Offensive Behavior (Sidelined #1) by Ainslie Paton

together. What harm can it do? Why are
you so against this? You said he was trying to make up for being a douche that
night in the alley.”
    “He is.
I just. It’s just.” Even Melinda had stopped changing, to look at Zarley. She
was half Flashdance , one hot pink leg warmer on, one off. She felt
herself blushing. She liked these girls but they didn’t know about her past and
she didn’t want them all over her present, and admitting what happened with
Reid was too much detail, plus there was no reason to embarrass him.
    She’d
knelt at his feet for heaven’s sake and he’d had an erection, even though he
could barely stand upright. Cara knew how that night had gone down, had
listened to Zarley tell the story of it with her normal fidgeting stunned to
stillness, and no one else needed to. “He sent the flowers, okay.”
    “Hah,
knew it wasn’t some mystery boyfriend,” said Kathryn.
    “Why’d
you go telling us that porky?” said Lizabeth at the same time as Melinda said,
“You lied.”
    “Because
I didn’t want this.” She slapped both hands on her thighs. It was a nervous
gesture she used to make before attempting a difficult vault, before the points
scoring started, at the height of her anxiety about messing the skill up. “I
didn’t want this fuss, you all up in my business and a big deal made of it.”
    “Well
done,” said Melinda, dryly.
    “Wait,
wait, wait.” Lizabeth plucked an oriental lily from the three dozen Reid had
delivered. “It’s okay that you know about Kathryn’s quizzes and my little health
scare and Mel’s cheating heart.”
    “Hey,”
said Melinda. “You’re calling a suspected pregnancy a health scare.”
    Lizabeth
ignored Melinda and twirled the flower. “But when your life walks in this door
and gives us hay fever you don’t share.”
    The new
girl sneezed, which thoroughly underlined the point.
    Put
like that, Zarley felt stupid keeping her secret. What did it matter if she
told them Reid got sick, that she’d taken him home to his lonely drug den where
he’d passed out?
    It
mattered. It just mattered. She’d had a lifetime of too many people knowing too
many intimate details about her: height, weight, mood, diet, right down to when
she was ovulating. She didn’t wish that on anyone else.
    “He
sent the flowers because he saw what happened in the alley with that guy, and was
an asshole about it. But I don’t want this to go any further. He wanted to take
me out to apologize and I said no.”
    “That’s
why you were out on the floor,” said Kathryn. She took the lily out of
Lizabeth’s hand and put it back in the beer jug that served as a vase. “At
least it wasn’t roses.”
    “Now he
thinks he can get me to go out with him if he takes us all. He tried to bargain
with me. Said he wouldn’t drink here anymore if I went out with him.”
    “You’ve
seen him up close, does he smell bad, does he drool, touch himself all the
time? How bad could it be to let the guy buy you a meal?” said Kathryn.
    Zarley
snapped her fingers. “He thinks he can buy me.”
    “True,”
said Vi. “Wallet stuffed with cash. I think I could’ve taken more from him.” She
pursed her lips in annoyance.
    “Drug
money,” said Melinda and it broke the tension, they all laughed. “It probably
is, and that’s not funny.”
    “I
think it’s hella funny and I can’t see what’s wrong with us all having a spend
of Mr. Back Booth’s drug money for a nice meal,” said Lizabeth.
    Zarley
tensed all the way to her toes. “No, please. He’s trying to manipulate me.”
    Lizabeth
looked to Vi. “Does the offer stand without her?”
    “I
checked. It does.”
    Lizabeth
clapped her hands together then made as if she was diving. “Then I’m in.”
    Kathryn
mock backstroked. “Me too.”
    “Why
the heck not?” said Vi. “You might as well come too, Therese.”
    Ah,
that was Tiffany’s real name. “Suit yourselves, I’m not going.”
    Zarley
turned away to sort her costumes