Ali
“So wasshe a model or just some random hot chick?” Mel asks as she finishes typing up a text on her phone.
“I don’t know!” I sigh, feeling deflated. “But if she wasn’t a model, she sure could have been.”
“Guys are dicks,” Mel declares. “Speaking of which, did I tell you Joey and I broke up?”
“What?” I gasp. “When?”
Mel and Joey have been going out for months now, and it seemed like it was getting pretty serious. I’m genuinely shocked.
“This morning,” she replies. “Which is why you and I are going out with Ryan and Josh on a double date tonight to this place that Josh can get us into.”
“We are?”
“We are.” She nods. “Best way to get over asshole guys is to go out with other guys so you don’t think about the asshole guys. Make sense?”
“Umm…I guess?”
“Okay, great. Now hurry up and get ready. They’re gonna be here in less than ten.”
My heart jumps. “What? Oh my God, Mel. Less than ten?”
“Let’s go, bitch!”
The next ten minutes are a flurry of the two of us tearing through my closet trying to come up with something for each of us to wear that doesn’t clash or look too similar, which turns out to be quite difficult as I seem to have a penchant for blue and most of my non-blue things are in the laundry.
Eventually, Mel settles on one of my black bodysuits with a pair of my pastel pink shorts and a crop top, something I wouldn’t have the courage to wear out, and I wear a pair of black jean shorts with a blue halter top. I’m just sliding into my flats when there’s the sound of a car pulling up out front.
“They’re here,” Mel says, checking her phone.
“I’m going to pee my pants,” I say, my heart racing inside my chest.
“Just pretend you’re out with Zander, and he’s picking you up in his Ferrari or Lambo or whatever he drives,” she teases, poking me in the ribs.
“Zander? The guy who clearly is no longer into me?”
“Or the guy who’s just trying to make you jealous now?”
“That’s his tactic?” I ask as we head downstairs. “To get me to go out with him, he shows up with another, hotter girl?”
“There’s no way she was hotter than you, Ali,” Mel replies.
“You didn’t see her!”
“I’ve seen you,” she says. “And you are like that girl from all those Hollywood movies in the ‘90s that just needed to pull her hair back and then every guy would like get a boner and collapse from how gorgeous she was.”
I burst out laughing as we step outside and walk to the car where the boys are waiting. “See, this is why I love you, Mel. You always know how to make me feel better. But if tonight with these two goes bad…”
“It won’t,” she says, with the assurance of a mother. “Now stop worrying and try to have some fun, please?”
As we approach the car, Josh steps out wearing a pair of jeans that’s almost too tight, an oversized black T-shirt, and a silver chain.
He’s tall, not as tall as Zander, and good-looking, but not as good-looking as Zander either. I feel kind of bad comparing him, but it’s kind of hard not to at a time like this.
“Hey, I’m Josh,” he says, extending a hand.
“Hi, I’m Ali,” I reply, shaking it. His hand is soft. He must moisturize. He holds the door for me. “Thank you.”