Being Kalli(77)

“Yeah, Steph blew that crap out of the water last night. She was amazing. I know she’s not under stress I have been from having to hide it, but after that blow up at the restaurant, I wasn’t sure she’d get it. She made me hot chocolate with marshmallows, and watched Law and Order from my collection, although she’s from the CSI fence. She even flipped me over and massaged my back for half an hour.”

“Sounds like this is where it gets kinky.”

Scout rolls her eyes. “Well, maybe it did, but it’s funny that the people I can rely on aren’t my blood relatives at all. I say funny, because I’m obviously not shocked.”

“Scout.” I wrap my arm around her shoulder and cuddle in to her.

It’s shit how bad things happen to good people. Scout’s never outdone my bad behaviour, even in her shitty moods. I don’t get why, after what her father did, how they could just pretend not to have a reaction at all. What an insult. I can’t figure out if it’s worse they tried to hide it, and pretend Scout never said she was gay, try to undo it all, or if it’d have been worse for them to get angry or be disgusted with her.

In the end, they’re both rejections. It’s just a matter of what hurts more.

“Okay,” I say to Scout, drawing up to a stop in front of her and holding her back at arm’s length. “I have the perfect cure.”

Her eyes flash three shades of worry, before she gulps that down and stutters, “Y … yeah?”

“Shh, once a party girl, always a party girl. You’re not going to go on and leave me in this alone, will you? Maybe when you’re in your thirties you can get over parties, but not tonight.”

Scout purses her lips and scans the path behind me. It’s wide enough for a pram to pass by on either side comfortably. She has no excuses to worm away. Finally, she submits, and returns to look at me.

“Donovan asked me to a party tonight. I had sort of planned to go, but Nate said he’s going and even if I go with him, I’d rather you come. I need my bestie. We can go together. Nate’s busy and will catch up later. Steph can come with you, too. We can do what we do best: relax, drink and chill.”

Her mouth transforms into a smile Cameron Diaz can’t top. The sides of her lips perk her cheeks into flushed red apple shapes and she lets out a little squeal.

We talk details and such. We both have too many over-worn dresses, tops and skirts, and unused ones we may never wear. First world problems. We end up chatting over our iPhones, nodding and agreeing while checking Facebook updates. There are several notifications on mine, and I notice on my feed Nate’s updated with a comment in a photo he was tagged in.

Butterflies flutter in my stomach and for a moment, I’m too excited to see what he’s done today, too nervous wondering what will come up that I just hover my thumb over the highlighted notification and wait. On my phone it doesn’t preview a thumbnail of the photo, but it does show Nate’s comment, “LOL”.

The little loading circle naturally takes its time, but when it loads …

Little Fucker.

The phone camera is shitty, but the image is clear enough to make out Nate puckering his lips and the hottest girl I’ve ever seen. She’s bending her ass out and leaning forward, hands on hips, tongue curled out to lick Nate’s puckered lips.

If I could see this photo clearly, I’d hate to think how much prettier she actually was.

“Scout,” I growl. “The fuck?” I say, shoving my phone in front of her.

She studies the picture, eyebrows furrowed. After a few seconds, she just cocks her head to the side. “Um, Kalli?” Scout looks down, away. Her lips knead together and she fiddles with my phone.

“You’re surprised? Not surprised …?”

“I don’t think he knows she’s doing this.”

“So,” I say, “you mean Nate doesn’t realise a hot model is a breath away from licking his lips?”

Scout bursts out laughing at that. I have to slap her head to get her to focus and look back at me.

“Can’t you see it? He’s focusing hard on something and she’s standing behind him by the looks of it, pretending she’s licking him since he doesn’t have a clue. Actually—” she points to a corner “—this guy knows exactly what she’s doing and he’s pissing himself laughing.”

“You’re full of crap. He’s so obviously—”

I cut off when I notice she seems smaller than him. Like, females are smaller, but even in the grainy photo she’s smaller than what I assume she should be, which means I’m a green-eyed fool. Of course she’s standing behind him. And anyone who looks as serious as Nate has issues if they’re not concentrating on something.