Maybe Someday(51)

shut up, shut up! Christ! I don’t know why you think I’m deaf, and I’m definitely not a whore, and I’m not using sign language to flirt with

Warren. I don’t even know sign language. And from now on, please stop yelling when you speak

to me!”

Bridgette cocks her pretty little head, and her

mouth hangs open in shock. She silently stares at

me for several seconds. No one in the room

makes a move. She turns her attention to Warren,

and the anger in her eyes is replaced with hurt.

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She immediately looks away once the hurt takes

over, and she heads straight back to her room.

I glance over to see Ridge staring at me, more

than likely wondering what the hell just

happened. I lean my head back against the couch

and sigh.

I was hoping that would feel good, but it didn’t

feel good at all.

“Well,” Warren says, “there goes my chance to

act out all the role-playing scenes I’ve been ima-

gining. Thanks a lot, Sydney.”

“Screw you, Warren,” I say, understanding a

little bit where Bridgette’s attitude comes from.

I slide my book off my lap and stand up, then

walk to Bridgette’s door. I knock, but she doesn’t

open it. I knock again, turn the knob, and push

the door slightly open to peek inside.

“Bridgette?”

A pillow meets the back of the door with a

thud. “Get the hell out of my room!”

I ignore her and open the door a little further

until I can see her. She’s sitting on her bed, with

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her knees pulled up to her chest. When she sees

me coming into her room, she quickly wipes her

eyes, then turns the other way.

She’s crying, and now I really feel shitty. I

walk to her bed and sit on the edge of it, as far

out of her reach as possible. I may feel bad, but

I’m still scared to death of her.

“I’m sorry,” I say.

She rolls her eyes and falls back onto the bed

in a huff. “You are not,” she says. “I don’t blame

you. I deserved it.”

I tilt my head. Did she really just admit that

she deserved it? “I’m not gonna lie, Bridgette.

You are kind of a bitch.”

She laughs softly, then folds her arm over her

eyes. “God, I know. I just get so annoyed with

people, but I can’t help it. It’s not like it’s my

goal in life to be a bitch.”

I lie back on the bed with her. “So don’t be

one, then. It takes way more effort to be a bitch

than it does to not be one.”

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She shakes her head. “You can say that be-

cause you’re not a bitch.”

I sigh. She may not think I’m a bitch, but I

sure have been feeling like one lately. “For what

it’s worth, I’m more evil than you might think. I

may not express my feelings in quite the same

fashion as you, but I definitely have evil

thoughts. And lately, evil intentions. I’m begin-

ning to think I’m not as nice as I always thought I

was.”

Bridgette doesn’t respond to my admission for

a few quiet moments. She finally sighs heavily

and sits up on the bed. “Can I ask you

something? Now that I know you can actually an-

swer me?”

I sit up, too, and nod.

“Are you and Warren . . .” She pauses. “You

guys seem to get along really well, and I was

curious if . . .”

I smile, because I know where she’s going

with this, and I interrupt her string of thought.

“Warren and I are friends, and we could never be

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more than friends. He’s sort of oddly infatuated

with this bitchy Hooters waitress he knows.”

Bridgette smiles, but then she quickly stops

smiling and looks straight at me. “How long has

Warren known that I thought you were deaf?”

I think back on the past few weeks. “Since the

morning after I moved in?” I wince, knowing

Warren’s about to experience the side of Brid-

gette we all know too well. “But please go easy

on him, Bridgette. As strangely as you two show

it, he really does like you. He might even love

you, but he was drunk when he said that, so I

don’t know for sure.”

If it’s possible to hear a heart stop, I just heard

hers come to a screeching halt. “He said that?”

I nod. “A couple of weeks ago. We were leav-

ing the club, and he was wasted, but he said

something about how he’s pretty sure he might

love you. I probably shouldn’t be telling you this,

though.”

She drops her eyes to the floor and is quiet for

several seconds, then looks back up at me. “You

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know, most things people say when they’re drunk