The Bad Boy's Girl (Now Available as a Paperback and ebook)

Chapter Twenty-Five: The Lecherous Hoe Has A Point

"I'm afraid so but at least you should be glad that he's upped his standards since you."

"Meoww"

I assume that's Lan but I'm too busy having a stare down with Yolanda who looks like she wants to deck me. Bring it sister, my brother's Travis O'Connell and he has taught me well.

Cole chuckles next to me and pulls me closer, exhaling in relief. Ha, he thinks he's off the hook but I am so not done with him. This must be one of his 'distractions' from military school and I don't know what that says about him. How could he tolerate being with someone like her, a pseudo Nicole. It hurts more than I expected and we'll need to talk about it but after I put the leech in her place.

"How dare you!" She stomps her foot, actually stomps it and I stifle a laugh. She is such a walking cliché it's not even funny. "You have no idea what the two of us shared. He's just using you as a rebound until we get back together." She hisses and I snort. If I didn't trust Cole the way I do, I would have believed her but there's too much history for me to doubt. The girl is clearly delusional and obsessed with Cole in a way that's nowhere near being something akin to love. She's a brat who hates the fact that she can't have what she wants. I'm well acquainted with the type; I was best friends with her for a long time.

"I'm sorry but from where I'm standing, it doesn't look like he's in too much pain being away from you. If anything you might have just traumatized him trying to suck his lips off. Does that particular technique work for you?" I ask with a straight face but Lan ruins the effect when he bursts out laughing. Yolanda shoots him a poisonous glare and then closes in on me.

"Back off Kimmy. You don't want to do this." Cole steps in front of me with warning ringing clearly in his voice.

Ah, my Yolanda is actually a Kimmy.

She looks back and forth between me and Cole, as if gauging how much more she needs to work on destroying what we have. Seriously, I thought people like her only existed in the trashiest of romance novels. The unrelenting, psychotic ex who goes to great pains to come between the hero and the heroine. She's even doing the crazy eye twitching which always creeps me out. What the heck did Cole see in her?

Or maybe it wasn't her sunny personality that attracted him. The thought makes me sick to my stomach.

"Come on Kimmy, don't make a bigger fool of yourself than you already have. Just go to your room and we'll forget this ever happened."

Lan is once again playing mediator and manages to get through to her. With one last withering stare, she huffs and turns around, her circle skirt flashing all of us as she does so. Huh, she wears thongs, why am I not surprised?

Standing in the hallway we hear a door slam and there's a general sigh of relief. Cole and Lan are having a silent conversation and it's almost comical how I can almost imagine the conversation they must be having. Megan, Beth and I do it a lot so it's easier for me to read into this.

I decide to break the straining silence and do the polite thing, which is to introduce myself to Lan.

I extend my hand to the towering guy, "Hi I'm Tessa. You must be Landon; Cole has told me so much about you." I purposely use his full name just to tease him a little and get back at him for introducing Kimmy the leech into my life.

He winces but takes my hand nonetheless, surprising me by kissing it instead of shaking. My cheeks heat as Cole's fingers dig into my spine.

"Lan, please call me Lan. It's a pleasure to finally meet you Tessa. The guy's talked my ear off about you." He grins and I bet this is the kind of smile that makes most girls go crazy about him. I find myself smiling back.