Out with the In Crowd by Stephanie Morrill

Author:Stephanie Morrill [Morrill, Stephanie]
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2009-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

14

Observing our lunch table dynamics, I wondered why people seemed to want whatever they couldn’t have. Even when they’d had and rejected it, oh, a million times before.

Case in point: John practically salivated as he leaned toward Lisa. “So I went to P.F. Chang’s last night, Lisa. Remember that time I ordered the Kung Pao and you didn’t know how hot those peppers were?”

Lisa smiled politely. “Mm-hmm.”

“I hadn’t been there since then.”

“Yeah, me neither.” Lisa turned to Connor. “Hey, you lived in Vegas, right?”

As the two fell into a discussion about best and worst casino buffets, I watched John fidget with the remains of his pizza. He couldn’t keep his eyes off Lisa. Even before he and Alexis broke up last week, there’d been indications that he liked Lisa again. Now he appeared incapable of hiding it, even with Alexis sitting at the table.

Alexis seemed to be doing her best not to pay attention to John. She turned her back to him and spoke to Jodi, who appeared grateful for an excuse to ignore Eli’s sulking. He’d been acting like this all week, ever since she broke up with him. Yeah, we’d clearly crossed the line into incestuous. Time to move on to college, to find new friends.

“How’s the pizza?” I asked Eli, who sat beside me. Not the cleverest of conversation starters, but I wanted to say something.

“Fine.”

“Doesn’t look like it’s swimming in grease, you know?” “Yep.”

Okay, fine. We didn’t need to talk. I’d just been trying to do him a favor.

I returned my attention to eating rather than distracting him. My gaze involuntarily flickered Jodi’s direction. She smirked and turned back to Alexis. In Jodi’s twisted world of revenge, she probably interpreted my talking to Eli as flirting in hopes of making her jealous. And Eli being tight-lipped looked like a rebuff.

Oh, if I wanted to make her jealous, I could. In five minutes I could have him wrapped back around my finger, vanquishing any desire he had for Jodi.

I grinned at Eli, warm and inviting. I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing came out.

He raised his eyebrows. “What?”

I swallowed my baiting words and turned back to my sandwich. “Never mind,” I whispered.

“You sure?”

I nodded, careful to keep my gaze averted. Tears burned my eyes, and I didn’t want to risk him seeing them.

My desire to pay Jodi back lingered beneath the surface, as if waiting for the moment I let my guard down. When would this be over, the battle of the new me against old habits? Would I ever feel like I was making headway?

“In all likelihood, no.” Amy lowered the laundry basket of clean linens to the couch. “But someday you’ll face a difficult situation and realize that not so long ago, you might have handled it poorly, yet you’re no longer tempted to act that way. Then you’ll know you’ve made progress.”

I helped myself to a washcloth and folded it. “I wish it could be more like this. You can see ahead of

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