Jennie

Solar doesn't know what happened with Lisa.

She thinks I got sick on tequila and went back to our rooms, throwing up. It was a perfect explanation for why my eyes were puffy and I felt like crap the next day.

"You sure you're up for study group?" she asks. "Because Ted is going to be here any minute to get us."

Ted is a good friend, who is actually the quarterback of the football team, and too hot for me not to be hot for, per him, not me. We're friends. We will probably always be friends. We just get each other. I have zero idea why we don't connect sexually. Okay, I have every idea why. Because I don't seem to connect with anyone on that level, except with Lisa. And now Ted's seeing Gilda, who is lovely and sweet, and just right for him.

"I need to be ready for this test," I say. "I'm fine."

"Alright, is the coffee shop okay?"

"Perfect," I approve. "I need caffeine."

A few minutes later, Ted stands in front of me, staring down at me with his chocolate-brown eyes. "What's wrong with you?"

"His name is Tequila and he's a wickedly naughty kind of guy."

He barks out laughter and scrubs the dark stubble on his jaw. "Ouch. Since when do you get drunk?"

"Never again," I assure him. "Where's Gilda?"

"She's meeting us wherever we go."

"Grand," I say and a few minutes later the three of us exit the campus only to come face-to-face with Lisa, who looks about as good as I feel. Her eyes are bloodshot, her dark brown hair a finger-rumpled mess. I wonder if the blonde did that to her hair. Maybe she fucked her all night and didn't sleep.

"What are you doing here?" I demand, aware—oh, so aware—that if she found me now, she could have found me sooner.

"We need to talk," she announces.

"We did that for seventeen years. I'm all talked out with you, Lisa."

Solar leans in and whispers, "Who's this hottie?"

Lisa ignores her. "Jennie—"

"Talk to the blonde chick. She seemed interested in all kinds of conversation. I have nothing to say to you."

Ted steps to my side from wherever he was before this and slides his arm around me and says, "Problem, babe?"

Lisa's spine straightens. "Babe?" he demands.

"She loves it," Ted replies. "It gets her hot. Right, babe?"

Lisa's tongue flattens on the roof of her mouth. It's a thing she does when she's biting back words she should not speak. She shakes her head. "How fucking perfect," she says before she rotates and starts walking away.

Forever.

It's the end of us.

She's never coming back.