Teaser Tuesday - April 27th

A little teaser since I haven't done it in so long. And, please check out my book review of Undone - it's a great one that you won't want to miss!

Seth joined Kay, Ben and I for lunch the next day, which was kind of awkward because Seth kept looking at me as though he wanted to say something but didn’t dare to. I looked casually around the lunchroom and noticed Monica glaring at me over her Caesar salad. I took a tentative bite of my pepperoni pizza. Grease dripped onto my lunch tray, and while the sight normally would have made me sick to my stomach, I toughed it out. Yeah, that’s right, I thought. No need to starve myself for a guy like all these other blonde femme fatales. I could do just fine with greasy pizza and a bitchy reputation.

“Don’t pay any attention to her,” Kay whispered in my ear.

I kicked her under the table and stole a look at Seth. He pretended to concentrate on his sweet corn, intending to get every last kernel onto his fork before putting it into his mouth.

“So Seth,” Kay began. “Tell us again, why exactly did you start dating Monica two weeks after you and Nikki broke up?”

“Kay,” I hissed, but Seth seemed unperturbed by the question.

“I didn’t,” he replied. “We only went out twice. Once last month and again two weeks ago.”

Kay looked at me as if to suggest he was lying, but I had no basis to say otherwise. I had been so out of it that time had escaped me. Had he gone out with her right away or months after the breakup, I wouldn’t have known the difference.

“Mon likes to cling to guys,” Seth went on. “We became friends after her dad bought the new place on the lake. And …I don’t know. I felt sorry for her what with her parents breaking up and all. I’ve been giving her rides to school.”

“So you’re not a couple?” Kay asked for clarification.

“No,” he said and he looked me straight in the eye. “She sort of took it upon herself to make us look like a couple when we weren’t. We haven’t even kissed.”

“So why didn’t you tell her to back off?” The words popped out before I even knew I had spoken them.

“I guess I didn’t have the heart to. I’d already screwed up one friendship. I didn’t want to mess up another.”

“Dude, that’s just psycho,” Ben said.

“Maybe I was a little mad too,” Seth admitted. “You wouldn’t talk to me – at all. I thought if I could make you jealous then you’d realize you’d made a mistake.”

Kay immediately came to my defense. “That is so twisted, Seth. Using Nikki’s feelings for your own gain.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” he said. “It was stupid for more reason than one. I should have known that Nikki’s not the type to get jealous.”

Oh-ho! What he didn’t know.