “Can I talk to you?”

“Not now – that I never did anything like that. I can’t believe-”

“Seriously, this can’t wait,” Nicole cut in with urgency.

“Give me a moment!” I practically yelled at her, then turned back to Morgan. “And frankly, now that I know this about you, I really th-”

“Adam,” Nicole said with a deafening quietness. She turned in to face me, grabbing me by both of my shoulders, giving me the most serious look I ever saw her give me. “Stop.” Her gaze was hypnotizing. My tongue died in my mouth; I lost the ability to speak. I thought her mere gaze sucked the noise out of the room, but instead, it seemed like Allistair or somebody shut off the music.

I wanted to talk back, but I couldn’t take my eyes off of her. Once I was silent for long enough, Nicole’s face softened but she gave me a small, emotionless smile. “Come with me,” she told me. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Allistair talking to Morgan.

Nicole grabbed me by the hand and started leading me up the stairs. “Just trust me,” she told me. “And no talking until we are in private, okay? Trust me, please.” I still said nothing. Somehow, the spell was still on me. I looked behind me and saw Allistair doing the same thing with Morgan.

“Why is M-”

“Nope,” Nicole cut me off simply. “What did I just say?”

“I deserve to know-”

“And you will,” she barked in response, losing her patience. She kept dragging me until we ended up in front of some door. “Key,” she ordered.

A key flew through the air. I looked behind me to see Allistair had thrown it. My gaze remained behind me as I heard Nicole unlocking the door. I looked at Morgan and locked eyes with her. Her eyebrows were down in some kind of distressed, non-trusting facial expression. What the fuck did she do, and why did she do it? What was going on?

The four of us entered some kind of elegant ornate room with a double bed. Allistair’s parents’ room, if I had to guess. As soon as we were in, Nicole shut and locked the door behind us. Allistair was pacing around the room, and Nicole turned her head around to face him. I was not about to wait to get a morality speech for something I didn’t even freaking do. “I’m not the liar,” I immediately protested. “Morgan lied. I don’t know why, but she did.”

Morgan’s face finally unhinged and showed pure emotion – bewilderment. “About what, you fucking psycho?!” she finally asked.

“Mohgan,” Allistair cut in with an uncharacteristically unemotional, serious voice. “He’s no’ a psycho. We, uh, owe ya two an apology.”

Nicole put her hand on my shoulder, making me look at her. Her look was almost fearful. “Morgan never lied about anything,” she told me with a dry voice. “I did. Well, we both ... did.” She gestured to Allistair and back to her.

They paused, as if that was all they needed to say. “What the fuck are you talking about?!” I demanded.

“Yeah, what the hell is going on?” Morgan joined in.

Allistair sat down on the bed. “This is kinda my faul’,” he began. “So, Mohgan, you were tellin’ me abou’ you an’ Adam heah ... and then Nicole told me abou’ how-”

“I got this part,” Nicole told him gently, sitting beside him on the bed. “I said some unkind things about you, Adam. I was talking about our history and how you could accidentally hurt people and how...” She swallowed. “And how, sometimes, it didn’t seem like you didn’t know what you were doing. It was really hard to tell if you were just, y’know, girl crazy and clueless, or if you actually knew this hurt girls but just figured, oh well, you know?”

“We weren’ a hundred pehcent convinced you weren’ jus’ doin’ this fo’, ya know, fo’ fun,” Allistair added.

“I never said that,” Nicole added icily, energy still absent from her voice but giving a glare towards Allistair. “Allistair has this radar for guys that treat girls like shit, and he started worrying about you, even before the party.” She paused. “I get you may not like the guy right now, but he really helped me through this whole breakup, you know.”

I shook my head in disbelief. I wasn’t even a hundred percent sure I knew what was going on, but I knew I was fucking furious.

“So, we thought, hey, Adam kissed someone new tonight,” Nicole continued, gesturing towards Morgan. “So if we told him she didn’t like it...” Nicole grimaced and shrugged. “See what he would do? I guess? I remember the old Adam would take responsibility. Go all, ‘oh no, did I hurt her feelings? I should apologize.’ He’d be clueless, but he’d be sweet. I kind of just wanted to see it, just once.”

“Nah, Nicole, don’ put this on yaself,” Allistair soothed her, then stood up. “It was my stupid idea. All of it. Lyin’ abou’ Mohgan, tryin’ ta make it seem like I was also this ladies man who was on Adam’s side abou’ ev’rythin’ ... just ta make the mos’ unbiased a’mospheah ta see what ya’d do.”

“So wait,” Morgan cut in. “You lied, pretending I didn’t consent to Adam kissing me, all to see if he’d apologize for something he didn’t do?!” She turned to me in disbelief. “I don’t blame you at all for getting mad. This is sociopath shit.”

“It wasn’t meant to...” Nicole trailed off, now squeezing one hand with the other anxiously. “It was meant to be played out as a small misunderstanding.”

“I’ll be honest, I didn’ really bank on Adam pushin’ back on me an’ pullin’ out the ‘she initiated it’ card,” Allistair added sheepishly. “And it’s not like once that happened, I could jus’ put it away and be all, ‘oh, jus’ takin’ the piss, mate, it’s not real.’ I had to...”

“Lie more,” Morgan finished, crossing her arms. She turned to me. “And you told me you were the one who made mistakes with her. Do yourself a favor and really think about this for a long time. She tried to trick you into thinking you did a bad thing when you were fine, and she just used me in the process, all to see if you’d revert to the version of you she met.” She was completely calm the whole time. It was really scary. She turned back to Nicole. “You’re worried that Adam can accidentally be cruel to women and you’re not sure about his intentions, so to test his kindness or whatever, you lie to him that he hurt a girl when in reality he was totally fine, with the intention to get him to submit and say sorry no matter what he actually did in the first place.” She scoffed. “Uh, yeah, he isn’t the one you need to worry about, sister. Look in a fucking mirror, you cunt.”

“Ay, Mohgan,” Allistair objected. “We ah not usin’ tha’ wohd today.”

“You took a secret I told you, and not only did you blab like I told you not to, you lied about it to manipulate the guy I said I thought was cute, and basically made this whole situation even more awkward than Sabrina did. You broke my trust today, Allistair. I won’t trust you again, and so help me God, once I get downstairs, neither will Taylor. I know her, and she will hate your fucking guts for this.”

Allistair looked gutted. “Fuck sakes, awright, I get it. No need to beat a dead hohse. I’ll...” He held his hands up in defeat. “I’m sorry, awright? It was wrong. I’m sorry. I just wanted to protect Nicole. I was worried foh Nicole’s wellbeing, tha’s all.”

“There are so many ways to judge a guy’s character that don’t involve lying to make it seem like he just forced himself on a girl he just met,” Morgan replied, her tone making it clear this information was obvious. Which it was.

“There are,” Nicole said, to the floor more than anyone. “So many ways. I just wanted to see ... yeah, you nailed it. This is sociopath shit.”

“I looked up to you,” Morgan fired at Nicole, going for the door.

“You shouldn’t have,” Nicole said, barely above a whisper, devoid of energy. She didn’t attempt to stop Morgan as she left, although Allistair ran quickly after her. Once the door was slammed, Nicole looked up at it, noting we were the only two left in the room. “I’ve still got the key,” she told me with no life in her voice. “I’ll lock it once you leave.”

I didn’t say anything. Hell, I said uncharacteristically little in this entire situation, and Nicole knew that. She stared at the floor for a few seconds, until color returned to her face. She slowly inhaled, then quickly exhaled. “Well, get it over with,” she told me with a sigh. “Make the speech, dude. I’m disappointed in me too. It was dumb. Hell, you weren’t a dick to her. You weren’t a dick to me the last time you spoke to me. You’re not the problem. I just wanted everything to be magically like it was when we were first hanging out, and that included you being some naive little boy I could control. It had nothing to do with you being bad. I just wanted to get some control back. Happy? Make the speech and get out.”

“Who are you?”

Nicole made a sudden motion, like she stifled a sneeze, then immediately started sobbing, burying her head in her hands. Those three words I told her weren’t delivered with malice, or even hurt – just bewilderment. I really didn’t recognize her. I looked her dead in the face and didn’t see Nicole – not the Nicole I knew from grade nine, and not even the Nicole I knew from a week ago. I saw some conniving control freak who conspired with her annoying British friend, all to have an upper hand over everything.

I couldn’t really say more than three words anyway. I was floored. I felt backstabbed. She was my friend and ... and my lover for so long. And here she was, so convinced I was this secret evil heartless jackass, that she would conduct science experiments on the girls I just met. She really wasn’t the Nicole I knew. Without another word, I turned around and walked out of the room, not bothering to even look back and see how she was doing. I just wanted to be far away from her. I didn’t even bother to close the door behind me. I just walked down the stairs in a near trance, finding my way back to the one room that wasn’t assaulting me with sound – the kitchen.

Unfortunately, the fifth Beatle was in there, clearly going through his own shit. He was leaning up against the counter with his left hand over his eyes. I hoped he was ashamed of himself. I hoped he was feeling like shit. Once he took his hand off his eyes, he saw me and made a meek nod of acknowledgement. He gestured towards the beers. “Needless ta say, mate, yo’re not payin’ for anythin’ tonight if you wan’ anothah.”

I looked towards the beers. It wasn’t going to change anything about how I felt, but it was still too good an offer to pass up. I took my second beer and opened it, downing a swig. “So, am I really this big bad guy or what?”

“Oh, who fuckin’ cahes?” Allistair replied glumly. “Today, we ahe the baddies, not you.” He took a beer and opened it. “Cheehs. To the wohst fihst impression I evah made.” He took a gulp. “I’m mo’ than a lil’ surprised ya still heah, t’be honest.”

“Nicole’s my ride.”

Allistair laughed. “Ouch,” he admitted. “Yeah, I’m in no position ta judge ya. Evah. Nicole told me abou’ ya sensitivity ta sound – if ya want, once she comes back down, I can give ya the key and ya can wai’ it ou’ in m’parents’ room.”

“I’m good,” I told him simply.

“Faih enough,” he replied smoothly, then got up and stretched. “Welp, I reckon I’ve got a long convahsation with Tay and Mohgan ahead of me, and I can’t imagine ya’d be chuffed to hang out with me half the night. I’ll get ou’a your haih.”

Dude had to be playing it up. No British person was this British. He definitely did it for the chicks. I didn’t say anything more to him and watched him leave, then sat in the kitchen sipping my beer. Other people came in and out of the kitchen, although no one I recognized. I made small talk with whoever was there until the crowd started to thin and people started leaving the party.

I noticed Morgan and Taylor hugging Allistair on their way out. The dude somehow sweet-talked his way out of it. Good for him. No consequences. Amazing. So happy for him. Before long, less than ten people were left at the party, and Nicole finally descended down the stairs. She looked around, saw me in the kitchen and nodded, walking over to me.

“How are you doing, dude?” she asked me gingerly.

I shrugged, and said nothing.

“Yeah,” she murmured. “Understandable. Wanna go home?”

The two of us left together, with Nicole giving Allistair an awkward, wordless hug goodbye while I didn’t even look the dude in the eye. The two of us didn’t speak again until we were out of the house.

“Oh, fuck,” she murmured. It was one step short of a blizzard outside. Snow was everywhere. I was being a little hasty when I said it didn’t snow much, and now, I was regretting not bringing boots. “Well, at least the car’s not too far away,” she added, and the two of us battled our way to the car.

“Something tells me you would not be too thrilled sleeping on Allistair’s couch,” Nicole told me as we neared her car.

“I’d rather walk home,” I replied stiffly.

She chuckled. “Yeah, can’t blame you for not liking him,” she mumbled to herself. “I just wish you met him when we weren’t ... doing what we did.” She unlocked the car and both of us stepped in. “I’m sorry. He is too. We both feel terrible.”

Weirdly, the second beer and nearly an hour spent in the kitchen reflecting calmed me down a bit. “Whatever,” I said flatly. “Did you two really think I was being mean to Morgan or something?”

Nicole shrugged, turning the car on and letting the windshield wipers do their thing. “We thought that ... Okay, Allistair thought you were just being a fuckboy, and I wanted you to feel like I was still someone you could get your moral compass from. I feel like we’ve been over this.”

“I’m still surprised.”

“I know,” she said gently. “Is it going to be your turn to not talk to me for a while?”

“I honestly don’t know,” I replied. Nicole started driving. “I think I’m going to have to just go home and think it through.” I let her drive for a little longer, then added, “But I will say one thing.”

“Ooh boy, the dreaded One Thing,” Nicole quipped.

I ignored her. “If you really want to just be chill friends with benefits like we once were, why do all this elaborate shit?” It truly didn’t make sense. Nicole talked this big game about being drama-free, and then did ... this? Even if I was angry at her, I was more bewildered than anything. Fuck, it almost made me less upset. I just wanted to know why.

Unfortunately, I was not going to get my answer. Nicole just frowned and focused on the road, her cheeks burning a little. “Point taken,” she eventually growled.

“No, but actually-”

“Point. Taken,” she fumed through gritted teeth. Her blush was deepening. “I fucked up. Take a week to forgive me or something, let’s just stop talking about it for now. You can talk to me about other shit, or sit there in silence. Your call.”

I sat back and opted to take the second option. This night was such a roller coaster of events, a complete anthology of highs and lows like barely any party I had ever seen, and I knew the fallout from these events had only just happened. Not only with Nicole and maybe Morgan, but also with Sabrina, and certainly with Megan and Zelda.

The near-blizzard was the perfect metaphor for the mess that was tonight. It didn’t help that the roads were pretty icy and Nicole’s car wasn’t exactly the most outfitted for it.

“Jesus,” she whispered as the car slid on an icy patch. “This is bad.” Every slip felt like some sort of death knell. It was the end, and suddenly, it was not. I found myself gripping the armrest tighter and tighter as I realized that whatever road Nicole was on was getting icier and icier.

“S-slow down,” I managed to say.

“Hey, relax, it’s not helping,” Nicole distractedly but powerfully shot back. With the windshield wipers on full blast and the snow pelting the windshield, the world outside looked like some kind of dystopia, coupled with the blue-red faint glow of the outer darkness beyond the snow. Every movement of the car became this tug-of-war between Nicole and fate; every minor move she made became a new slip. Luckily, very few other cars were on the road, but that didn’t make the situation any less scary.

“C’mon,” Nicole mumbled to herself, now breathing heavily. She was finding it harder and harder to control the car. “C’mon!”

I was breathing heavily now too. The car was ominously dark, lit only by the glow of the snow outside. The car was shaking. I was suddenly very aware of every noise the car made, especially the noises it made when it was sliding on the ice.

It was odd. The car was actually going slower than ever, but nearly every movement was involuntary, and that was enough to be scary. Even though the car was only going around 20 miles per hour, I was scared. I didn’t fear for my life, I just feared.

“Nicole,” I breathed, realizing the car was going closer to the barriers. I could see she was pressing the brake, over and over, but nothing was helping.

“C’mon, c’mon, no no no no no...” Nicole breathed, but the car wasn’t slowing down at all.

The first thing I heard was a large thunk sound, which seemed to come from all around. Even though the barrier hit the left side of the car, it felt like the sound was omnipresent, and it shook the whole car. It was like it shook me from a dream state – before the thunk, I thought it couldn’t have possibly happened, and yet here it was.

The sound and motion only continued after that. Instead of the car just stopping, a sickening gujujujuj sound of metal on metal pierced the air, as no doubt something else was getting pierced. I was too terrified to speak. It was so obvious that Nicole’s car was fucked. Slowly, the sound slowed and stopped, as did the car, finally halted in the middle of the dark snowstorm.

I heard Nicole inhale slowly next to me, and then, the most unlikely sound; her laugh. I looked in surprise next to me to see Nicole with no anger or sadness on her face, enjoying a modest chuckle to herself. “Of course,” she laughed. “How fuckin’ fitting.” She turned to me with a slight smile still on her face. “You okay?”

“I...” I didn’t know what to say. The events of the party felt miles away at this point. “Am I okay?!”

“Hey, it’s okay,” she replied calmly. “At this point, what can we do but laugh, right?”

“Nicole, the car is fucked!” I protested.

“Probably,” she said lazily, putting the car into reverse and turning the wheel. She revved up the gas and the car still made abhorrent grinding noises as she made small motions to detach the car from the barrier. Finally, after a whole minute of these small motions, the noise stopped, and Nicole pulled out a bit farther onto the road before putting the car into park and popping off her seat belt. Cluing into what she was doing, I followed suit and we both hopped outside the car.

I walked around to the left side of the car to see Nicole looking at her passenger side door of her black Ford Focus, or to be more accurate, its innards. It looked like it took a direct hit from Godzilla’s claw or something. It was beyond wrecked.

“Woah mama,” Nicole said in awe, shaking her head. “Yup, this can’t be buffed out.”

I had no idea how she could remain this calm. I almost envied her. I was downright scared. “Will we need to get towed?” I asked.

She shook her head. “No. I can still drive it. There wasn’t any internal damage. I should drive it home.” She surveyed the road. “The ice led me here, so if I ... okay, so if I follow this ... and is there ice over ... no ... okay...” She was wandering away while mumbling to herself. I felt I had no choice but to follow her.

Eventually, she turned back around. “Okay. I think I got a good strategy. Do you trust me?”

“Always.”

“Do you want a hug?”

“Fuck yes.”

Our hands flew around each other at record speed. We held each other for at least a good minute, in comfortable silence, surrounded by the blizzard, before she even spoke.

“What a fucking awful night, huh?” She broke off the hug and looked at me. “I’m sorry for everything, squirt.”

I waved my hand. “Nicole, I dunno what’s going to even happen to you with your parents. You don’t need me adding to that. As far as I’m concerned, tonight never happened.”

She raised her eyebrows. “Huh?”

“You made a shitty decision, but let’s just call it an isolated incident,” I replied, almost having to shout through the snow hitting us. “Trust me, I want this. But! I reverse the right to still be pissed at Allistair about it.”

She smiled and shook her head, walking back to the car. The both of us got in and put on our seatbelts. As she turned on the car again, Nicole turned to me. “Wanna know something?”

“Mm?” I turned to face her.

“Allistair’s parents ... their accents are fading. I think he practices his accent to keep it strong.”

Against all possibilities, I smiled. “You knew exactly what I was thinking, didn’t you?”

“When do I not?” she asked, and we laughed. “As far as I know, he’s the first ever British guy you met. Of course you’re gonna focus on his voice. Just don’t be stereotypical about it.”

“How is he not stereotypical?!” I asked as she started to drive.

“Trust me, that way he talks – it’s not because he’s from somewhere else. It’s because he’s annoying.” She winked at me.

The following Monday felt like a ton of bricks being dropped all at once. So many things were going to come to light: Nicole, Megan, Zelda, Morgan ... hell, even Sabrina. I thanked my lucky stars Athena wasn’t at the party too.

I didn’t know how Zelda was going to look at me now. It felt like everything was different. When I saw her approaching her locker before drama class, I held my breath. “Hey,” I eventually said when she was close enough.

“Hey,” she replied casually. “Had a good weekend?”

I turned to her and smiled. “I thought you weren’t going to talk to me, to be honest.”

She smiled back, although cheekily. “Why, did something happen?” she teased me. “I can be mature, you know.” She turned back to her locker. “Can Megan?”

I stopped. “Did something happen?”

“Nothing I wasn’t expecting. She’s not talking to me. I said hello to her this morning and ... completely ignored. Go ahead, text her or track her down. If you get a response from her before midday I’ll buy you lunch.”

I scoffed. “You’re on!” I called after her. I would end up losing the bet.

Carson looked around the lunch table. “Is ... is everyone okay?” he eventually asked.

He looked at Megan, who just kept eating.

He looked at Zelda, who shrugged and looked away.

He looked at Sabrina, who had been passive-aggressively looking at me for the entire lunch period but was not going to be the first to say anything.

He looked at Athena, who wanted to rejoin the lunch table even without Jason, and then quickly clued in that something was wrong on my end and decided I’d talk about it when I was ready.

“ ... Since when did our table have so many chicks?” Carson concluded.

“To whit, I very well must say, the readings seem to have not been appreciated,” Mr. Carrozza ranted. “Given that this class’ very average for the test hovers around the sixties! The sixties, I tell you! I should hope you all will be thinking of getting your acts together, mark my words!”

With a huff, Mr. Carrozza started angrily plopping marked chem tests down on students’ desks. My mark was a sixty-nine. Nice. At least I was in the higher end of the class average.

I stole a look towards Morgan, who was busy chatting with a friend. Honestly, she was probably the healthiest choice of female friends I seemed to have at this point, although a big part of that was only having had one conversation with her, which ended in a kiss, and a fucked-up experiment which basically forced us onto the same side.

Armed with this advantage, I resolved to talk to her. I thought about it all class, and then as soon as the bell rang, I bolted up and made a beeline for Morgan’s desk. I could pick up my backpack after talking to her.

“Hey, Morgan?” I began as I approached her desk.

She looked up with a blank expression. “Yes?”

I opened my mouth and then shrugged. “How’s it going?”

“Fine, thanks,” she replied politely, gathering her things. She clearly had no interest in continuing the conversation. I may have misread this.

“Uh, I was wondering ... did you want to maybe ... hang out sometime?” I continued awkwardly.

Morgan visibly rolled her eyes, but then shut her eyes and shook her head to herself, as if she only then realized that was rude. “Uh...” she began awkwardly.

“She’s not interested,” her friend told me tersely.

“I can tell him myself,” she told her friend. “Adam, what happens at parties stays at parties. The weekend was fun, but let’s leave it there, okay?”

“Um ... oh,” I simply replied. “Uh, sorry for presuming.”

“You’re good,” she told me with no emotion. “I’m not, like, offended. I just think it would be a bad idea.”

“Because of the Allistair thing?” I asked.

She shook her head no. “Honestly, it has more to do with Sabrina. But also...” She shrugged. “But also I just don’t feel it. Sorry. I’m just being honest.”

I felt myself turning pinker. “Uh ... yeah. Of course. Sorry,” I admitted, stumbling away. I really had a bad track record with actually asking girls out. I really needed to get a ride home with a senior or get beat up by a girl’s older brother again or something. No wonder I had a fucking wild high school life; every time I tried to live a normal stereotypical one, it didn’t work out for me. It seemed like I needed the drama as much as it needed me.

Speaking of ... as I walked back to my desk, I reflected on the rejection I’d been handed, quickly realizing I could turn this into an opportunity. I whipped out my phone and started texting Sabrina.

Hey, just so you know, I let Morgan know what happened at the party was a one-time thing, out of respect to you. I won’t be doing anything with her anymore.

What was the harm in a lil’ fibbing? Especially since lunch period was the most awkward thing on the planet, I needed some way to turn the tide back in my favor. Happily, Sabrina responded immediately, and responded positively. That was at least one person back on my side, which helped remove some of the sting of the rejection. Not all of it, but hey, it was probably for the best not to drag Morgan into more shit.

Nicole snapped her fingers with both hands over and over in thought. “Anything else...? Whatevs. Can’t think of anything. Good work, team! I’ll see you next week.” Immediately, Council members began picking up their stuff and leaving the room, while Nicole leaned backwards against the whiteboard, eyeing Megan. “Yo, Megan, as usual, you talked too much this meeting. Turn it down.”

Megan smiled politely and went to leave. Nicole rolled her eyes, picking herself up off the whiteboard. “What’s up her ass?” she asked after Megan left. “Her attitude has just been getting worse and worse.”

“Oh, she just had a rough weekend,” I replied, looking off towards the door. I was about to ask if I could catch a ride home, but then I remembered. “How was the bus this morning?”