Free Something True by Jessica Roe Page A

mainly.”
    “Do you think you might wanna try dating him?”
    “I don't know,” I repeat, getting frustrated – mostly with myself, but I'm fully prepared to take it out on her. That's how I know Blair really is my BFF, because we can give each other a hard time and still love each other after.
    “You must know,” she continues, not willing to give me a break. “Deep down. Do you want to be with him, yes or no?”
    “I. Don't. Know!” I protest. We're both getting annoyed now. “It's complicated.”
    “No it's not. Yes or no, Ibbie? Yes or no?”
    “I don't-”
    “Yes or no?”
    “Blair-”
    “Yes or no?”
    “Yes!” I yell, and then I freeze when I realize what she was doing. She was pulling an answer from me because she knew I'd never be able to come to a decision on my own. Damn it, she's a sneaky son of a gun!
    Her grin is triumphant. “Ha!”
    “No,” I say. “I don't mean. . . How can I want to be with him just because he was nice to me for one night? It doesn't make up for an entire year of him being awful.”  
    She scoffs, arching one of those perfect eyebrows at me. Girl's got some strong eyebrow game going on. “Yeah, because you were so innocent. You remember the time you put that stuff in his drink to turn his pee blue?”
    I smile at the memory of him leaving the bathroom looking seriously freaked out. “Oh yeah, that was a good one. But he totally started this whole thing. I tried to be nice to him when we first met.”
    “Well I think the two of you have had sexual tension the whole time. That's all it is. Sometimes people just can't express when they like each other. I remember back when I was falling for Silver I used to make fun of him all the time. Mostly just to get his attention, I think.”
    “You still do that.”
    She grins. “I still want his attention.”
    I pink her cheek. “You're so friggin' cute.”
    Slapping my hand away, she asks, “So what are you gonna do about Walt?”
    “Do?” I blink. “Nothing!”
    “Don't you think you should at least talk to him?”
    “Um, no. He said he was going to give me a month, therefore I have a month to hide out in my apartment and do nothing.”
    “Seriously, you're just gonna wait? And stew? And get all up in your head about everything when you could just confront him?”
    “You waited when Silver left you for three months.”  
    She rolls her eyes at my sullen pettiness. “Because I was still in high school and he was still a teacher. But you and I, Ibbs, we're not high school kids anymore. We don't have to sit around waiting for life to happen to us. We can just live it.”  
    I stand up, throwing my hands in the air and refusing to admit that she's making sense. Mostly because I don't want to admit it. “You're so annoying! Why are you being so pushy?”  
    Her arms fold across her chest and she glares at me. “Because I know you like him. And I just want to see you happy. Because I love you to bits!”
    “Yeah well. . .I love you to bits and pieces. AND PIECES!”
    We continue to scowl at each other for almost a whole minute before we finally lose steam, both realizing that as far as arguments go, this one was pretty lame. Neither of us are good at fighting each other.
    Blair is the first to cave and smile at how dumb we are. “That was fun.”
    I sit back next to her. “Yeah, we should argue more often.”
    She nudges me with her shoulder. “You need to talk to him.”
    “I know.” I nod, because she's right. Even if it's just to get answers to the squillion gazillion questions zooming around in my brain, I really do have to talk to Walt. “So seriously, it's been over a month and you haven't even made one teeny, tiny little wedding plan yet?”
    A long sigh escapes her as she shrugs. “It's just that. . .I want to be married to him more than anything, but I don't know if I can deal with the stress of a big wedding. I'm not that kind of girl, you know? If I could, I'd just drag him away to some hot beach