of every appetizer, hoping that would be enough.
I tried to kick Trish under the table, but missed and hit Brady. Confusion ensued and I was afraid Simon was going to join Trish and beat me up.
“Hey you, glaring at my boyfriend. What’s up?” Katie said as we all fished in our pockets and purses for a tip for our disgruntled waiter. He deserved it after dealing with us.
“Nothing,” Trish said, turning off the glare when she looked at Katie. It was like she wasn’t aware she’d been doing it. “I’m just pissed at him about something.”
“Yeah, I got that. You wanna share with the class?” Everyone was pretending not to eavesdrop but failing miserably.
“He knows. Ask him.”
“Oh no, I’m not playing that game, Trish. You two have got some deal and I have the feeling it has to do with me, so spill so you can get over it and we can go back to normal where you guys just fight instead of laying on the silent treatment. It’s freaking me out.”
“You’re not the only one,” Lottie said. “What gives, Trish?”
Trish looked around and I thought I was going to have to pull the fire alarm so she wouldn’t say what I thought she was going to say, but then she surprised me.
“He told someone my real name,” she said, staring down at the tablecloth, which was significantly less-white now, despite all our best efforts.
I breathed a sigh of relief and made a mental note to text Trish and thank her later. I was definitely going to owe her for this one.
“I thought your real name was Patricia,” Simon said.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” Audrey said.
“No, it’s not Patricia…” she said. Damn, she was really taking one in the back for me. I could never call her a shitty sister again.
“Then what is it? We’re all on the edge of our seats here,” Brady said.
“It’s Trishella.”
Her announcement was met with a moment of stunned silence and then everyone tried not to laugh and failed.
She crossed her arms and stared at the ceiling. “Go ahead, you can all laugh. Our parents were drug addicts, so they were probably high when they thought of it.”
With that, everyone lost it and we all laughed, earning death glares that rivaled Trish’s from everyone else in the restaurant.
It broke up the moment as we all walked out, much to the relief of the staff of Caroline’s. You could almost hear the audible sigh of relief.
“Was that what she was so pissed about?” Katie asked me as I opened the car door for her.
“Trish really, really hates her name,” I said, hoping that would be enough to convince her, but knowing it probably wasn’t. Katie was a smart girl, and I’d been a moron to think I could fool her for long. Sooner rather than later, this thing was going to come out.
“She looked like she was going to kill you.”
I tried to laugh a little as I got in the driver’s seat. “Wouldn’t you if Trishella was your name?”
She smiled and turned on the radio. “Yeah, I probably would.”
“There you go.”
***
Katie and I decided that we needed some time apart, mostly for her to try to catch up with her classwork and to have some girl time to talk about me when I wasn’t there. I headed back to my apartment to take another shower and try to figure out the best time to tell Katie about Ric. Once again, there she was, leaning against her car and waiting for me.
Think of the devil and she shall appear.
“Did you have fun with your little pink slut?” This time she wasn’t here to apologize. This time she was also drunk. Great. Drunk Ric wasn’t anyone I was fond of, not that I was fond of sober Ric either. The more time I spent with Katie, the more I realized how much I really didn’t like a lot of the girls I’d hung out with for so long. Compared to Katie they were almost unbearable. And Ric was at the top of that list.
“Don’t start Ric. Did you drive here?” I put my key in the door and she followed me, stumbling up the steps.
“Why the fuck do you care?” Drunk Ric had a mouth like a trucker.
“Because as much as I don’t like you right now, I don’t want you to die.”
I picked her up and helped her up the stairs. While it wasn’t completely my fault she was in this condition and also pissed at