She swallows hard. “Yeah. Well, with everyone shunning me like the plague I had to get out. You weren’t returning my calls.”
“I was upset. And I had a lot of practice at the dance school.”
Trying to make up for my weaknesses and disadvantages by throwing myself into training, night and day.
And look what it got me: precisely nothing.
“Why did you do it, girl?” I pat her hand. “You can have any guy you want. You only have to look at them, for God’s sake, and they drop to their knees. Why Jesse?”
“Because…” She sighs. “I thought Jesse was my type, but I was wrong.”
“Green eyes don’t do it for you?”
“Not that.” She shrugs. “I thought he was only looking for a hook-up. And I wanted to protect Amber.”
“Seriously, Cassie?”
“Hey, he’s a manwhore. Or used to be.” She takes a sip from her drink, and her hand is shaking. “He never seemed to pay much attention who he slept with. I mean, hell, he slept with half the town. I never thought…”
“… that he was serious this time,” I finish for her.
Nobody did, apparently, from the comments I heard back then.
She nods.
“You really want me to believe you sacrificed yourself to protect Amber? It wasn’t like it hurt, kissing Jesse, was it?”
She says nothing.
Could she be telling the truth? She always flirts and takes boys home. If Jesse Lee slept with half the female population, she slept with half the male one.
But she’s never acted like this. Never tried to steal another girl’s boyfriend.
“Still not much of an excuse, you know,” I mutter.
“It’s all I got.” She frowns, pulls her hand away. “Didn’t mean to hurt anyone.”
“If you ever had a guy you loved, you’d be hurt if someone pulled that on you.”
“Like you would know,” she shoots back, giving me a hurt look. “What, spending a night with Seth gave you insights into love?”
What? I gape at her. “Seth? I barely know him.”
“Don’t think I didn’t see how you were looking at each other.”
“Like what?”
“Like you can’t get enough.” Her voice cracks. “Like you finally found each other and can’t believe how lucky you are. And you are, trust me. I should know.”
“Cass…” Crap, something’s really wrong here. I lean forward until I see her face, bowed over her drink. “What aren’t you telling me?”
“You asked for Seth’s phone number.”
“I was worried, and he’s not answering. Stop changing the topic.”
“What do you want me to say? I explained everything.” She pushes away her drink. “I just remembered I have to go.”
“Cass… Come on.”