He rolled his eyes. “Yeah. Oh. And no, you’re not nice all the time, and no, you’re not into leather, and no, you’re not rich, but if you think any of that shit matters to me, I’ve been going about this the wrong way.”
“Huh,” I said. “How about that.”
“You’re so dumb.”
“Hey!”
“It’s you, Kori,” he said. “It’s you, because of all the things you are and all the things you’re not. That’s what’s special. That’s what’s important.”
I absolutely did not sigh dreamily. “Asshole.”
He chuckled. “Jealous, huh?”
I grimaced. “I’m not proud of it, so if we could never bring it up again, that’d be great.”
“Because you’re the type of person who’d let that go if the situation was reversed?”
“I regret everything,” I muttered. “All of this. I take it all back.”
“Nah,” he said. “I don’t believe that. We good? Because I really need to leave. If I don’t, I’m going to kiss you until you can’t breathe, and that’s not something we can do yet.”
I sniffed daintily. “Of course you want to do that. I am the light of your life.” I turned to walk toward the house when he said my name again. I looked over my shoulder.
He slid his sunglasses back down over his eyes. I hated how much it worked for me. I needed to reevaluate every choice that had led me to this moment. “You and me?” he said. “We’re going to be amazing, Kori. I promise you that.”
And because he was the worst, he gunned the engine and pulled away.
“You won’t always get the last word, you prick!” I shouted after him.
Chapter 15: I Hate Everything About Jeremy Olsen
THE SECOND thing happened the weekend before our last week at Phoenix House.
And it was all Jeremy’s fault.
Regardless of what he’d say after, I would never forgive him for as long as I lived. If, at that moment, in the fallout that burned around us, he’d been struck down by a bolt of lightning, I would have danced on his smoking corpse.
It began, as most things do in the twenty-first century, with an order from Amazon.
“WHAT IS it?” I asked, staring down at the small open box on the table. “And why did you get it for me? It’s not my birthday.”
Sandy shrugged. “I know, but I thought it’d be fun. Help you relieve some of that… pressure.”
The object in the box was about the size of an egg, though a little longer. It was purple and had a small circular cord attached to one end. I picked up the paper that came with it. “For the discreet thrill-seeker, SensualFlirt brings you the next wave in technology. Give in to the pleasure with the Magic Egg, a wireless massager that dares you to believe in the impossible. The vibrations are controlled by an app for iPhone and Android. In private or in public, you or a partner are in control of the experience. Don’t count your chickens before they hatch!” I slowly looked up at Sandy, who was smiling serenely. “You bought me a wireless anal vibrator.”
“I did,” he said. “You’re welcome.”
I turned and walked out of the room.
“Where are you going?” he shouted after me.
NOW, IT should be said that when a drag queen buys you a sex toy, it’s easy to pretend it doesn’t exist. After all, you never had one like it before, had never even really thought about anything like it, and so it shouldn’t matter in the slightest. It was easy to forget about.
Which is exactly what I did.
For two hours.
It wasn’t until I was sure Sandy was out of the house with Darren, heading to Jack It to prepare for the show, that I opened my bedroom door. “Hello?” I called, just to be safe.