isabella [h.s.]

ten

**Go ahead and cry, little girl
Nobody does it like you do
I know how much it matters to you,
I know that you got daddy issues**

ISABELLA

"Ok, what's going on with you? You haven't eaten any of this pizza, and you promised you'd share it with me because I'm meant to be on a diet! My ass doesn't need to get any bigger."

It's a little past 3am, and Tina and I are currently sprawled out on the floor of my bedroom, surrounded by piles of dollar bills from our night at work. In between bites of the greasy pepperoni pizza we got from the store a few doors down, discounted as Tina has apparently had friendly relations with the owner before, we've been taking turns in counting our cash on the counting machine, the one that I bought for myself after I realised my maths skills were too poor to adequately work out my own finances.

"I am eating it," I huff, picking up a piece and taking a large bite of it to prove my point. "And nothing's going on, so stop asking."

"You're such a bad liar, it's kind of ridiculous," Tina says in response to my last comment, raising one of her perfectly arched eyebrows at me. "There's definitely something going on with you. You've been acting weird all night."

"No I haven't," I scoff, loading another handful of cash into the machine. I wait for the amount to flash up on the small screen before removing it and securing it with an elastic band, typing the number into my phone so I can calculate the full amount when I'm done. I've always found coming home from work and counting my money to be quite a relaxing and peaceful task, but that isn't really the case tonight as Tina hasn't stopped talking since she got here. There's no such thing as 'peace' when she's around, really.

Just as I'm about to insert more money into the machine, Tina suddenly reaches out and snatches the notes from my hands. "Don't lie to me, Isabella," she warns, narrowing her black-rimmed eyes at me. "You know I can read you like a book."

I shoot her a doubtful look. "I don't think so."

"Um, I do," she retorts. "For example, I know that you only act all quiet like this when you're having issues with a boy." I immediately avert my gaze from hers, annoyed that she's just proven her point. Tina, however, looks pretty pleased with her successful deduction. "Let me guess, Hunter again?"

I shake my head. "No. I haven't even seen him since we slept together last week."

Tina's face lights up. "Oh! So it's someone new then?" She shifts closer to me and claps her hands together like an excited three year old, eager for some boy talk as if that's not the only think she ever talks about anyway. Sometimes I think she never grew out of her boy-crazy teenage phase. "Tell me everything."

"No, I'm not telling you everything, because there's nothing to tell."

"Fine. If you're not going to tell me anything, I'll figure it out myself," she decides. "Now, you clearly didn't meet him at the strip club because I've only seen you with your regulars this week, and I know you wouldn't sleep with any of them. Although saying that, you did start sleeping with Hunter, which was a pretty huge mistake on your part...."

I roll my eyes. "I think you've made your stance on that pretty clear now."

"....So it must be someone you've met outside of work," Tina says, continuing on as if I'd hadn't even spoke. "But we don't really have time to do anything out of work, so it has to be someone you already know....." She suddenly gasps, her brown eyes widening in realisation as she snaps her head back over to me. "Oh my god. You fucked Harry!"