Ripped [TO BE PUBLISHED 2016]

27

"Look, babe. I don't like her. I never actually liked her."

"You slept with her! How can you say you didn't like her?" He slept with me? Is that what he's telling people now? That bastard.

He stumbles on his words. "I...you...I have..."

"What? You have hormones? Am I not enough for you?" She bursts into tears, and he catches her, wrapping his arms around her minuscule waist, the crook of his arm wrapping perfectly across her sharp hipbones.

He doesn't look up. He doesn't have to. I back away from the corner, out of view. My back hugs the wall as I slide down it. The floor is cold, stained. Half-finished homework and halfhearted love notes are crumpled on the tiles.

"I told you he'd pick her over you."

"I know," I say, pushing myself off of the ground, then her out of the way as I force the double doors open. I'm greeted by a biting wind and small, indecipherable snowflakes.

I take out my pack as Cassie hands me a lighter.

My lungs sigh with relief.

"Let's go. He's not worth it. This place isn'tworth it. You blew it." She drops her cigarette into a small mound of growingsnow, the cold holding to the tips of the blunt already.