The Art & Science of Making Guy Friends (& What to do When They Fall in Love)

[16] Adaptive Radiation Bitches

If I thought carpooling with Roscoe was bad before school started, it only got worse after. Like a lot worse.

When you're one of Pepperwood's most eligible bachelors, after school is peak hunting season. Groupies come out of the woodwork. Or that is when he decided to hold office hours, I'm not really sure.

After getting burned, and by that, I mean, waiting outside in the scorching hot parking lot for an hour each day, for almost two weeks, I decided that today was the day that I broke free from Roscoe Tate.

I may not have a throng of adoring fans waiting for my dick everyday, but I still had shit to do... like take a nap... but it could have been homework or a job for all he knew. I was sick of him wasting my time, I was tired of tip toeing around his moods, I was done.

Roscoe was so insufferable, he'd lost all his appeal to me. He was like a jelly-filled donut, he looked good on the outside, but once you bit into the middle, you gag, you spit it out, and throw it away... or leave it for someone else.

If Coach Brown came down on his ass, that wasn't my problem. Maybe he should have thought about that when he left me outside to bake like a rotisserie chicken.

Shaking my head, I snapped my locker shut and headed towards the biology lab. This was my favorite class and I'd be lying if I said it was just because I loved science.

Despite my best efforts to quash it, I still had a crush on Taylor Arroyo. I thought about him all the time. I replayed that moment in the backseat of Roscoe's car like it'd actually meant something.

I guess, maybe it did mean something? I knew it was cheesy, but I couldn't help it.

I hadn't gone on any dates, I hadn't held a boy's hand, I hadn't cuddled, and I certainly hadn't been kissed. So yeah... (damn I'm a loser)... this was the closest thing I had had to a romantic moment.

Problem was, every other girl at Pepperwood High felt the same way. Well, at least the sophomores did, I couldn't speak to the upper class-men.

I was lucky enough to have two classes with Taylor—biology and Spanish. We'd gotten off to a bit of a rocky start over the last two weeks, but I was crafting a plan to salvage it.

I blame myself for having unrealistically high expectations. I guess, I just assumed that he'd be as warm and friendly as he'd been on prior meetings.

Nope.

It wasn't that he was unfriendly... it was more that he had a lot of other people... COUGH... "actual" girls that caught his attention. And they were really, really, good at it.

I found myself feeling incredibly flustered and disheartened by it all—when had they learned all these tricks?!

Probably while you were perfecting the useless art of pissing guys off, Aria.

Jasmin had this flirty voice and laugh that she could turn on at will, that was so sultry, she could narrate spicy romance novels.

Sofia dressed to accentuate every curve of her body. Many girls possessed this skill. What made Sophia a particularly lethal opponent was the fact that she also knew how to move so that everyone was constantly reminded of what she was packing. Sophia's breasts crossed my mind multiple times during biology class and I don't even like breasts. Imagine if I were a dude? Yeah, Sophia is a "shooting star" woman in training for sure.

Then of course, there was my arch nemesis, Whitney Drew. That snitch ass bitch.

She didn't take the cake in any single category—she wasn't that pretty, she wasn't that sexy, she wasn't that smart—but she was cut throat.