"No," he rumbled in my ear. "I have to fuck you. Now."
"Why? Are you marking your territory?" I'd only been half serious with the comment, but he pulled back and the look in his eyes said that was exactly what he was doing.
I wriggled out of his gr...
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It was only seconds after Mariah walked out and I had stowed my phone back in my bra when Kelly stepped into the vanity from the stall area. Since no toilets had flushed recently and I hadn't heard any running water, I realized she must have been standing around the corner for a while. Her face was more serious than I'd ever seen, and something about her expression made me feel unexplainably guilty.
"Hey," I said, trying to shake the strange feeling.
She pierced me with her brown eyes. "You were talking to Mariah ."
"Yeah." I put my hand on the vanity counter for support even though I hadn't done anything wrong. We were at a family get-together, eight of us in total. Should I really not be expected to talk to one of the other guests? To my boyfriend's only friend?
"I don't think you should do that anymore." Kelly 's voice was even and absent of any chiding.
"Why?"
She softened as she stepped toward me, her regular bubbly persona returning. "She's your competition, Bey! I mean, Shawn is totally into you and no one but you, but Mariah is after him. She's pictured herself married to him for so long, it's a done deal in her head."
"I know, I know." A strange pang of pity washed over me. Maybe Mariah really didn't want Shawn, and everyone just kept saying that she did, accusing her of something that she'd long past outgrown. I knew how that felt. To be thought still crazy long after I'd gotten better.
Swallowing, I voiced the defense that surprised even me. "She says she doesn't, though. Want him, I mean. She really seems like she might be over him. She's been really supportive, actually."
Kelly fluffed the back of her bobbed hair. "Okay. Maybe that's true. I might be overreacting. But I've known her my whole life, and she hasn't always been the best person."
I could imagine what it looked like to Kelly , when Shawn had left Mariah heartbroken and devastated. To the young impressionable teenager that Kelly must have been, it would be easy to blame Mariah for the awfulness that had surrounded Shawn. Especially with her as devoted to her brother as she was.
But she was a grown-up now. She had to see the story was bigger than she'd once thought, even if she didn't know the details. "Shawn hasn't always been the best person either," I reminded her.
Disappointment flashed across her eyes.
"I'm not saying that I'm not for Shawn. I don't care what he's done or who he's been. Truly." I would stand by him no matter what shit he'd gone through, just like he stood by me and all the shit I'd done. "It's only that we've all been worse people." Except probably Kelly . "At least, a lot of us have been worse people," I amended.
"I'm sure that's true." She stepped toward me, placing her hand lightly on my arm. "But, don't feel like Mariah 's your only resource, okay? If you need to talk, Bey, call me. Or better yet, talk to Shawn."
