Loveless (Osemanverse #10)(24)
A bonding opportunity for my only three friends was definitely a good idea, but this was somewhat counteracted by the fact that Rooney seemed to delight in irritating Pip, while Pip seemed to be infuriated by her mere existence in all of our lives, and I had already discovered that I was not a fan of clubs and bars.
Felipa Quintana
THE VIBES, GEORGIA. THE VIBES.
Georgia Warr
what of them
Felipa Quintana
THEY ARE BAD
I should have seen it when we met
She’s full of bad vibes
Georgia Warr
rooney’s actually quite nice
are you just saying this because you saw her hooking up with someone?? no slut-shaming is allowed in this group chat Felipa Quintana
OBVIOUSLY NOT. She can hook up with whoever she likes however much she wants, I have no problems with people who enjoy casual hooking up I’m just getting a bad vibe
. . . . . . She made fun of my cacti Jason Farley-Shaw
In other news
Where are we meeting and what time??
I don’t know where John’s Bar is!!
Georgia Warr
i’ll come pick you both up from pip’s room
i’m concerned about pip arriving by herself and making a scene as soon as she sees rooney Jason Farley-Shaw
Oh that’s good thinking. Smart.
Felipa Quintana
FUCK you both
‘I’m perfectly capable of going to a bar and not making a scene just because I don’t like one person,’ said Pip as she opened her door to me later that evening.
I’d been given specific directions but still ended up having to call her and be verbally directed around the winding corridors of Castle. And if that wasn’t enough chaos to deal with on a Friday evening, Pip’s bedroom was in definite competition for messiest bedroom in Durham. There were more clothes on the floor than there appeared to be in her open wardrobe, her desk was piled high with incredibly boring-looking science books and pieces of paper, and her bedsheets were smushed into a corner, several feet away from her bed.
‘Sure you are,’ I said, patting Pip on the head.
‘Don’t patronise me, Georgia Warr. Did you bring my denim jacket?’
‘Your denim jacket?’ I smacked my head. I could picture exactly where Pip’s jacket was in my room – on the back of my desk chair. ‘Oh, no, sorry, I totally forgot.’
‘Don’t worry,’ said Pip, but she glanced down at her outfit nervously. ‘I was gonna wear it tonight, but … do you think I look OK without it? Or maybe I could wear a bomber jacket.’
She looked really good, actually – she was wearing a stripy short-sleeved shirt, tucked in at the hips into a pair of ripped black skinny jeans, and her hair was carefully styled. And she looked very much like herself, which I thought was more important.
Pip had always been kind of insecure about how she looked. But now that she was actually dressing how she’d always wanted to dress, and had cut her hair and all that, she exuded a sort of confidence that I could never hope to achieve – a confidence that said I know exactly who I am.
‘You look really nice,’ I said.
She smiled. ‘Thanks.’
I’d decided to wear something slightly more casual than my last attempt at ‘going out’ – some high-waisted jeans and a tight-fit crop top – but I still felt a little like I was wearing a costume. My usual comfy knitwear style wasn’t really suitable for bars and clubs.
Jason arrived minutes later, wearing his teddy-bear jacket on top of his standard T-shirt–jeans combo. He took one look at the floor and immediately started picking up items of clothing and folding them. ‘Jesus fucking Christ, Pip. Learn to tidy.’
‘It’s absolutely fine how it is. I know where everything is.’
‘Maybe so, but it won’t be absolutely fine when you start getting spiders birthing underneath your sweatshirts.’
‘Ew, Jason. Don’t say “birthing”.’
We did a quick tidy of Pip’s room before leaving. It was only a few minutes’ walk from Castle to St John’s – we had to cross Palace Green, past the cathedral, and down a little side street – and in that time, I decided to confront Pip about the exact reason for her declaration of ‘bad vibes’.
‘I don’t have a crush on her,’ said Pip instantly, which confirmed the fact that she definitely had a crush on Rooney. ‘I don’t get crushes on straight girls. Any more.’
‘So you’ve decided that she’s your mortal enemy because …?’
‘You know what it is?’ Pip folded her arms, pulling her bomber jacket round her. ‘She’s the sort of person who just thinks she’s better than everyone, purely because she goes to clubs and bars and she has a giant house plant and she likes Shakespeare.’
‘You like Shakespeare and you have house plants,’ said Jason. ‘Why’s she not allowed to like Shakespeare and house plants?’
Pip just gave him an irritated look.
Jason glanced at me, eyebrows raised. We could both tell that Pip was making up silly reasons to dislike Rooney in an attempt to deflect her feelings. But we also knew we should probably just let it happen because, in all honesty, it was probably the best course of action.
We’d seen Pip through several straight-girl crushes. They were not fun for her. The sooner she could get over those feelings, the better.