Switch Read online

  up to pul her by the elbow onto the sidewalk.

  "You sure you'l be al right?" The chily night air had done a pretty good job of sobering me up, but I wasn't

  reconsidering my rendezvous with Austin. At least not yet.

  Kira nodded. "Fine."

  She didn't look fine, she looked pissed off. I glanced out

  onto the street. Lots of cops. No cabs. I'd only turned

  away for a few seconds, but when I turned back to face

  her, Kira's expression had turned stormy.

  "You asshole!" She took a couple of steps forward, her

  heel catching on a crack in the sidewalk, and stumbled.

  Jack.

  With an inward sigh, I went after her. Jack was with the

  same woman from earlier and he did his best to ignore

  same woman from earlier and he did his best to ignore

  Kira. I saw him give his date a pained glance she

  answered with a shrug, and they started walking.

  "Hey, Jack! Jackass! Don't you walk away from me!"

  "C'mon, Kira, don't." I didn't blame him for ignoring her. I was a little less pleased he was also actively ignoring me,

  even though I knew it was realy for the best, al around.

  "He's not worth it!"

  "Fuck you, Jack!" Kira couldn't let it go, apparently.

  Jack grimaced and puled his cap from his back pocket.

  He put it on, but didn't look at her. We hadn't gone more

  than another few steps down the sidewalk when Kira

  launched herself at his back.

  Jack stumbled forward as she slammed into him, her legs

  and arms flying. She didn't actualy manage to hit him more

  than once or twice, but the spectators leaped out of the

  way of her drunken tornado performance. She was

  shrieking insults, mostly stupid and incoherent ones.

  Jack gave me an angry look that pissed me off. It wasn't

  like I'd told Kira he and I had hooked up or anything. Her

  issues with him were his own problem and had nothing to

  issues with him were his own problem and had nothing to

  do with me. He pushed her off him firmly and grabbed her

  arm at the same time so she wouldn't fal. She kept trying

  to hit him and missing.

  "Stop it," Jack told her and gave her arm a little shake

  before letting her go. When she flew at him again she

  managed to knock his cap off. I stepped forward, wishing

  I'd gone with Austin and left Kira to her theatrics alone.

  This was a scene I realy didn't want to see.

  "I hope your Prince Albert fucking rips out and you have

  to piss through three holes!" Kira screamed.

  "Kira, c'mon." I reached for her.

  Kira alowed herself to be led away, stil shouting insults.

  By the time we got to the parking garage the crowd had

  thinned and we had a better shot at hailing a cab. I rubbed

  my bare arms and shivered, but Kira had anger as her

  cloak and she danced back and forth on the nubbly

  pavement, waving her hands and muttering curses.

  "He's not worth it," I repeated. "Jesus, Kira. What's wrong with you?"

  "He's a jackass," she said sulenly. Her makeup had

  smeared, her hair tangled. She needed to be in bed.

  Fuck. I wanted to be in bed, and not alone. Yet here I

  was, instead, babysitting her while she had a tantrum about

  some guy she'd had a crush on a milion years ago but had

  never even dated.

  I didn't correct her, even though I didn't agree. "You're

  drunk. Cal Tony. Go home."

  She sniffed and crossed her arms. "Oh, you don't care!

  You're going to screw Austin. What difference does it

  make to you if my heart is broken?"

  I laughed and knew I'd made a mistake by the way her

  brows puled low over her smeared eyes. "Your heart's

  not broken. You didn't even go out with him. He doesn't

  even have the Prince Albert anymore."

  She glared at me. I thought suddenly she was maybe way

  less wasted than I'd thought. "Did you fuck Jack?"

  "It was ages ago."

  "You fucked Jack?" Kira's fist clenched at her sides, then

  "You fucked Jack?" Kira's fist clenched at her sides, then opened as her shoulders slumped. "I thought you were my

  friend!"

  "Kira, it was years ago, and you weren't—"

  "That doesn't matter!" she cried, and I knew she was right.

  "You knew how I felt about him! I loved him!"

  I'd never loved him. At least there was that. "I'm sorry."

  Kira whipped her phone from her purse and stabbed the

  buttons with her fingernail. She turned her back to me. I

  should've counted myself lucky she didn't try to punch me

  in the face the way she'd done Jack. As it was, I was cold

  and my stomach had begun to churn.

  "Your sorry is shit." Kira spoke into the phone next. "It's me. Come pick me up. Yeah, I know what time it is. I'l be

  waiting at Tom's Diner on Second Street. Harrisburg, you

  'tard."

  She hung up and stalked off down the sidewalk without

  looking back.

  "Kira!" She flipped me the bird without even pausing.

  There was no way I was going to run after her, not in my

  There was no way I was going to run after her, not in my

  four-inch fuck-me pumps. I managed a hobble, though.

  "Kira, c'mon. Wait."

  "You're supposed to be my friend," she said, and the quiet affront in her tone was worse than an insult or a punch.

  "God, Paige. Just because you can doesn't always mean

  you should, you know? This isn't high school anymore."

  I stopped trying to folow her. "No shit, realy? And caling

  out some dude on the street when he's with another girl,

  that's not straight out of high school?"

  "That's different!"

  "How is it different?"

  "You knew how I felt about Jack!" Kira shouted.

  We'd have attracted more attention if it wasn't Friday night

  just after the bars al closed, but as it was we were just

  two more drunk sluts fighting over a guy. In high school I'd

  have shouted back at her, maybe even done a little hair

  puling.

  But as we'd already established, we weren't in high school

  But as we'd already established, we weren't in high school

  anymore.

  I trapped my tongue between my teeth to stop myself from

  shouting back, but even then my voice came out clipped

  and sharp. "I said I was sorry. You weren't with him. You

  never even dated him. And you weren't even speaking to

  me at the time."

  She faltered for a moment, her lashes batting and her

  mouth working as though she meant to say something

  realy awful but could only come up with "…Yeah, wel.

  You shouldn't have."

  I didn't point out the number of boys I'd liked that Kira

  had fucked, or tried to fuck, or lied about fucking just to

  needle me. I said nothing, just stared, and she at last had

  the grace to cut her gaze from mine. She shrugged instead

  of speaking.

  If you're lucky, the friends you make when you're sixteen

  stay with you for the rest of your life. If you're smart, you

  know when it's time to let them go. I stopped walking. I

  watched her walk toward the diner, where drunk and

  hungry people would order eggs and stiff the waitress