Rolling Dice [sample]

10: Rolling Dice

I know this one is a little late and it's quite short, but I'll upload the next one soon :) Hope you all enjoy :)

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Chapter 10

So it turns out that going to the mall basically involved sitting on the edge of a fountain and talking for about an hour, sipping our milkshakes. There is no actual shopping involved, which is good, since I only have twenty three dollars (and a nickel). No, wait, nineteen dollar and fifty-three cents after the milkshake.

I mostly just sip my strawberry milkshake rather than join in their gossip. They mostly just talk about the latest gossip from school, discussing people I don’t know.

“So, Madison,” Summer says, turning to look right at me. “Are you really stuck in AP Physics?”

I nod. “Yup. Sucks, huh?”

“You’re lucky you’ve got that Dwight guy as your lab partner. He is your lab partner, right?” I wobble my head ‘yes’. “Well shouldn’t be too hard. He’s such a geek, it’s kind of sad, actually. I bet you can get him to do most of the work for you.” Tiffany smiles innocently, like she didn’t mean anything horrible by it.

“Why’s it kind of sad?” I ask. “That he’s a geek?”

“Well, just, you know,” Tiffany says vaguely. “Sad.”

“Oh,” I say. “If you say so.”

I say it in a way that makes it unequivocal that I disagree with her saying it’s ‘sad’ that Dwight is smart. He was a nice person, whether he was glad to be an AP Physics student or not.

Then I say, looking back to Tiffany. “What’s the situation with you and Bryce?”

“Why? Are you interested in him?” She grins widely. “I should totally set you two up.”

“No, I’m not interested in him, I just – well I was wondering, is all. You know, he’s the star soccer player or whatever, you’re the cheerleader… The way you act around him I – I just thought you guys might be… you know…”

I trail off, feeling idiotic, because Tiffany looks a little bit like she wants to laugh. She’s halfway through putting her hair up into a ponytail, and pauses to look at me, and I can see her trying to decide if she’s going to laugh or not.

Tiffany does laugh, but it’s not in a mean, condescending way, like I expected. It’s more like she finds it amusing that I think there’s something going on between her and Bryce.

She finishes her ponytail. “Bryce is hot, and he’s a total sweetheart, believe me. But me and him? It’s just not going to happen. We’ve practically grown up together though. Our moms met in college.”

I nod, not knowing what to reply.

“Besides,” she carries on, inspecting her nail a moment, where I spot there’s a slight chip in the lilac nail varnish, “I’ve totally sworn off guys. Right, Sum?”

Summer nods. “You mean after the Steve situation, right?”

“What’s that?”

“So freshman year,” Tiffany begins, “I started dating this guy, Steve, and we were totally loved up. And then winter of sophomore year he just – whoop! – up and left. His parents moved to somewhere in Idaho. Idaho! Totally broke my heart. Sworn off guys entirely since then.”

“Entirely?” Summer raises an eyebrow and giggles.

Tiffany smiles sheepishly. “Okay, okay, almost entirely.”