Free The Next Forever by Lisa Burstein Page A

Trevor laughed.
    I could feel Joe’s eyes on me as he walked toward us, leaving the girl and his shirt across the street.
    Maybe I could have walked over to him, but Joe was the one who’d lied. I may have been on the porch of a house party with some guy, but it’s not like I told him I’d be doing needlepoint all night.
    “Amy, what are you doing here?” Joe asked, rubbing his bare arms.
    “That’s what you’re going with?” Trevor asked before I could even respond.
    “Who are you?” Joe asked again, his eyes squinting in a way I wasn’t used to seeing—Joe to the rescue in a very different way.
    “Trevor,” Trevor replied. “I go out with a shirt on.”
    Joe looked down. I saw him turn red. Saw his hands fist and go into his pockets. I knew how hard it was for him to keep them steady, but he was doing it. “It looks like you go out with other guys’ girlfriends.”
    “Only when they say yes,” Trevor said, putting his arm around me.
    I shook him off, even though I wanted to let him, considering I still didn’t know what the story was between Joe and Slutty McSlutterson.
    “You might want to move away from her,” Joe said.
    “What will you do if I don’t?” Trevor asked. I could hear his chest puffing out under his leather jacket.
    “I’m walking around without a shirt on,” Joe said. “Do you really want to question how crazy I can get?”
    “Joe, stop,” I said.
    “I don’t think you should be starting with me,” Trevor said, “considering you have a little friend of your own.”
    “I’m not out with her. She’s drunk, and I’m walking her home,” Joe said.
    “Who the hell is that?” I whisper yelled, trying to keep Trevor out of our conversation, even though it was clear he wanted in. But I needed to know who that skank was across the street with her boobs all up in my boyfriend’s polo shirt.
    “Just a girl I met tonight,” Joe said, like that was supposed to explain everything.
    “Why are you walking her home?” I asked, even though I knew. Joe couldn’t help but save.
    Joe looked at me, knowing what I knew and that he wished it could have been me standing across the street, waiting and needing him to walk me home.
    “You going to leave her standing over there like that?” Trevor asked.
    “Why, you looking for someone else to hit on?” Joe spat.
    “What the hell do you care?” I asked.
    “Call her over here at least,” Trevor said. “She looks like a hooker who raided Tiger Woods’s closet standing there all alone.”
    Joe looked at me, his eyes waiting for my permission. I nodded only because I wanted this done, and the quicker she got over here, the quicker it would be.
    “Emily,” Joe said, yelling for her and waving his hand back, the same gesture that someone makes when he’s trying to get a better smell of something, but larger.
    “First-name basis,” Trevor said, raising his eyebrows.
    “Bite me,” Joe said.
    “Looks like someone already did,” Trevor said, indicating the hickeys on Joe’s chest and stomach. “I’m hoping those are yours and if so, good job,” he added, looking at me.
    I didn’t speak. My throat felt like it had fallen to the bottom of my feet. I had forgotten they were there and Joe was walking around shirtless with them out for anyone to see. So he could give some slut his shirt and our secrets, red and raw and beautiful, weren’t secret anymore.
    “This is Emily,” Joe said, indicating the shivering girl next to him. Up close I realized she was the kind of girl who in high school was cute but not popular and makes up for that in college. Also her hair was the color of Vaseline.
    “Is this Amy?” Emily asked.
    “It is,” Joe said.
    “She’s prettier than I thought she would be,” Emily said.
    “Fuck you,” I replied. I instantly hated her for more than just the fact that she was standing next to my boyfriend. I hoped to never have to see her naked ass again. She could keep Joe’s shirt now that it had her boob