Chapter 7
Pippa was such a shitty tutor.
We had been at this for almost two hours and nothing was sticking. It was all going in one ear and out the other, plus, her voice was so quiet yet so shrilling I didn't want to pay attention to her.
"Urgh, this isn't working!" I threw my hands in the air and slumped down in my chair. We were in the public library at around five pm after school. Barely anyone I knew was here which was fine.
"Maybe if you just –"
"No, this isn't about me. You're just not at very good tutoring." I snapped. I couldn't keep my attention on anything. She was so fucking boring.
"Actually, Mrs Sanders says –"
"Do I look like I care what 'Miss Sanders says'?" I snapped once more. Poor Pippa. She was actually a very nice girl but my frustration from this fucking Chemistry question was too much to bare. God, I needed to get laid.
Pippa sighed and went on to talk about the proton thingy whilst I contemplated texting Adam. He always had a thing for sexting.
Me: I'm in the library, but I can't stop thinking about something.
I try to be coy to get his attention. A few seconds later he texts back.
Adam: What?
Me: How I'd love for you to bend me over this table and fuck me till I can't walk.
The notification letting me know that he read it made me smile. He was probably jerking off now.
"Are you even listening?!" Pippa sighed dramatically. I rolled my eyes and stuffed my phone back into my bag.
"Nope. And I think we're done for the day." I got up from my chair and flung my bag over my shoulder. She tried to protest but I was already over this session. I wanted the mall and some coffee.
***
Rya was always up for up for a trip to the mall. We sat in a Starbucks, I picked at my apple slices whilst sipping my gorgeous Iced Dirty Chai Latte with almond milk and an extra shot of expresso. Who needs men when you could have coffee? If only coffee gave you orgasms. Foodgasms? There's a fair point.
Rya shoved a cookie into her mouth, sipping her Double Chocolaty Chip Frappuccino with extra whipped cream and caramel drizzle. We knew our Starbucks' orders to a tee. I felt like everyone had to know their best friend's Starbucks' orders.
Sometimes I really wished I were Rya. The girl could eat forever whatever she wanted and not an ounce of fat appeared on her. She was always so slender. However, if I ate one bite of that cookie, I'd suddenly look five months pregnant. She was also exceedingly smart. The only thing she was worried about was becoming Valedictorian against Christopher Knowles.
"I think if I died right now, I'd be happy. Chocolate cookie in hand and I'm ready to go." She took a large bite of the chocolatey goodness and smiled goofily. I laughed at her adorableness. It was a side she never let many people see. Rya had this fierce competitiveness and intense, serious intellectual side to her that most people saw. However, it was hard to believe that when you saw her with her cheeks stuffed with cookie and whipped cream.
You'd think people would see Rya as a complete nerd, but she was drop dead gorgeous. Her long blonde hair fell to her waist in a gorgeous blow-out with curtain bangs perfectly framing her soft face. Her dark blue eyes always stood out against her porcelain doll-like skin. So many boys would kill to have Rya, but she was completely uninterested in any sexual or romantic attention. In her own words, she had fingers, a showerhead, and books, and that was all she needed.
"If I died in a Starbucks, I think I'd kill myself."
"You'd already be dead."
"Doesn't matter." I shoved a forkful of lettuce into my mouth and sighed dramatically.
"Tough time with Pippa?" Rya already smartly assumed.
I groaned and rubbed my eyes. "The girl is shit at teaching. She keeps going over and over and over the same thing and I keep getting confused and bored and slightly depressed."
"She's always had quite a weird voice. It's..."
"Quiet but shrilling?"
"Exactly." Rya nodded. This was why I got on with Rya so well. We agreed with practically everything, thought the same things at the same time, and our opposing personalities and talents complimented one another well. "Any plans on getting Adam back."
I shrugged. "Eh, I'm giving him some time with vanilla. He'll get bored eventually. Especially when he finds out she's very..."
"Vanilla?"
"Exactly." Leah was definitely a virgin, there was no doubt about it. The girl dressed like Carrie White before she became the embodiment of my period at Prom. When Adam pops her little cherry for excitement and finds the boring innocence... well, boring, he'll come crawling back to me.
"Do you think you can still convince Roman to tutor you?" Rya pulled me out of my thoughts and I looked back at her and sighed.
"No. I'm kind of glad because, one, he was a rude son of a bitch, and two, he's Roman Lawrence. My whole entire social life would be out of the window if anyone found out." I'd rather be dead than be caught with Roman Lawrence. "Besides, I don't need his stupid, nerdy, flat ass anyways."
"But what are you going to do about graduating? D'you think Pippa can get your grades up enough?"
"Urgh, no!" I groaned and slumped back into my chair. This was a fucking disaster. "I honestly think I need some dick. I haven't had me some in ages." Not since Adam's been frolicking with Mother Theresa.
"Use your fingers." Rya shrugged taking a long sip of her drink. Of course she'd say that.
"I can't. It never works as good."
"Works fine for me."
"That's because you've never gotten good dick before." I chuckled and pulled my arm back when she aimed to slap it. It was true. Rya lost her virginity at summer camp when she was fourteen to a camp counsellor who was sixteen. Apparently, she had the biggest crush on him and begged him to have sex with her after a flirtatious game of Uno. He was completely willing. She regretted it looking back saying that she was far too young and naïve to have understood the emotional toll sex had.
If you asked me, I'd call the whole thing disturbing to say the least. In fact, it made me feel sick when she told me, but she begged me to keep it a secret, brushing it off like it wasn't a big deal. But it was. Yet she never spoke about it again, but I knew it had a bigger impact on her than what she was willing to admit. It was an understatement that Rya was a tough cookie to break, and sometimes that made me worry for her even more.
She would have sex at parties randomly, but it was strictly sex and, as she puts it, not that memorable.
"Why can't you tutor me?" I begged.
"Because I'm not on the school's tutoring list and, let's be real, we'd spent the whole time gossiping." So true.
"Fine."
"What are you gonna do about your parents?" shit, my parents. Imagining their disappointed faces made me feel like the worst daughter in the world.
"Oh, you know, graciously explain to them how their daughter's an absolute, inept, failure."
"And then?"
"Watch the news saying Yellow Stone exploded when really it was just my parents." Rya laughed as I frowned down at my salad. Its happy greenness was mocking me. "Yay me." I muttered and stabbed the lettuce with my fork. I looked back up at Rya expressing a knowing smile. "What?"
"Admit it, you need Roman."
"He's a rude, know it all. Of course I don't need him." But one look at her stupid raised eyebrow made me realise how wrong I was. I needed to graduate. I had to. And Roman was the one who could make me.
"I really hate when you're right." I narrowed my eyes.
"I know, but I love it."