Filmed_ An Alpha Bad Boy Romance(52)

And those volumes were terrible. Awful. I had never felt so humiliated, and more than that, heartbroken. I could picture him laughing with his other rich friends over the dumb poor prissy chick he had banged after his party, and completely tossed aside.

Noah Carterson wasn’t a good person.

That’s what I kept telling myself, at least, as the days wore on. It got easier, eventually, to start to hate him with that refrain running through my mind. As the one-month mark ticked by, he was relegated to a dull thud in my heart, a minor ache. He was still there, but I was beginning to move beyond him.

Nobody talked about him at work, which I thought was weird. He had been pretty close with Chelsea, and Chuck obviously liked him, but once Noah was gone, nobody mentioned him around me again. I even asked them both how he was doing in the early days, that first night when I didn’t know he was cutting me out of his life. Both of them said they had no clue, and were just as worried as I was. When I figured the truth out, nobody brought it up, and I was too embarrassed to mention it.

But I had my suspicions. I wasn’t mad at them for it, though. How could I be, when they were both being so kind to me? They both became my friend after Noah was gone.

I pulled out the old trash bag, balling it up and tossing it to the side. I shook out the right bag, and pressed it into the container. I pushed the lid back on, and repeated that procedure three more times. Once I was finished, I hunted down Selena.

“Hey, Selena, real quick,” I said, getting her attention.

“What’s up?”

I held up the two bags. “These are for the cans outside of the theaters, and these are for the cans in the lobby. Okay?”

She made a face. “Shit, I’m sorry.”

I shrugged. I was being a jerk, but I was exhausted, and suddenly in a bad mood from thinking about Noah again.

“It’s really not a huge deal. Don’t worry about it.”

“So, are you doing anything this weekend?” she asked me.

I shook my head. It was Friday night, but I had pretty much become a hermit. Since Chris was in hardcore study mode, it felt easy to stay at the apartment with her. I didn’t feel like doing anything, and the idea of going to a party like the one at Noah’s made me almost ill.

“Probably not, I have a bunch of studying.”

She made a face. “You and Chris always have so much studying to do.”

“I know. I’m really not much fun.”

“That’s not true, but whatever. Let me know if you feel like coming out tonight.”

“Okay, I will. Thanks.”

She smiled and headed off toward the concession stand. I felt bad about calling her out on the trashcans, but she had to learn eventually. She was being very nice to me ever since the Noah stuff, and I should have probably cut her some slack. I made a mental promise to myself to go out of my way to make it up to her in the future.

Even if I was hurting, I had to try and be a better person. I couldn’t let myself spread the hurt that Noah had given to me, no matter how badly I wanted to, no matter how good it made me feel. Because that kind of catharsis didn’t last long, and only made that hurt worse for everyone.

I took a deep breath and sighed. Before Noah, I had never bothered to wonder what kind of person I was. I had always assumed I was good. But my world had been rocked, and I promised myself that I would find out.





Chapter Seventeen


After talking to Selena, I went into the supply closet and dropped off the trash bags, my mood souring. I went back out into the lobby and stopped short. I saw a blonde girl talking to Selena, and Selena pointed at me in reply. The girl followed her gaze and saw me, said something to Selena, and then headed straight in my direction.

My heart began to hammer in my chest. I recognized her. The long blonde hair, the trashy clothes. As she got close to me, I remembered her name: Ellie, formerly known as Stripper Barbie.

“Are you Linda?” she asked, stopping in front of me.

“Yeah, I am,” I said, feeling evasive.

“I’m Ellie, I’m friends with Noah.”

I gave her a look. “I know who you are.”

She smiled softly, looking embarrassed. “Look, this is a little awkward.”

“No, you look. I don’t know what you want, but if it has anything to do with Noah, I’m not interested. Okay?”

Before she could respond, I started to walk away, back toward the front of the lobby. I wasn’t sure what I was doing or where I was going, but I wanted to get away from her. I couldn’t let myself get sucked back in, not when I was starting to get over him.

“Wait, please, just listen for a second,” she said, catching up to me.

I whirled around on her, feeling my anger bubbling up. “Listen to you? Noah didn’t bother listening to me before completely cutting me out of his life. I don’t want anything to do with that piece of shit asshole. I’m done with him.”