The Backup Girlfriend (Grove Valley High #2) - Emma Doherty Page 0,22
with him. I definitely tried to lay it on him. “Yeah, I was drunk.”
“Yeah, drunk, not stupid. Like were you trying to catch something?”
I glare at her. “You know, Sophie, I’m having a pretty shitty couple of days. I really don’t need you to be a total bitch to me right now.”
She shrugs. “Yeah, well, the whole school could have done without you being a total bitch to us for the last three years.”
“Thanks,” I snap.
“You’re welcome,” she throws straight back.
I pause. “Look, I know it was dumb, okay? I just…”
She rolls her eyes. “Of course they weren’t going to go for it. They’re Chase’s best friends.”
“Like he’d give a shit.” That’s the problem—even if they had gone for it, I don’t think he’d have cared, and that’s what hurts most of all. I was his girlfriend on and off for three years and he’s so in love with Livy he wouldn’t have cared about who I was getting with.
Sophie opens her mouth to say something but then snaps it shut again. She looks at me for a couple of seconds, and her face softens. “He doesn’t define you, Abigail. I know you were with him for a long time and loved him, but Chase Mitchell doesn’t define who you are.”
I feel my face heat again, but I give her my most withering stare. “Spare me the sympathy.”
She scowls back at me and I’m pretty sure she’s going to flounce out of here, but she doesn’t budge.
We don’t say anything, just glaring at each other until she lets out a long sigh and reaches into her bag, pulling out a thin tube of concealer. She holds it out to me. “Here. Fix up your face.”
I scowl, turning away, but one look in the mirror tells me she has a valid point. My face is red and blotchy from the crying, and I have streaks of mascara running down my cheeks. I reluctantly take the tube, and after splashing water on my face to clean it, I pat it dry with a paper towel then dab the concealer under my eyes and onto my cheeks before rubbing it in. Then I take the mascara she’s holding out in my direction, for some reason ignoring my own makeup I have in my bag, and put enough on to make me look less of a mess.
I hand it back to Sophie.
After a minute, I let out a long sigh. “I can’t believe she sent everyone that video.”
“Most people saw it on Saturday. Some dicks knew something was going down and had their phones out. They always do.”
That doesn’t make me feel any better.
“The point it that a version of that video had already been seen by a bunch of people, don’t give her credit for sending something new when it’s not.”
I feel ill. “People saw that before just now?”
She nods. “Maybe not the exact video but the same thing, and because you’re you, everyone already knew about Saturday night.”
“What does that mean?”
“Don’t make me say it.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
She rolls her eyes. “Some people might consider you the most popular girl in school.” She smirks at me. “People were bound to be talking about you.”
The most popular girl in school—it’s a crown I’ve always coveted, but I can’t raise a smile at her words. What does popularity matter when you can’t trust your own friends?
“Look, you and Sarah have always had some fucked-up rivalry between you. She’s jealous of you, and she can be plain nasty. You should have seen this coming.”
“Yes, well, I couldn’t exactly predict me falling apart like that on Saturday night!”
She opens her mouth to say something then clearly thinks better of it, which just makes me wonder if actually other people could have predicted it based on my behavior over the last few months.
“Did you see her caption?”
She nods, and I know she knows I’m failing out of high school.
I honestly don’t know how much more humiliation I can handle.
“I can’t believe she’d do that to me.”
Sophie scoffs. “Then you’re an idiot. Sarah would sell out her own grandmother on her birthday for a piece of gossip, especially if it’d mess you up too.”
I guess I’ve always known that deep down, but the fact that other people can see our friendship for the messed-up, one-upmanship, no-holds-barred, harsh reality that it really is is embarrassing and depressing. I think that’s another reason I was so reliant on Chase. I actually could trust him, unlike some