Goddamn, motherfucking curse.
It just takes the cake. Dry spell, dry spell, dry spell – a woman has needs, you know – she sees the perfect candidate for some hot, sweaty sex, but nooooooo my curse has to have gotten in the way.
This is just great!
Fate has a weird fucking way of showing up at the most inopportune moments.
“I don’t believe this.” I rub my hands over my face, growling when I realize I’ve got bits of mascara under my eyes. “I really don’t believe this.”
Sera whispers something in Matty’s ear, lifts him up and puts him back down on the couch. Matty loses the hands at his ears and grabs hold of the remote, pressing the play button so Chris Evans in all his skinny-kid glory takes up their TV screen.
I get waved over into the inner sanctum that is Sera and Hunter’s bedroom. I half-expected it to be painted black, have some sort of doom-and-gloom theme because MacLaine can be worse than Darth Vader.
The only reason why I let him hang around my best friend is because of that time he begged me to meet with her at Alex and Teresa’s engagement party. The guy was almost on his knees and I read something in his face that led me to believe he was going to be good to her. And I’ve never seen her happier, and that’s the only reason why I’ve let this continue.
Sera waves me over to the bed, and I sit on the very edge of it, legs out in front of me crossed at the ankles.
MacLaine can draw. It looks to be pencil and maybe some charcoal but the shading is exquisite, and he can capture someone’s emotions with a few lines on paper. I smirk when I see Sera has become his muse.
“You were really mean to him, K,” Sera says, voice all-matter-of-fact. She could be reciting the Guinness World Book of records instead of helping me relive my stupidest moment.
I rub my face, not caring of all the black particles landing underneath my eyes. I’ll just look like a raccoon for the rest of the night, ‘cause really, who am I going to impress? Not Dean, and MacLaine is taken and only has eyes for my best friend. Which is the way it should be - I’m not meant for the long haul, I’m not meant for relationships.
But I hurt Dean, all those years ago, hell, it’s almost ten years now that I was the Queen Biatch in high school, and I had erased that time from my memory. I had forgotten about him.
Even then, I had an eye for trouble, for trying to exert my control on anyone and anything I could. I studied hard, I did all the extracurriculars - mostly because I didn’t want to go home and hear my parents go at it with the yelling and throwing of plates, and try to bring me in on the arguments. Hell, I was just a kid, you know? My world was black and white and not this shitty grayscale where shadows are everywhere.
Ugh. When did life get so freaking complicated? And hard?
“Yeah, trust me, I know. I really know how bad I was. I don’t need to be reminded. Too bad we don’t have a hot tub time machine. Or a DeLorean.”
I look up for some odd reason, trying to gage Sera’s reaction. I’m not one hundred percent of what’s there – is she disappointed, disgusted with me? Yeah, well, I’ve disappointed half my family because I’m not the one who’s married and popping out grandbabies to not-so-much carry on the family line. Stupid, it’s all just so stupid.
“He might hate you.”
“Thanks, Captain Obvious. I hadn’t noticed that. He shot me down like I was a UFO trying to beam up earthlings in front of the Pentagon. It’s a damn shame. He was going to be a bag and tag, and then see you never.”
Sera shrugs. “Maybe he knows your M.O. Maybe he didn’t want to be another one of your conquests.”
“They’re not conquests,” I sputter, then shut my mouth. “I’m not looking to add types of dudes on a list and strike them off. I like having sex, and I won’t apologize for it.”
Sera’s frowns at me. “Did I ever give you that impression? I wish I was more like you, you know. I wish I had more experience; I wish I didn’t care so much.”
Red flag, red flipping flag!
“Uh, is there something you wanna talk about, Delos? I’m all ears.” I cup my hands behind my ears and flap ‘em out like Dumbo. She gives me a quick grin but her heart’s not in it.
Bummer.
Sera sighs, then shakes her head. There’s something there, and I don’t want to prod too deeply and make the tears come gushing out. I hate it when she cries; it makes me feel so helpless. I can’t control her tear ducts, no matter how many times I swear at them in my head. They don’t listen to me, and I really hate when people and things don’t listen to me.
Life would be so less aggravating if people just listened to me.