next person could get a ticket. Her friends flanked her immediately, and she paused to glare at me. I stared back. I couldn’t look away first. She had to do that too. This was her home turf. Not mine. I had to win both battles to have even footing.
Cora moved beside me. Ryan was off to the side, frowning.
“That was unexpected,” Cora said, moving closer. “No one’s been able to out-Erin Erin before.”
She was impressed. I felt nothing inside.
Tom and Nick headed our way, their hands full of soda and popcorn.
“What’d we miss?” Tom sounded damn chipper.
Ryan studied me a moment before glancing to where Erin had disappeared, but all he said was, “Are we ready for the movie?”
“Let me take one of those.” Cora took a soda, leaving with Tom for the theater. Nick held back, giving Ryan and me a look before turning, popping a kernel of popcorn in his mouth, and following at a more sedate pace.
Ryan stayed with me. As soon as they were out of earshot he said, “I’m sorry about Erin.” I felt him move a little closer, his arm brushing against mine.
I waved that off. I didn’t even care about his ex-girlfriend. “It isn’t a problem,” I assured him. “Really.”
“I knew she could be a bitch, but I haven’t seen it like that in a long while. I can talk to her—”
“No!” I grabbed his shirt, and my hand formed a fist in it. “Don’t.”
He frowned. “She can’t be a bitch. It isn’t right.”
Was he clueless about how girls worked? I shook my head. “Let it go. I can handle myself, but word to the wise.” I nodded in the direction his friends had gone. “I’ve got a feeling she’s been a bitch behind your back to Cora.”
His head moved back a centimeter. “You serious?” His mouth pressed in a hard, flat line.
Good. I liked that he cared about his friend.
It was good that he cared, and that look told me so much.
He’d do something about it.
He was like Willow in that regard. If she saw an injustice, she did something. Unless she was the injustice.
My stomach twisted.
I had been that friend, the one who wouldn’t do anything. I never had to. Willow fought our fights for us.
I felt nauseated thinking about that, and I suddenly, didn’t want to think about it. I didn’t want to think at all anymore. I didn’t want to have memories in my head, making me feel things I couldn’t handle.
I was ashamed. I should’ve been this person before . . .
No. Stop thinking. Stop feeling. “Let’s go watch the movie.”
Ryan gazed at me a moment longer and then nodded. “Okay.”
Once we sat, once the lights turned off, once the move started, I let the first tear fall.
Chapter Six
I passed on the party after the movie. No one protested when Nick took me back to my house, and I suppose it was partly because they all had the same survival instinct as I did. No shock there. Heads would roll if I went to that party, and I wasn’t sure if it’d be mine or Erin’s first.
Ryan crawled out right behind me, and I turned around. “Wha—”
He ignored me, shutting the door, and tapped twice on top of the car.
Nick rolled his window down, but before he said anything, Ryan leaned close and smirked. “Don’t be reckless, kids. Use safe drinking protocols. You know, lick the salt before you shoot the tequila. And no backwashing.”
Nick flashed us two fingers. “Peace.” His eyes slid me up and down. “Use a condom, children.”
Tom started laughing, and the car shot forward.
Cora was in the back, her face resembling a sad owl’s as she watched us until they turned onto the next street.
“That one is Tom’s house.” Ryan pointed to the house to the left of mine. A lamp was still on inside. “We were all out at Nick’s, and Tom told me about his new neighbor, asked if you were the same girl who’d crawled in my bed.” His hands slid into his pockets, and he hunched his shoulders forward. His shirt strained against his form, showing off those muscles again. “I’m glad you came to the movie. I thought it was a shot in the dark.”
I was glad he’d texted too. And I was surprised at that, but I was. Even dealing with the ex was a good distraction.
I tilted my head to the side. “Did you really not know how mean your ex is? She seems like the resident