Ripped [TO BE PUBLISHED 2016]

21

"He's never going to like you." She flicks her dead grey ashes onto my mattress. "Not unless you give him what you want."

I give her a sideways glance. "Cassie, I'm fourteen. Do you really think a high school guy would want to have sex with somebody like me?"

"Please," she says, laughing. Her laughs were long and deep. "He's heard the rumors. Everybody thinks you're a slut. Why wouldn't you live that out?"

I frown. "You really think he's heard the rumors?"

She snorts. "Everybody's heard the rumors. You're a legend. You steal the boyfriend of the most popular girl at school and she ends up in a psych ward because of it? That's some great stuff. That's classic."

"I didn't mean to..." I shake my head. I didn't mean to. I never meant to. But I don't think that really mattered.

"Oh, right. It's never your fault, right? Poor innocent Aspen, always the victim. Please. Get over yourself." She lights a cigarette, inhales, exhales. "Boys aren't into that whole self-pity thing. And I'd change your outfit if I were you."

"I'm not changing my clothes, Cassie. What he sees is what he gets."

"Really? So you're giving him nothing? Because that's what I see."

I roll my eyes. She's always so dramatic.

"I don't need to look like a slut to get guys to like me," I say. Maybe I didn't want guys to like me, anyways.

"Yes you do," she says. "All you want is for guys to like you. You're a terrible person that way." Her tone is flat and serious. She's not joking. Not even slightly.

Maybe she's right.

"I have one dress..." Her face perks up, and she smiles. I go to my closet and pull it out. It's black, with a short hem and a low scoop. ""My mother bought it for my fourteenth birthday. I've never worn it."

"That's good. That's my girl."