Tangled Thoughts by Cara Bertrand Page A

yourself. This is
your
place—and you spend all your time in that crappy dorm why?”
    â€œSee?” Amy said. She kicked me with her foot. “I like her.”
    â€œMy dorm is pretty nice,” I countered.
    Serena nodded. “Yeah, actually, it is. But it’s not
here
.” She looked around and I wondered what she was thinking. I felt strange, exposing this side of my life to new people.
    â€œI—” I started to explain, but Serena grinned and waved her hand.
    â€œI get it. You got problems but money ain’t one. It doesn’t bother me.”
    â€œThank you.” It was an odd sentiment, but I couldn’t stop myself from saying it. I shouldn’t feel like I had to apologize for my inheritance. I hadn’t stolen it. Serena and Amy shared a look and if I hadn’t already been regretting coming here for the day, I immediately regretted introducing them. They were too much alike and together were sure to cause me trouble.
    â€œMaybe thank me
now
,” Serena said, pulling a slightly grease-stained brown bag from her satchel and holding it out to me. “Because I brought the goods.”
    I practically dove across the coffee table to snatch it out of her hands. In the apartment, I kept almost no food, only basic non-perishable or frozen things. In other words,
nothing
like the huge, perfect, bacon-egg-and-cheese sandwich I was now stuffing into my face. It was even still a little warm. Heaven.
    â€œThank you,” I mumbled through my full mouth and Serena laughed. While I chewed, my friends continued to bond against me.
    â€œSo you’re the genius I always hear about?” Serena asked.
    â€œEvery fabulous inch of me.”
    â€œSo you couldn’t, like, calculate the ratio of alcohol to food to body weight or whatever and not get drunk?”
    I snorted, and Amy pulled out one of her most dramatic sighs. “I
could
have, I suppose, but I was distracted by shirtless bass players and Lainey flirting with Mr. H.O.T., aka Hot Older TA.” Shit. If I’d been close enough, I’d have made Serena forget Amy just said that. Instead, I had to settle for smacking my best friend probably harder than I should have. “Ow.”
    Serena looked back and forth between the two of us, and before I finished swallowing to say
something
, she said, “A hot TA?
Our
TA? J. Kensington?”
    Amy positively glittered. “If the J. Stands for Jack, then yeah. Oh, yeah.”
    â€œI
wasn’t
flirting,” I finally got out.
    It was Amy’s turn to snort. I glared daggers at her, but when did that ever do anything but encourage her? “You were Lainey-flirting so hard.”
    â€œI don’t even know what that means!”
    â€œ
I
do,” Serena said. “I’ve seen you in class. You’re most deadly when you’re
not
flirting, doing your whole sweet-and-innocent thing.”
    â€œI’m not—it’s not a thing!” I interjected, but they were ignoring me now.
    Amy did her best—which was really good—impression of my voice. She flipped a piece of hair over her shoulder. “Hi helpless boy, I’m over here blushing and stammering atop my mile-long legs. Which do you want to do first: fall in love with me or buy me a beer?”
    â€œI still haven’t decided against killing you. Remember that.” I flicked my fingers at her before I got up to throw out my trash. I knew full well they were going to continue talking about this as soon as I stepped away. So I listened from the kitchen, curious yet hating myself for it at the same time.
    â€œAre you busting her balls or is this serious?” Serena asked. She’d lowered her voice, but I could still hear them just fine.
    â€œBoth,” Amy admitted. I could hear her shifting on the couch, probably rolling over so she could better see Serena’s reaction.
    â€œYou better tell me
all
of it! I
thought
he always seems a little