I Meet the Mutt [CURRENTLY BEING EDITED]

15 | Someone Disses My Party

"You know, you never actually told me what's going on with that Mutt of yours." I was surprised to see Emma leaning casually against the locker next to mine as if nothing had happened over the past week. But after our confessions in Ian's house, we all agreed we wouldn't let this storm separate the Fantastic Four.

I shrugged, slamming my locker shut as I shouldered my backpack uncomfortably. That vengeful, angry emotion I'd felt at the library came pouring back in waves, but I shook my head, trying to rid it out of my mind. "Ah, not much. We're just...friends."

Emma stopped, peering into my face. "Angie," she said in a warning voice, "what are you not telling me?"

Dammit. She's caught me now.

Oh yeah, I'll make sure to add get better at lying to my bucket list.

"Okay, so...yesterday, before I went to Ian's place, I was at the library," I explained and shoved my hands in my pockets, hoping they'd stop sweating.

"Right," she said. "Go on."

This is going to be really fucking embarrassing, I thought to myself, before blurting out, "And he was with some girl. Maybe a junior or sophomore or something. I think he was tutoring her, but—" I caught sight of a devilish smirk on her face and frowned. "What?"

"Nothing," Emma replied gleefully, purposely glancing around at everything but me. "Do continue. I'm very interested to see how this turns out."

Suspiciously, I furrowed my eyebrows but went on. "Yeah, well, I think they were flirting—or at least she was. She kept on...like, running her fingers all over his arms and ugh." I physically shuddered, provoking Emma to silently start laughing and giggling. "Don't laugh!" I reprimanded her sternly.

"Sorry," she coughed out through her chuckles. "I wasn't laughing at you. I swear." She then very disbelievingly patted her throat as if it were made of slime. "You know. Allergies. Itchy throat. That sort of thing."

I gave her a deadpanned look. "It's in the middle of winter, smartass."

"Who says you can't have allergies in the winter? Maybe I'm allergic to the change in season."

"As I was saying," I said, trying to act dignified, "when she was—flirting—with him, I felt this weird thing in my stomach. Like a beast. One that wanted to, I don't know, flip over the table and shove it up her ass."

"Gross."

"Yeah, I know."

Emma opened the door to our classroom for me, with Vampy staring us down as she did so. "Wait—this feeling you describe. Beast. Whatever. Did it make you feel a little possessive? Almost like the girl didn't deserve Josh?"

"Well...now that you say it, yeah, it did," I admitted, then scowled. "Hold on a second. You can't think...."

She sighed, grinning good-naturedly. "Angie, that feeling right there was your first taste of jealousy."

I was so astonished and offended that I backed up and ultimately hit my head on the damn pencil sharpener nailed to the wall. "Good God, I didn't know these things still exist," I muttered to myself while swearing under my breath.

"I know right? I swear, sometimes our school is so downgraded I forget we're not in the 1990s," Emma added on, rolling her eyes as she dropped her backpack on the floor with a sound akin to elephants stomping.

Ruefully, I said, "Please, if we were in the 1990s, you'd be bouncing all over the place with your crazy obsession with the Beatles and South Park."