Bad for You (Sea Breeze #7)(33)

Was she who he was doing in his apartment earlier? I tore my gaze off him and looked back at her. The smug smile she wore on her face said that yes, she was in fact who I had heard screaming his name and begging him to do it harder. My face heated, and I turned to look at the house. I had to deal with this. It was life as Krit’s friend.

“Blythe?” Krit’s voice called my name, and I tensed up. Crappity, crap, crap. I didn’t want to talk to him just yet. My stomach still felt sick and knotted up. I was sure my face was red too. Why was my face red? It wasn’t like I had anything to be embarrassed about. I hated the fact that I acted like an idiot in situations I wasn’t familiar with.

Amanda’s hand touched my arm, and I knew that if I was going to salvage this friendship with Krit, I had to turn around and act like nothing was wrong. Like seeing him with this girl I had heard him with earlier wasn’t hard on me. Forcing a smile onto my face, I turned back to look at him.

“Hey,” I replied as I watched him walk toward me in big purposeful strides, like he was afraid I was about to bolt and he was getting to me before I could. The pink-and-white-striped gift bag in his hand caught my attention. It looked so girly and out of place with him. That made me really smile.

“What are you doing here?’ he asked, and that snapped me out of my moment. He sounded angry. Oh no. Was coming here stepping too far? I should have asked him if this was okay. I assumed he wouldn’t mind, but he hadn’t asked me to come with him. He had asked the tall goddess with him instead.

“Uh, Trisha invited me. We had lunch today. I, uh . . .” He still looked upset. This was bad. I had messed up again. And this time I knew what I had done wrong. “I’m sorry. I should have asked you if you were okay with me coming. I thought your sister would have told you. I didn’t think.”

Krit ran his hand through his hair as the frustrated look on his face only intensified. I needed to leave.

I turned to Amanda and handed my gift to her. “Take this in, will you? Tell Trisha I said thanks so much for inviting me, but I have something I forgot that I can’t miss. A study thing for one of my classes,” I blurted out, and shot Krit an apologetic smile. “I really am sorry,” I said, hoping the tears suddenly clogging my throat weren’t obvious.

“Who are you?” the girl who was now clinging to Krit’s arm asked in a bored tone.

Yet another situation for Krit he hadn’t been prepared for. He kept me neatly in a certain part of his life. He didn’t invite me into other parts of it. I should have thought about him and asked him. “I just . . . I’m his neighbor. Uh, okay. I’m gonna go,” I replied, unable to look at her.

“No, you’re not,” Amanda said as her hand clamped around my arm firmly, surprisingly firmly for someone as small as she was. “This is my friend Blythe. She is also Trisha’s friend, and she’s here for the birthday party because we want her here. Now, if you’ll excuse us.” She turned and headed for the house, pulling me with her. I wasn’t sure I could get my arm free of her tight grip even if I tried. “Don’t look back. Just come on,” she whispered.

What? I needed to leave. She did not understand. “Really, Amanda. I need to go. He doesn’t want me here, and this is his family. I should have asked him.” I was pleading now. If she didn’t let me go, I was going to start begging.

“Krit is an ass. He has always been an ass. And Brittany has a thing for singers. She’s been after Krit for years. Why she is with him, I have no idea, other than to tell you he is an ass.”

This was wrong. Krit was not an ass. I had blindsided him by showing up here. He reacted the way anyone would. “He’s not an ass. I am. I should have asked him if this was okay. I don’t think sometimes.”

Amanda opened the front door and pulled me inside. Then she turned to look at me. She stared at me for a minute, then a sad smile touched her lips. “You are so not an ass. And I love Trisha, but you’re too good for Krit,” she said, then nodded toward the sound of people. “Come on in. This is my mom’s house, but make yourself welcome. Let’s go see the birthday girl and give her this sparkly present she’s gonna love,” she said, handing the gift back to me. “Then we will get you—and me—a drink. I need one after that.”

We rounded a corner and came into a large kitchen that looked like something out of a magazine. Balloons were everywhere, as was the color pink. A tall three-tiered cake sat on the bar with pink and white stripes on one layer, and pink and white polka dots on another layer. Then the top layer was white and had the number nine and the name Daisy in pink. A pink sparkly crown sat on the top. It was the birthday cake of little girls’ dreams.

“That is one fabulous cake,” Amanda said as we entered the room. Trisha spun around, and her smile brightened when she saw us.

“Isn’t it? Can you believe Rock ordered this? He went to the bakery and everything two weeks ago. I told him to get her a princess cake. He sure is an overachiever,” she said with a laugh. “I’m glad Amanda found you and helped you find your way in here. I was going to call Krit and see if you could just ride with him, but then I forgot.”

Oh no. Not a good thing to say when Krit would be coming in behind us at any moment.

“Probably good you didn’t. He came with someone. I’m pretty sure Blythe wouldn’t have wanted to ride with them.” The distaste in Amanda’s tone didn’t go unnoticed by Trisha. She stopped and looked at Amanda. The questions were there in her eyes, but she wasn’t going to ask them with me standing there.