Chapter 83

The shouting had stopped in Heather and Cattie’s room, and Cassidy was already stripped down to her panties and getting under the covers when there was a knock at our door. I’d just been pulling off my shirt, and I looked over at Cass with a raised eyebrow. Maybe Wanda had decided to come over after all?

I was honestly a little surprised when I opened the door and Cattie was standing there in the hallway in a tight little black spaghetti strap top and black panties. Her makeup was done up more heavily than when she’d left the living room. She’d put on more eyeshadow and dark, wine-red lipstick.

“Cattie, I-”

“Robbie, I need you to let me in,” she said quietly.

I opened the door further and let her come in. Cassidy was sitting up in the bed, her tits on display, and she stood up as her friend came into the room and looked like she wanted to go to hug her.

Cattie held up a hand to stop her, and she took my hand and led me to the bed. “Sit,” she said. I did, and she turned and shut the door, then looked at both of us. She took a deep breath, her lips pressed together as she decided what she wanted to say. Everything in me wanted to fill that silence, to tell her I was sorry for agreeing to the bet. How I didn’t expect her to fulfill the implied payment.

How much I wanted her to anyways.

But I knew that she wanted to be in charge right now. That she needed to take command for a minute. Cassidy noticed it too and came over and sat beside me quietly, then reached out and took Cattie’s hand lightly in hers and gave her a look that was half compassion, and half encouragement.

“I’m not as mad at you two as I am at her,” Cattie finally said. “And I wouldn’t have come over here if it wasn’t for the fact that you didn’t want to take the bet to begin with, Robbie.” She sighed heavily, closing her eyes as she picked her words carefully, trying to say exactly what she meant and was feeling. “I can understand that she pushed your buttons without realizing it. But Cassidy, you were telling him to bet. You encouraged him to risk reopening an already fresh wound you caused. I- I don’t know how I can feel OK with that. If you had lost, Heather wouldn’t have let it go. Even if you refused in the end, she would have been pressuring you all week. Putting Robbie through that is unfair, Cassidy. It’s actually really fucking shitty of you.”

“I know,” Cassidy said. “Cattie, I know it was, if that was everything that was going on. But it wasn’t, and Heather had been acting all bitchy and putting herself over you. And I didn’t like seeing or hearing you need to be her bitch all the time. So when I saw the chance to get you a night away from her, so you could be with us like this morning...”

“That still doesn’t justify the risk, Cass,” Cattie said. “You didn’t know who was going to win. And mine and Heather’s relationship is our relationship. I get to decide what I do in it, whether you agree with it or not.”

“I- I know,” Cassidy said. “I’m sorry. Robbie keeps telling me I need to give you space like that. I just don’t like seeing you not being yourself.”

“For what it’s worth,” I said. “It’s true, Cattie. I don’t like seeing the way you’ve been with her either. Or, I guess I don’t like the way she’s making you act even if you are agreeing to it. I just didn’t want to push into your relationship, especially when we had our own problems going on.”

Cattie closed her eyes again, thinking. She was tapping one heel softly on the ground and flicking one thumb over her forefinger. “I appreciate that you guys feel that way,” she said finally. “And I understand why. But that still doesn’t answer the part I’m angrier about. Cass, how could you do that to Robbie?”

“We cheated,” I said.

“What?” both girls said in surprise.

I had no idea what answer Cassidy was going to give, but I knew trying to broach the whole ‘there’s this magic app’ thing wasn’t going to go very far. “Well, we didn’t cheat. Cassidy just noticed that the floor wasn’t level. It tilted slightly towards the outside door, and the weight of the bottle meant that it would naturally point the head away from the lowest point since the bottom was heavier. And Heather was spinning it the same way every time, and it landed in the same general spot almost every time. When we came back, I was pissed and went to the highest point because of all the reasons I said before, but also because I just wanted to stick it to Heather, too.”