P O S T E D ✓

Girl Talk

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I could barely hear myself think once we got inside the club, but butterflies were everywhere in my stomach. Penny told me to never go anywhere without either her, Christina or Liana. It was one of their rules that no one was to be by themselves. Ever.

I understood why thought. It was to keep us safe. Pairing up made sure no one got into a situation they didn't want to be in. The music from the band thrummed through my veins as Penny ordered a shot of peach schnapps for each of us. She grinned brightly at the handsome bartender as he placed the four shots on the bar and then turned to help the next customer.

Each of us picked up our shot.

"To ho's before bro's!" Christina sang as we all clinked the tiny glasses together a tipped them back. It was sweet and warm as it coated my tongue and then slipped down my throat like stained glass. Liana slammed her glass back onto the bar and smacked her glossed lips together in satisfaction.

She turned to me with a girl-next-door smile that I couldn't help but feel anxious about. It was sweet, but a sticky sweet, the kind that left a bad taste in your mouth. The kind that gave you a tooth ache.

"Do you like the club?" she asked resting an elbow on the bar and shimmying up onto a shiny leather stool. I shrugged my shoulders. I still found it difficult to talk to any of them. I didn't want to say the wrong thing. I didn't want to ruin what I had with Harrison.

"Harrison and the boys wanted to come, but I made them stay home." She said, a spark of something in her eyes that I couldn't place. Christina and Penny were behind her, their backs to us. "Do you know why I invited you Monty?" she asked and I slowly shook my head. Her charming smile morphed into something a little more sinister.

"No." I said.

"Harrison asked me to." She replied with a chuckle and her words were like a punch to the gut. If she wanted to knock down my ego a little bit then that was one way to do it.

Did that mean I wasn't really wanted? Did Harrison feel like he had to force his friends to include me? Liana's smile fell from her face completely as she continued. I was waiting for her to strike at me. To say something specifically meant to hurt me and although she had kept up this nice girl façade I had heard her slap Harrison. I could see the bitterness laced in her smiles and the knives in her laughs.

After our date, I knew what Harrison really thought about her too.

"He said that if I didn't he would tell the whole school that I hooked up with Donny Mathews in boy's locker room showers." Liana's warm brown eyes were glazed over, either from the drinks or anger.

Maybe both.

Probably both.

But why would she tell me that? Wasn't she worried that I might spread the rumour? It was a nasty thought, and i hated myself for the split second I considered it.

"It's not true, though. I didn't do that and he knows it." She wasn't really looking at me anymore, but gazing absently over my shoulder as she spoke. "He doesn't care, he doesn't care if he hurts people to get what he wants, Monty." Her eyes snapped back to mine suddenly and I almost jumped at the fire blazing in them.

"That's the kind of boy you're dating. He thinks he's high and mighty, thinks he's too good for me." A pause, and her eyes were on me again, studying me. She had this look like she could see my soul. Like she could see my my past, present, and future. Like she could see my afterlife.

"I know what he thinks when he looks at you. A pretty little thing, a virgin, a blue-eyed babe, an angel." I would have bristled at her words, and yet in a twisted way her tone sounded like it had longing in it.