Complete Nothing (True Love #2)(23)
I sighed and glanced at my vanity table. Somehow, a makeover seemed exhausting.
At that moment the door to my room opened, and my best friend, Lauren, bounded in. Her black curls bounced around her face, and she wore baggy sweats with a wide-necked T-shirt from the Studio. She flicked the lights on, and I saw that she’d bitten her nails to the nub, the green polish we’d applied just yesterday jagged and chipped. We’d already spoken on the phone, so she’d heard the whole story.
“Ice cream?” she demanded.
“Don’t judge. She’s heartbroken,” Casey said.
“I’m not judging!” Lauren replied, crawling onto the bed. “Gimme!”
I sucked off my spoon and gave it to her. Gross, I know, but we were besties. We shared food and drinks all the time. So far neither one of us had died. Casey wrinkled her nose, then rose gracefully from her side of the bed and walked over to my closet. She kicked aside the huge basket full of goodies I’d gathered so I could make the perfect basket for Peter for this weekend—such fun that would be, making a spirit basket for the guy who’d just dumped me—and started to flick through my clothes with her practiced fashionista eye.
“So? How are you doing?” Lauren asked, licking a bit of chocolate off her lip.
“She’s fine,” Casey replied over her shoulder. “She doesn’t need a guy to complete her.”
“But this is Peter we’re talking about,” Lauren said, wide-eyed. “You guys are soul mates.”
My heart twisted, and Casey threw up her hands. “Lauren!”
“Sorry.” Lauren took a huge bite of ice cream as if trying to shut herself up.
“Actually, I’m working on a plan to get him back,” I said, biting my bottom lip.
“You are?” Lauren asked.
Casey turned around with her arms full of sundresses and narrowed her eyes. “What plan?”
“You know that new girl . . . True?” I said, squirming slightly, since I’d recently told them both I thought the new girl was possibly certifiably insane. “She had an idea.”
“The klepto?” Lauren asked, her eyebrows popping up.
Casey tossed the clothes over the back of my chair and sat at the foot of my bed, one long leg crossed over the other, her posture perfect. “We’re taking advice from the crazies now?”
I laughed. “Well, it turns out she’s not that crazy. She thinks if I make Peter jealous, he’ll come crawling back to me.”
Lauren and Casey locked eyes. “How are you going to make him jealous?” they said at the same time.
“She’s going to find me some guy to go out with. Someone from another school,” I said, my nerves fluttering. I pulled my feet up under me.
“Who’s the guy?” Lauren asked.
“We don’t know yet. But in the meantime, she thinks we should float a rumor that I’m already, like, in a relationship.”
Lauren grinned and whipped out her cell phone from the pocket of her sweats. “OMG, I love it.”
She started to type at the speed of light.
“What’re you doing?” Casey asked, leaning over her shoulder.
“I’m texting Mia.”
Our sophomore friend from ballet, Mia Ross, had a brother on the football team and was a notorious gossip. If Casey told her something, half the team would know within ten minutes.
“What are you texting?” I demanded.
She hit send and turned her phone around.
DID U HEAR? CLAUDE & PETE BROKE UP!!! CLAUDE IS ON PROWL 4 HC DATE. SHE’S ALREADY GOT SOME PROSPECTS.
Casey and I giggled. “By the time we get to pep rally practice tomorrow, everyone is going to be talking about you.”
My stomach clenched, and I had to shove aside the feeling that this was somehow wrong. We’d only just broken up. Would I really be “on the prowl” so quickly? But if I wanted Peter back, it was now or never. The text alert sounded, and Lauren quickly read it with a laugh, then showed it to us.
AWESOME! GO GIRL! PETES A JERK ANYWAY. :P
“This is perfect!” Casey said, grabbing the dresses off my chair. “Now we really have to find you a killer outfit for tomorrow.”
“Fashion show!” Lauren crowed, shoving me off the bed. “Show me what you got, Claudia!”
I took a few options from Casey and headed into the bathroom that connected our two bedrooms. As I undressed, the stereo in my room flicked on, and I could hear the two of them chatting and laughing. For the first time in hours, I felt a real flutter of hope. I looked into my own eyes, squared my shoulders, and felt my confidence return.
Maybe True’s crazy plan would actually work. Maybe this time tomorrow, Peter and I would be back together.
CHAPTER TWELVE
True
“Are you okay?”
I glanced up from my plate, where I was busy pressing my thumb into the chocolate crumbs. Tasha Montgomery, one of my coworkers at Goddess Cupcakes, pushed her square-framed glasses higher on the bridge of her nose. She had a comforting, open expression on her face, as if she was used to listening to other people’s problems and solving them. Perhaps she was studying to be a therapist. Or a talk show host.
I lifted my thumb to my mouth.
“Yes. Of course. I’m fine,” I replied, pushing the plate behind my hip. “Why do you ask?”