Erin #2
Finding the date I was looking for, I tap the highlighted event, spinning to face the girls again.
“This is perfect. I don’t think he would want to talk to me, let alone get back together right now. I need him to come around more, to see how I’ve grown and how respected I am here. I want him to see that four years has done me well.”
“Absolutely! You’re the shit,” Jess says, but she still looks concerned. “But, I’m lost on how this has anything to do with your Little having lover boy’s tongue in her mouth.”
Skyler groans, stuffing her head back into the pillow while I try again not to give into my urge to scratch her eyes out for so much as looking at Kip.
What the hell is wrong with me?
“Because,” I say, calm again, my features smooth. I carefully take a seat on the floor in front of Skyler, knowing before I say the words how insane my little idea is. “She’s going to be the one to get him to come back to me. She’s the bait.”
Skyler’s head snaps up, her wide, blue eyes meeting mine.
“What? No way!” She jumps up from the floor, tossing the pillow she’s been hiding behind on the bed. “I mistakenly made out with your high school… whatever he was, but I’m not involved in this.”
I pop up, ready to plead my case. “You are now! He knows you now,” I argue. “He’s obviously interested, and you’re the best shot I have at getting him to hang around me in a natural way without it looking like I’m insane. Or a creeper. Or both.”
It’s true. I had pulled the girls together to think of ways for me to get him back, to work out a plan. Though this isn’t exactly how I pictured things going down, it just might be crazy enough to work.
“Big, you can’t be serious,” Skyler says. “What am I supposed to do… woo him? Flirt him into following me around like a puppy and then blow him off so you can pick up the pieces?”
I pause, digesting her suggestion. “I hadn’t thought it out quite that far, but yes.”
“No,” Skyler says immediately, tossing her hands up. “I’m leaving this room and we can just pretend like last night and this conversation didn’t happen.”
She turns to leave, and like an out-of-body-experience, I watch in horror from the corner of the room as the next words leave my mouth.
“You want to be president next year, don’t you?”
It’s like all the air is sucked out of the room with that question. Skyler is stiff as a rod, and when I come to, back in my own body again, Jess is the first person I hear.
“Ex,” she warns. She’s telling me to back off, that I’ve gone too far, but she doesn’t understand.
No one understands.
This is the only speck of joy I’ve managed to find since I was violated in the worst possible way a woman can be.
It’s been almost a year since it happened, and I still exist in a dark hole of nothingness, where the thought of being happy again feels so ludicrous I don’t even allow myself to consider it.
But then, Kip showed up at Palm South University.
I won’t let this chance pass me by.
“No, I’m serious,” I say. “You have to make a lot of sacrifices as president, Little. You have to do a lot of stuff you really don’t want to do. This position is not for the weak or the scared or the selfish.”
The irony of that last sentence isn’t lost on me, considering I was weak, I am scared, and right now, I’m also proving to be very, very selfish.
“You want to be next in line?” I ask her. “It’s time to start proving you can take it, that you belong in this room when I leave. You need to step up, Little.”
And just like that, I become the villain I never knew I could be.
Skyler’s face crumples, but she nods. “Can I at least think about it?”
Thinking back to my original plan, I glance at the date still highlighted in the open planner on my desk.
“I tell you what, the date auction is Saturday. Let’s see if you made the impression I think you did.
If he bids the highest and wins the date with you, then the game starts and you play him right into my hand. ”
“I have a tournament that night, Big,” she complains. “I wasn’t even going to go to the auction.”
“Well, now you are going — and you’re getting auctioned off. If he bids the highest, then you’re doing this.” My words are absolute — final.
“And if he doesn’t?” she asks.
I shrug, confident enough in my assessment that I won’t have to worry about that possibility.
“Then you’re off the hook. I want it to be easy for you to get him to come around, and bidding the highest at a date auction is pretty much the most simple way to get a girl on a date.
If he doesn’t try and succeed to do just that with you, then there’s no point in you making it awkward and throwing yourself at him.
But,” I counter. “If he dragged his tongue up your stomach, I seriously doubt he’ll let you go on a date with anyone else. ”
It’s my attempt at a joke, to lighten the mood, but Skyler doesn’t crack so much as a small smile.
Can I blame her? This is possibly the worst thing I’ve done in my life… and that’s saying something, considering my actions after I slept with Clinton.
“Fine,” Skyler concedes. “But if he doesn’t make the highest bid, then I’m off the hook and you’re on your own to reel in your fish.”
Hope floods me again. She’s actually going to help!
Well, not that I actually gave her an option, but whatever.
“Absolutely, no questions asked.” I hold out my hand to shake Skyler’s, and when the deal is sealed, I can’t help the excitement that pours through me like liquid gold. I turn back to the other girls, practically squealing. “This is going to be fun!”
But even as I say the words, I know in my heart that this is going to be anything but fun for Skyler.
Her face falls again as she leaves the room, and I silently vow to make it up to her.
I owe you one, Little.