Best Served Fake

twenty-seven // nothing like a play about piss

I ignored her; the height of maturity.

"So, a mini-play on responsible drinking?" I said to Kai with a false brightness. Apparently, acting like I shat rainbows was my strategy for surviving this interaction.

Kai looked between me and the girl I was pointedly ignoring with a wry smile, and I thought absently about sucking on his lower lip. You know, in a friendship kind of way. Kai seemed to find my pettiness faintly amusing.

I tapped my chin thoughtfully. "Hm, who's going to play the drunkard who makes bad decisions to deter people from alcohol? I personally vote Tommy. I heard on the grapevine that he would know what that's like."

Will snorted a laugh, that he quickly covered with a coughing fit that fooled no one. When I looked at him, he was trying to regain control of his smile. "Uh, sorry. Seasonal tickle. You know how it is."

"Do I?" said Tommy, his voice dripping acid. Those two words were so poisonous that I could help but look at him.

Since our break up, I'd seen Tommy angry and blustering and devastated. I'd never seen this; hatred, pure and passionate, written into every line of his face. His eyes were bloodshot, and he looked dishevelled, as if he hadn't been sleeping well. He looked at Will with something akin to disgust, and when he realised that Kai was hiding a laugh, Tommy flicked him a gaze that held unadulterated loathing.

Sydney was a different picture. She didn't look angry; she looked smaller. As if she'd shrunk into herself. She'd always been larger than life, but the curve of her shoulders made her almost invisible. She looked tired, worn and heartachingly sad. When she saw me look at her, she smiled tentatively, and it wasn't winning, or an attempt toward charming. It was an apology, it was forgiveness for Kai, and it was far less fun to look at than Tommy's anger.

I tore my gaze away, and I thought I heard her sigh.

"You're such a dick," Tommy said to Kai.

Kai shrugged.

"You know, Delaney, making out with my girlfriend for revenge doesn't make you seem less like a wanker."

Kai leaned forward on his hands. He looked almost serene; the endless calm to Tommy's mindless storm. "You know, making out with her best friend for a cheap thrill doesn't make you seem less like a wanker."

"Also, don't reduce Valerie to a demeaning phrase like seconds," Will added. He had his arms crossed, and looked imposing. "It's very 1970s."

I patted them both on the arms. "Oh, thanks boys."

Every time Tommy opened his mouth, I felt a little more embarrassed for him. It was also a little embarrassing for me. I dated this man? This sack of trash and pathetic excuses parading as a sweet gentleman?

Taste? We don't know her.

Tommy opened his mouth to speak again, but Sydney interrupted him with a warning noise in the back of her throat. "Aster, for Pete's sake, learn to shut the fuck up," she said with the exasperation she had always reserved for him. At my raised eyebrow, she shrugged, flicking her slightly-less-shiny-than-usual-but-still-unfairly-pretty hair over her shoulder. "What? Surely I'm allowed to criticise him now. He's an ass."

I bestowed her with a smile more generous than she deserved, backstabbing traitor that she was. "I'll allow it."

Tommy made a faint noise that sounded vaguely like the bleating of a sheep.

Sydney just looked beyond pleased, coral pink lips curving into a small hopeful smile. I ignored the pang of guilt that said I was leading her on—in a friendship kind of way—before I recalled that she fucked my boyfriend, and really, I would have to do a whole lot more than suggest a possibility of reconciliation before my mistakes outweighed hers.