Confessions of a Queen B*

Untitled Part 17

I was just dozing off again when my phone rang. I fumbled for it and answered with a groggy "Hello?"

"Good morning." Brett's voice, way too cheerful for this time in the morning, filled the airwaves. "Sounds like you had a rough night."

"I hate you."

"Aw, you shouldn't say that, especially when I'm trying to schedule a time and place to take Junior off your hands."

I lifted my head and cast my bleary-eyed gaze toward my clock.

I had fifteen minutes to get to school.

Shit!

"Alexis, are you there?"

"I slept through my alarm." I jumped out of bed and shimmied out of my pajama pants while holding the phone to my ear.

Brett was laughing on the other end.

"Make it quick," I snapped.

"Fine. I'll meet you by your locker when you get here."

That stopped me cold. "You know where my locker is?"

"Everyone in school knows where your locker is so they can steer clear of it. I'll see you in a bit." He hung up.

I raced around my room, grabbing the first clean shirt I could get my hands on, followed by a pair of jeans. Screw brushing my teeth. I was halfway down the stairs before I realized I'd left the doll up there. I ran back up, snatched the doll from my desk, and ran back downstairs just in time to see Taylor getting into an Audi A4 with gaudy bright teal rims. The car peeled off like the driver was auditioning for one of those drift racing movies.

Must be a guy with a small penis.

At least it meant I wasn't going to be held up because of a makeup emergency today, even though I was worried about my sister making it to school alive.

Parking was a nightmare because I was getting to school so late. I squeezed my Prius into a spot so tiny, I had to hold my breath to get out of the car. If I had a dent in my door by the time I left, I wouldn't be surprised.

The first bell rang as I was running through the front door.

Damn it! I'd never been late to class. Ever. I dashed down the halls to my locker, fully expecting to be stuck with the doll until fourth period, never imagining Brett would've waited for me at the risk of being late himself.

And yet, there he was, leaning against my locker with a cup of coffee.

He grinned at me. "Good morning, Lexi."

"Shut the hell up and take the doll." I shoved it toward him and entered in my combination.

"Someone woke up on the wrong side of bed." He held the cup under my nose, the calming scents of vanilla and hazelnut soothing my ire. "Care for some coffee?"

I took the cup and tasted it. It was perfect. The last of my anger melted away to the point where I almost liked Brett.

Almost.

"How did you know what I usually get?"

"All I had to do was give the barista your name, and she knew exactly what you'd want." He reached into my bag and retrieved the carrier, slipping it on with enviable ease. "It seems you make quite an impression wherever you go."

I took another sip of my coffee to keep from telling him to piss off. It required too much energy, I told myself, when in truth, I figured I could let him off this one time since he waited for me while bearing gifts. "Why did you get me coffee?"

"Because you sounded like you needed it." He pointed to my mirror. "By the way, you might want to do something with your hair. You look like shit."

I knew I'd forgotten to do something this morning. One glimpse of the frizzy mess on top of my head, and a new wave of panic rose into my throat. I dug around my bag to find the hair tie I kept on hand for just such emergencies. A minute later, I'd managed to pull my hair up into a somewhat tame bun.

Brett remained right by my locker, looking at my shirt with a bemused grin.

Uncomfortable warmth crawled up my neck. "What are you waiting for?"

"We're already late, and you still haven't given me the bottle for Junior here."

I pulled it out of my bag, grateful I'd remembered to put it in there during the morning insanity. "Is that all?"

"For now. Love the Monty Python quote, by the way. Very appropriate." His grin widened. "See you in class."

He turned around and continued on to whatever he had for first period.

I glanced down at the shirt I'd put on this morning and groaned as I read it. "Huge Tracts of Land." Lovely. At least he got the reference.