Lawton's voice was also quiet. "She's different. I like her. Really like her. Don't fuck this up for me."
I felt myself smile. I liked him too. Lawton was nothing like I'd expected, but everything I'd fantasized about. And he was sticking up for me. It made me feel warm all over.
"Why?" the other guy said. "Because she's got a pulse?"
My smile faded.
"No," Lawton said. "And I told you, stop being a dick about it."
"I'll stop being a dick when you stop being stupid."
"So," Lawton said, a new edge to his voice, "I can fuck Brittney and Amber and whoever else shows up from one side of the house to the other, and you don't say jack. But when there's someone I really like, you're an asshole about it. Is that how it is?"
My stomach clenched as my emotions flip-flipped from disgust to elation and back again. Brittney and Amber. Lawton wasn't talking about tonight. Was he?
"Don't forget," Bishop said, his voice harder too, "that I'm the one who got rid of them for you. So maybe you should be thanking me instead of giving me shit."
The sick feeling grew and churned. Sure, I'd known Brittney and Amber might've been here tonight, and I realized that Lawton might've slept with one or both of them at some time or another. Somehow I hadn't envisioned them getting together right before I showed up.
Maybe it shouldn't have mattered. It's not like Lawton knew I'd be coming over tonight. And it's not like he and I were an item or anything. But still, the whole idea made me feel just a little bit sick.
"Listen," Lawton said, "if you say one word to Chloe about Brittney – or any other girl – you can get in your car and leave right now."
"Yeah? Well, what about our little side venture?" Bishop asked. "Planning to handle it alone?"
"That has nothing to do with this."
"You know she wouldn't like it," Bishop said. "Girls like that never do."
"That has nothing to do with her."
"You know what?" Bishop said. "Maybe youshouldjust go ahead and fuck her."
Lawton's voice was tight. "What?"
"Yeah," Bishop said. "Go ahead, I'll wait."
"What the hell'sthatsupposed to mean?"
"It means," Bishop said, "the sooner you have her, the sooner you'll move on."
"Not with her," Lawton said. "She's different."
"'Cause she's supposedly the neighbor?" Bishop said. "Yeah, that's real smart."
Listening, I felt a shiver creep up my bare legs and dance across my spine. Supposedly? What did he mean by that?
Lawton's voice was hard. "We done here?"
"Almost. Listen, I didn't want to say anything, but while you two were doing whatever –" he said "whatever" like we'd been kicking puppies, " – I checked out her house."
My mouth fell open. He what?
"You what?" Lawton said.
Yeah, that's what I wanted to know.
"Get pissed all you want," Bishop said. "But hear me out. She's not just some neighbor girl. I don’t know what her story is. But she doesn't live there, never has."
