Page 76 of Jaked

Chapter 28

I stared at Bianca in the mirror. She was still talking to me. But over the sound of the automatic hand-dryer, just a couple feet away, I could hardly hear a thing.

I turned around to face her. "Excuse me?" I said.

She raised her voice. "I was saying," she said in a voice of overblown patience, "that if you're going to be so sulky, you might as well give me back my dress."

"Hey, you were the one who begged me to take it," I said. "Remember?"

She lifted her chin. "That was then. This is now."

I glanced down at the dress I'd borrowed. "You want it back?" I said. "Fine by me." At this point, I hardly cared. Besides, I was leaving anyway.

She wrinkled her nose. "Not after you'vesweatedin it."

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah. That's me. Sweaty."

"You said it. Not me."

I gave her a hard look. "So what are you being paid to do, exactly?" I said. "Other than hassle me, I mean."

"You wouldn’t understand."

"Oh yeah? Try me."

Earlier, she'd called herself an event planner. If we were on friendlier terms, I would have loved to hear more about her career. Did she, like me, have a degree in hospitality management? Or had she come up the ranks a different way?

"Well, tonight," she said, "I'm apparently being paid to wear your hand-me-downs and suck up to your ex-boyfriend." She made a sound of disgust. "I can't believe I went to college for this."

"Why are you so hostile to me?" I said. "I never did anything to you."

She made a point of looking down at her – correction,my– schoolmarm dress. "Are you sure about that?" she asked.

"Hey, that wasn'tmydoing," I said.

She gave me a dubious look. "Right."

"And besides," I said, "you're the one who picked that thing out."

I didn't even know why I was bothering. She'd sabotaged me. She'd lied to me. She'd probably do worse if I ever let down my guard.

Stepping back, she cocked her head to give me a good, long look. Suddenly, her face lit up. "Oh my God," she said. "I just figured out what your problem is."

"Oh yeah?" I said in a bored tone. "What's that?"

She gave a little laugh. "You thought that kiss was real. Didn't you?"

Before the question died on her lips, my face was already warm. Still, I made myself say, "What kiss?"

"Awww, that's so cute," she said. "You did." She pursed her lips. "Jake's gonnalovethat."

I almost wanted to slap her. But instead, I stepped toward her and hissed, "Did you come in here for a reason? Or just to give me a hard time?"

"Actually," she said, glancing toward a stall. "I was in here already." She smiled. "Your lucky day, huh?"

On the nearby wall, the automatic dryer suddenly stopped, leaving the restroom a whole lot quieter. Slowly, I realized that no one else was speaking. I glanced around. So did Bianca. One girl – a cute blonde in a blue micro-dress – was staring openly in our direction. But she wasn't staring at me. She was staring at Bianca.

Bianca gave her an annoyed look. "What areyoulooking at?" Bianca said.