Free Dante’s Girl by Courtney Cole Page A

“I can’t explain it.  I just know it because I know him.”
    Well, that’s helpful.  I want to know exactly how she knows so that I know if it is just drunken musing or if it actually has credibility.  Which it doesn’t, because there is no way on God’s green earth that Dante likes me. 
    “But what about Elena?” I ask her. 
    I figure I might as well get as much information as I can tonight while Mia’s still chatty.  And by chatty , I just mean ‘pump her for information while she’s drunk’.  I should feel guilty, but I don’t.  I like Mia and I’ll never tell anyone anything that she says.  It’s for my info only.
    Mia snorts. “Elena is a bitch.  Utter and complete bitch.” 
    Tell me something I don’t know , I think. 
    “What makes you say that?” I actually say. 
    Mia stares at me incredulously, her green eyes slightly unfocused.  “Have you actually spoken with her?  Utter bith.” 
    Oh, great.  And now she’s slurring.  And she’s leaning more and more on me.  For such a little thing, she’s actually kind of heavy and my arm is going to sleep.
    “Just because their fathers are friends, she thinks she’s going to marry Dante.  And connect their families and then they’ll have wine and olives.”
    “She owns a winery?”I ask, appalled again. 
    I own cows.  Elena owns wine.  What’s wrong with this picture?
    “Her father owns a winery,” Mia corrected.  “But it will be hers someday.  She wants to marry Dante and he probably will because he likes to please his father.  Dante is a pleaser,” she explains.  “He always does what is expected of him.  But that’s a shame.  Because he likes you.  Oh, look.  Speak of the she-devil now.”
    I follow Mia’s drunken gaze and my breath freezes in my throat.  Even though it is cold out here on the water, colder than a witch’s you-know-what, there stands Elena, draped on Dante’s arm and wearing a miniscule, barely-there white bikini. 
    And she is beautiful. 
    And her boobs are hanging all over Dante.
    And I hate her. 
    And as she turns and locks eyes with me, I can see that she hates me too.
     
     
     

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Chapter Nine
     
    I settle Mia on a folding lawn chair, making sure she has a bottle of water before I leave her.  I turn back to look and she’s curled around the bottle, her head slumped on the arm of the chair.  She’ll be passed out within the minute.
    I look around and marvel at this party.  They really know how to do a party up right here.  Someone has lugged in countless folding chairs, tables, coolers, and cookware.  They are boiling seafood and heating what looks to be butter.  I can’t imagine how long it took to lug all of this stuff in.  And I try to imagine kids from back home doing this, but there’s no way.  They wouldn’t go to all of this trouble.  We just sit on old logs at the river and drink from red plastic cups.
    “Reece!”
    Dante waves from a seat near the fire.  He’s holding what appears to be a giant claw and I gulp as I make my way to him. 
    “Do you like crab?” he asks. 
    “I don’t know,” I answer.  “I’ve never had it.”
    He looks at me as though I’ve suddenly grown another head.
    “You’ve never had it?” Elena asks disdainfully. I didn’t even realize she was standing there.  “How is that even possible?”
    I stare at her coolly.  “I grew up in the middle of the United States, a thousand miles from the nearest ocean.  Fresh seafood isn’t exactly easy to come by there.”
    “Ah, right,” Elena pretends to remember.  “You’re a little farm girl.  You’ve never experienced culture.  Well, welcome to Caberra, sweetie.”
    She waves her arm in a sweeping, condescending gesture and I found that I would like to break it.  Her arm, I mean.
    “We’ve got plenty of culture,” I reply through my teeth.  “Just not an ocean nearby.”
    I turn my back on her and sit in the empty seat next to Dante.  I’m surprised that