Page 53
Story: Yesterday I Cared
Josie jogs down the rest of the stairs, coming to a stop in front of me and grabbing my face in both hands. "Did you hit your head? Do you have amnesia?"
"I will count to two and you better—"
Her hands drop immediately. "Nope, definitely still our normal Mia." She turns a glare to Ronan. "What happened?"
I kick off my sandals by the door. "And here I thought you'd all be happy we made up."
As I walk into the living room to get comfortable, four voices are fighting to be heard over one another. I can barely make out Ronan's amused laugh. When I collapse on the couch, he takes a seat next to me. Everyone else gathers around like I'm about to tell them a ghost story or something.
"We need to know what happened!" Josie demands, but she's looking a little too pleased for my liking.
I look at Ronan, only for him to shrug.
"Remember the dates we both had the other day?" I ask. "Well, they suck."
Katrina looked at Ronan with a gasp. "Jasmine sucks?"
He grimaces, clearly embarrassed about having to talk badly about one of her clients, but he seems to recover rather quickly. "Kind of the worst, actually. She was mad that I didn't live up to the reputation she'd found online."
"No." Kat groans, leaning against Carter. He pats her shoulder comfortingly. "She always seemed to be so put together, I thought she was looking for someone more serious."
He frowns. "I think the only way she's settling down is by renovating her house.” A moment passes before he adds, "But mine wasn't nearly as bad as Mia's!"
"Don't listen to Ronan!” I protest. “Georgie wasn't that bad, they just…could only talk about their work."
Josie's brow furrows. "But isn't Georgie an entomologist?"
"Mm-hmm. We only talked about bugs for the forty-five minutes we were together. Which, did you know cockroaches can live almost seven days without their head? I didn't, but now I do."
"Oh, ew." Bryce grimaces. "At least the conversation shifted when you were eating?"
"Oh, no." I shake my head. "No, the facts just shifted to bugs in food. Which is a thing, even if you can't see them."
I swear Bryce turns a little green.
"I finally intervened the third time I saw Mia gagging while trying to eat flatbread," Ronan jumps in. "Jasmine didn't seem too sad to see me go."
"But how does any of this get us here?"
"After Ronan saved me, we talked. A lot," I explain, looking over at him. "To be honest, I was getting tired of holding it in. I opened up to him about why I was mad, got some answers, and found out that I didn't need to hide it from you, because everyone knew. Except Kat."
Confused, Bryce looks at Ronan, who immediately answers. "Summer Nationals in 2017, asshole college kids."
His confusion deepens for a whole second before realization dawns on him. "Oh! Those assholes. Wait, you were mad at him for that? He told me about it immediately. Carter, too. I told Josie that night."
I can feel how red my cheeks are. "Well, I know that now! I had no way of knowing that then and Josie had already been pissed off at you once that trip."
Josie's looking at me in amusement. "Well, I guess I was wrong."
"What do you mean?"
"She thought it had to do with you guys hooking up in Omaha," Bryce responds.
"What?"
The exclamation comes from three people: me, Ronan, and, surprisingly, Carter.
"Oh, come on. You were not as sneaky as you thought you were. I ran into Ronan in the hallway going back to his room."
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