“Oh, bore off, Rebecca,” I growled, unwilling to wither under her snotty judgement. “We were kissing, not riding, so tone down the disbelief. It’s not that deep.”
“Joey?” Danielle choked out, and I stared in horror as tears filled her eyes. “What are you doing with her?”
“For fuck’s sake,” Joey muttered under his breath. Inhaling a deep, steadying breath, he stepped away from me and turned to face our classmates. “Girls,” he acknowledged with a clipped nod, cheeks flushed, and lips swollen from all of our earlier kissing, as he took a stance in front of me. “What are you two doing around my neck of the woods?”
“Danielle was looking for you,” Rebecca snapped, gesturing to her tearful friend. “She wanted to make sure you were okay after what happened at school. More fool her, I guess?”
“Yeah, well, I’m fine.”
“Oh, yeah,” Danielle cried out hoarsely. “We can see just how fine you are.”
“Don’t start,” Joey said in a low, warning tone. “I didn’t you make any promises.”
“You had sex with me less than a week ago!” she practically screamed. “And now you’re… you’re…” She shook her blonde head and glared at me. “What the hell, Aoife? You were supposed to be my friend! What are you even doing here?”
I was?
I thought we were more classmates and acquaintances than bosom buddies.
“Hey.” Jumping down from the wall, I held my hands up. “I didn’t know you had anything serious going on with him.”
“We don’t,” Joey was quick to point out. “We have nothing going on, serious or otherwise.”
“And I was just…” Trailing off, I shrugged. “Checking on him, too.”
“Liar,” Danielle screamed, face turning an unflattering shade of purple. “You saw us together the other night. You knew exactly what was happening between us.”
“She did?” Joey barked. “Well, that makes one of us.”
“You have your own boyfriend to check on,” Rebecca hissed, tone accusing, as she joined the fray and pointed a finger at me. “You do remember Paul, don’t you?”
“Oh, pack it in, Becks,” Joey sneered. “He’s far from fucking perfect himself.”
“Yeah, does Paul know what you’ve been up to?” Danielle demanded, planting her hands on her curvy hips.
“Not yet,” I drawled calmly, when I felt anything but, and resisted the urge to reach into my pocket and grab my phone. “But I’m sure that you’ll be only too happy to tell him.”
“Oh, you can bet your ass I will.” She glared at me. “He’s going to flip his lid.”
“Bold of you to assume that I care,” I shot back, groaning internally when I couldn’t stop my mouth from verbally kicking my own ass.
Quiet, Aoife, you’re in the wrong here. Now shush.
Narrowing her eyes, Rebecca planted her hands on her hips and glowered at me. “It’s bad enough that you don’t have any respect for your own relationship, but you could have spared a thought for Danielle’s!”
“What relationship?” Joey demanded, throwing his hands up. “Because she sure as shit isn’t in one with me!”
“Oh Joey,” Danielle sobbed, pressing a hand to her chest. “How could you?“
“No, no, no, don’t go there. Don’t give me that oh, Joey, how could you bullshit,” he snapped, shaking his head. “I told you, Danielle, I fucking told you that I wasn’t interested in anything serious. I told you that it was a one-time thing and you said that you were fine with it!”
“A one-time thing?” She glared at him. “Have you forgotten about the other couple of dozen times?”
Ouch.
“Don’t give me that shit,” Joey was quick to counter. “I laid it all out for you, said I wasn’t interested in anything more than one night, and you said that you agreed with me.”
“Well, I lied,” she cried out.
“Well, I didn’t!” Clearly frustrated, Joey ran a hand through his soaked hair and hissed, “You came on to me, remember? You propositioned me, and I made my intentions perfectly clear. You knew that I was out of mind that night. You knew I was unavailable. I was up fucking front with you, Dan, so these tears you’re spilling are not on me.”
“Have a heart, Joey,” Rebecca snapped when her friend cried harder. “The girl has feelings for you.”
“Then tell her to stop having feelings for me!” Releasing a frustrated growl, he pointed a finger at Danielle and hissed, “You promised you wouldn’t do this.”
“I know, but—”
“No buts,” he snapped. “And no promises, either. I’m a free agent.”
“You might be,” Danielle spat, pointing a finger in my direction. “But she’s not.”
“What she is or isn’t hasn’t got a damn thing to do with either one of you,” Joey sneered in a menacing tone. “So, why don’t you both turn around and walk your asses out of here before this gets messier than it needs to.”
“Who are you calling?” I blurted out, attention flicking to Rebecca, who had her phone pressed to her ear, expression smug.
“Hi, Paul, yeah, it’s me Becks.”
My eyes widened.
“Yeah, so, I’m up Elk’s Terrace, and I thought you should that I just saw your girlfriend, Aoife, with Joey Lynch.”
Oh god, oh god.
“Uh-huh, that’s right. Yeah, I legit just saw them scoring with each other.”
“Jesus Christ,” Joey groaned under his breath.
My mouth fell open. “What a bitch.”
“Yeah, I swear,” Rebecca said, grinning deviously. “No, I’m not lying. She was wrapped around him like ivy.”
“Ugh.” I dropped my head in my hands and groaned. It felt like my rolling stomach had fallen out of my ass, as I listened on helplessly.
What could I do?
Not deny it, that’s for sure.
I’d been caught red-handed.
I planned on owning up to Paul anyway, and it would have sounded a hell of a lot better coming from my mouth than hers.
Yeah, because the instant Joey Lynch reciprocated my kiss, my feelings, I knew there was no going back to pretending.
“Oh my god, Joe,” I groaned, screaming on the inside, as the realization of what I had done suddenly dawned on me. “I’m my father.”
“What are you talking about, Molloy?”
“Dad,” I choked out. “I’m him.” I looked at Joey. “He’s a cheater, I’m a cheater!” I threw my hands up in dismay. “We’re both cheating apples from the same cheating tree. Ugh,” I muttered, thoroughly distressed. “And now I’m no better than he is.”
“Relax,” Joey attempted to comfort me by saying, tone gruff. “It was a kiss, not an affair, Molloy. You’re nothing like your father.”
“Affair?” I stared at him, unblinking. “What do you mean affair?”
He shrugged, clearly uncomfortable.