I gave him a blank stare before shrugging. “Yeah, okay, I guess.” I feigned confusion as I looked around the table. “Anyone else think it’s weird that Ryan remembers my hookup history better than I do?”
Simone sighed next to me and Andrew gave me another shake of his head like he was disappointed in me. The rest of the guys were laughing, eyeing Ryan expectantly as they waited for his response.
“It’s not your dating history I care about, punk,” Ryan snapped.
“Ah, I see,” I said with a pitying sigh. “You’ve been pining over Rose for that long, huh? That’s…sweet, I guess.” Everything in my tone said sad.
That was just plain sad.
Ryan clearly heard it and he shoved his seat back so quickly it scraped the linoleum.
Simone tensed next to me, but I forced myself to relax even farther into my seat, a smirk fixed on my face as if this was all just so amusing.
As if adrenaline wasn’t racing through my system as anger took root and grew. All this over Rose. Freakin’ Rose. Did she have any idea how much she’d messed with this guy’s head?
How much she’d messed with mine?
But that was ancient history, I’d gotten over it years ago.
“She dumped you way worse than she did me,” Ryan said. “At least she actually liked me. She was just using you.”
I jerked my head back like I’d been smacked in the face. “I’m sorry, what?” I gave my head a little shake as I forced a laugh and tried to recover my chill. I should let it go. Just drop it. He’s hurting and you should just— “How do you figure?”
“She was using you to get in with us,” he said, tipping his head toward the rest of the table. “Face it. Rose was using you to work her way up the food chain.”
I laughed. I couldn’t help it. So that was how he wanted to spin it. Make Rose out to be some slutty social climber trying to work her way up to the top of the food chain. “So, why’d she dump you then, big man?” I crossed my arms over my chest. “Aren’t you the alpha dog around here?”
“She just couldn’t handle me,” he said with a satisfied sniff as he sat back down. “She knew I was getting bored with her and she couldn’t take it.”
Let it go. Let it go. Just let it go. It was Simone’s voice in my head now, urging me to just drop it already and let this guy have his pride before this escalated any further.
“Uh huh.” I didn’t let it go. “Sure. Let’s go with that.” My tone dripped with sarcasm and everyone at the table snickered uncomfortably—even Andrew.
But really, Ryan’s spin on this was just so farfetched. Sure, he was a football star and yeah, lots of girls wanted to catch his eye, but if he thought Rose had dumped him because she was jealous or afraid of losing him…?
The thought was laughably ludicrous, and everyone knew it.
The truth was, Rose wasn’t all that complicated. She was just a silly, superficial high school girl who was too pretty for her own good. She was a diva who lived to stir up drama.
I found myself sneering at the thought. The girl was everything I couldn’t stand about high school and relationships, in general.
Ryan’s cruel laughter had me looking up to see him staring at me. “You think you could do better?”
I frowned. “Excuse me?”
“No, I mean it,” he said, as if I’d argued. “Do you honestly think you could get that girl to even give you a second look now that she’s through with you?”
I laughed. “Of course I could. I just have no interest in that girl. She’s toxic.”
Ryan was outright laughing now, looking to his buddies around him for support. “Hear that? He’s scared of a girl.”
“I’m not scared of Rose,” I said, my voice filled with all the disdain I felt for the flakey actress. “I just don’t care about her one way or the other. If I wanted to date her again, I could have her like that.” I snapped my fingers and heard Simone groan beside me.
Okay, fine, maybe I sounded like a chauvinistic jerk. I knew Simone was thinking it. But you know…when in Rome, or whatever. And meeting Ryan’s stare right now, there was no way I could back down from the challenge there.
“Prove it,” he said with a smirk.
I laughed. “What?”
“Get Rose to give you a second chance,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest. “I’d love to watch you strike out.”
“Dude.” I shook my head with outright condescension. “Getting Rose is too easy. The girl will date anyone.”
And yeah, I might have eyed Ryan from head to toe as I said that. All logic was gone now, and I’d be the first to admit that it was anger talking. It was testosterone and bitterness and pride.
But I couldn’t seem to stop, not even with Simone kicking my shin under the table.
“Getting Rose to hook up with you is too easy, huh?” Ryan said, leaning forward on his elbows. “Okay then, punk, let’s make it a challenge. Get her to date you for a full month.”
I gave him a blank stare as my mind raced. Logic was battling with my pride. It had never been done. No guy had gotten Rose to commit to anything even close to a real relationship and they’d never lasted for more than a couple weeks.
Ryan’s buddy Tom chimed in. “The fall dance is a month out.”
Everyone looked to him. “What?” the big blond football player mumbled. “My girlfriend won’t stop talking about it.”
Ryan gave a disgusted shake of his head before turning back to me. “The dance, then. Get her to stick around long enough to be your girlfriend at the dance.”
All eyes were on me and I was trying to come up with a way to back out of it, but
