Chapter 1-1
958 Words
Chapter 1
Zoey
“For the last time, Zoey, get your butt out that goddamn bed,” my best friend Tiffany says to me. “You know better than to be crying over a man.”
Go away, Tiff,” I say, pulling the duvet over my head. I curl into a fetal position when she tugs it off me.
“Call me a pest, I don’t care. I won’t stand by while you go crazy over a man who doesn’t deserve you.”
“I’m not going crazy. I’m just... hurt.” I sit up in bed, fiddling with my fingers. “How could he do this to me, Tiff?”
I’m still struggling to believe what my stepbrother Asher revealed last week. Did Sawyer really take his money in exchange for staying away from me? Three hundred thousand dollars... was that my worth? I caught the flashes of guilt on his face while Sawyer and I were fooling around but I would have never guessed this was the reason. I thought he had feelings for me. But Asher was right; Sawyer wanted nothing but s*x. He wasn’t interested in being with me.
But there’s a part of me that can’t accept it. How can I explain the tenderness in his eyes when he looked at me? Was he such a good actor? Or was it real?
I’d like to think there’s an explanation for what he did. There has to be.
“Listen.” Tiffany gets into bed and curls up beside me, wrapping her arm around my shoulder. “I know this might sound hard to hear, but it’s clear Sawyer doesn’t care about you. There’s no way he would hurt you like this if he really did. But look on the bright side. It was just a fling, not a relationship. You weren’t in love with him. So, it’s easy to move on and forget he ever existed. Trust me, a few months from now, he will be a distant memory.”
I respond with a slight nod and a sigh, but I’m not really convinced. Especially since I’m already deep in love with him. But I don’t intend to admit that to anyone. It’s bad enough Tiffany thinks I shouldn’t have given my virginity to a bad guy. But she doesn’t understand how irresistible Sawyer was. God, when he touched me—
Tiffany shakes my shoulder. “How about we shake off the bad vibes with a party?”
“Oh, please,” I reply with a scoff. “There’s no way Mom and Aaron will agree to us throwing a party at such short notice.”
“Which is why we’re going out.” She reaches for her phone and scrolls through the New Year’s Eve hashtags on i********:. Finally she looks up with a smile. “Remember Nathan Daniels from high school? The guy you had that major crush on during our junior year.”
“Ugh. Don’t remind me. Nathan is nothing but a freak.”
“Really?” Tiffany’s eyes sparkle with interest. “What did he do to you?”
“I ran into him at the mall during Thanksgiving and talked a little. It seemed like he was into me and I thought he would have asked me out on a date. Instead, the asshole invited me to a threesome with his girlfriend.”
“What?”
“Yup. I told him to f**k off, then Sawyer—” I stop and take a deep breath. No. I won’t think about him. Not even once.
Tiffany rubs my shoulder. “It takes time, Zoey. But trust me, you’re going to feel better someday.”
“I know.” I shoot her a quick smile. “What were you saying about asshole Nathan?”
“He’s hosting a New Year’s Eve party at his parents’ house. What do you say? Ready for some party crashing?”
“Oh, I don’t know, Tiff...” I drop back into bed and put the pillow over my face. I just want to bask in my misery a little longer. It’s been five days since Sawyer left and the hovering dark clouds now feel like an old friend to me. I’m not ready play dress up and go out. I just want to stay in bed. Going out means moving on from Sawyer, and I can’t... my heart won’t let me. Not until he returns the piece of me that he took with him.
“It’s not a request, Zoey,” Tiffany says. “You have no choice. We are going out.”
There’s a slight break, then I feel her grip on my ankles. My squeals echo in the room as she yanks me to the edge of the bed. She pushes me to stand and steers me towards the bathroom. “Go on, take a shower, and I’ll get our outfits ready. And please, don’t come out until you shave those monstrosities on your legs.”
“Why should I shave my hair from legs? I’ll be wearing pants. No one will see them,” I say.
“And if you meet a guy you want to bang, what happens then?” Tiffany asks.
“That will never happen.” The thought of another man touching me feels so wrong.
She gives me a patient stare. “We’ll revisit this convo after tonight. There will be hot guys at that party, Zo. Hot, you hear me? Yours for the taking. A sure way to get over Sawyer. There’s no reason to hold back.”
I think about her last words while showering. Do I have the guts to do that? Can I use another guy to get over Sawyer?
***
- Writer
