"Yeah, pretty fat," Tina spat. "She's also delusional. Rhys doesn't stay in one place for very long. She can't possibly think that this is serious. He's going to get bored with her soon enough and move on."
"Did you see her gut?" Someone else asked, appalled. "I wonder if he has to lift that shit up to find her cooch."
They all giggled as I stood frozen, unable to move forward to confront them or backward to retreat from their biting remarks.
"Maybe she's really good in bed," another voice piped in. "I've heard big girls are really good in bed."
"She probably smells," Tina snorted. "If I wanted to, you guys, I could take him right from under her nose this weekend. I've been giving him little glimpses of what he's missing."
"Then why don't you?"
"I don't want any drama."
Yeah, right. Or you just can't.
"Has he responded to your little glimpses?"
"What do you think? He stared down my tits at the beach today, and while the cow was getting ready he was looking at me like an ice-cream cone he'd like to lick, and then on the dance floor while she was dancing with Phil, he grabbed my ass and said 'maybe next time'."
I didn't want to hear anymore. I felt like throwing up. I closed my eyes and took a step back and bumped into someone. When I opened my eyes, I was looking into Muriel's face, and beside her was Phil.
The three of us stood there quietly, them looking at me and me looking at them. Tina continued to trash me a few feet away. I was beyond mortified.
And angry.
I turned away from Phil and Fred and walked outside to battle an ugly demon.
Chapter Eighteen
"I'm not going to hit you," I said after Tina registered my presence. "I don't believe in hitting someone weaker than me."
She forced a smile, but her eyes were wide with anxiety. She took a puff on her cigarette and said "What are you talking about?"
"I'm not as deaf and stupid as I am fat," I said. "And for the record," I looked at her stunned group of friends. "My fat stomach and my cooch, udders and all, fit very smoothly into Victoria's Secret."
"I didn't realize that Victoria's Secret had a plus
plus
department," Tina snorted.
I didn't believe in hitting people weaker than me, but Muriel didn't have the same belief system.
It all happened in slow motion. Tina's eyes widened and her mouth formed a perfect O as Muriel's fist appeared out of thin air and knocked Tina's head sideways. It was almost comical, but I didn't have time to laugh. I had to help Phil restrain Muriel.
Chaos erupted. Most of Tina's "friends" ran away, but two of them tried to fight both me and Muriel. Other patrons that were outside tried to either stop the fight or join in. It didn't matter, because in a half a minute, everyone was either throwing punches or trying to avoid getting punched. There was pushing and shoving and shouting and cursing and the sounds of glasses breaking.
I felt strong arms around my waist and knew automatically it was Rhys. I don't know when he came out, but now he was literally carrying me away from the fight. After he got me far enough away from the action, he put me down and told me to hurry to the car. Jake,Veronica, Phil and Muriel were with us and rushing to the side of the building where the parking lot was.
"Where's Tina?" I asked and stopped walking.
Rhys looked back to the brawl. It was dark, but I thought I caught a glimpse of her in the group. The crowd had definitely grown. I could hear sirens not too far away.
"You can't leave her here," I said.
Veronica had come back to stand with us. She looked torn between leaving and getting her friend.
"Veronica!" Jake barked her name and tried to pull her on.
"Lindsey's right," she said. "We can't leave her."
"She called Lindsey a cow!" Muriel argued. "She said horrible things! Let her fry there, I don't care."
Rhys and Jake looked at me funny, but Veronica didn't seem at all surprised.
"I'm going to get Tina," I said, angry that they were wasting time. "You guys go on."
"I'm not leaving you here," Rhys said, just as angry. "Stay here."
He jogged back to the fight. Some big bald guy went for a sucker punch, but Rhys dodged him and kept moving. He disappeared into the mass of moving bodies.
"Maybe I should go get them," Jake said when Rhys didn't emerge soon enough for any of us.
"And then someone will go get you," I said. "And then someone will go get them and someone will go get that person and we'll all be absorbed into the cluster fuck and end up in the clinker."
"You think I'm going to let my little brother get his ass beat and then thrown in jail for bailing
her
out for
you
?" He looked at me with such a hard expression, I almost wilted. Literally.
"No," I said. "I'll go get him."
Jake caught me by the arm. "And then my little brother will kick
my
ass for letting you go."
I looked at him with exasperation. I felt anger bubbling inside of me. I was about to yell at him about being a pussy, but Veronica cut me off.
"Here he comes!" She exclaimed, pointing.
Rhys supported Tina around her waist as they hurried towards us. We raced around the building to where Phil and Muriel were waiting in Phil's SUV. The doors weren't even closed all the way when he floored it and we rocketed out of the lot, past incoming police cars.
Tina's mouth was bleeding, as well as her nose. I found a box of tissues under the seat and threw it in her lap.
"Don't bleed all over Phil's truck," I said dryly.
Muriel turned in her seat to look at Tina. "Just for the record, I would have left you there."
"You started this shit!" Tina yelled and reached for Muriel, but Rhys restrained her.
"No,
you
started this shit. I don't know how they do it in
Rhode Island
, but here in dirty Jersey, bitches get stitches for talking shit and fucking with something they shouldn't."
"Muriel," Jake said as a warning from the very back seat. She sighed and turned back around.
I looked at Muriel with wonder. Without her fingers probing at her phone, she was a whole other person. I had a newfound respect and admiration for her now, and gratitude for sticking up for me, even though bitches with stitches wasn't what I had in mind. I didn't know she even liked me.
"That was kind of hot," Phil said quietly to Muriel a moment later.
Bitches get stitches. I stifled a giggle. It made no sense for me to be laughing, but for some bizarre reason, bitches get stitches tickled my funny bone. Maybe it was the alcohol. Maybe it was the fact that Tina's pretty face was now kinda jacked. Maybe it was because little quiet Five Finger Freddy started a bar brawl with her tiny fist. Or maybe bitches with stitches was plain funny. Now I had a new reason to call her Five Finger Freddy.
I covered my mouth to try to hide my snickering. Tina looked at me with hatred and even in the dark I could see Rhys looking at me like I had lost my mind.
"Well, this was a good night," I said, after managing to push away my laughter.
"I got the shit beat out of me, you stupid bitch!" Tina yelled.
"Yeah, there's
that
," I said in a distasteful tone.
"This is all your fault," she growled.
"It's not my fault you can't handle rejection."
She reached for my neck, screaming obscenities. Rhys once again restrained her.
"Hey, keep it up," I told her, moving over as far as my seatbelt would let me. "It seems to be the only way you're going to have Rhys's hands on you."
"I hate you!" She yelled as Rhys restrained her. "And you better suck up every little bit he gives you because he won't stay with you! You cow!"
"Hey!" Muriel turned in her seat, ready to jump in the back with us from the look on her face. "That
cow
insisted we not leave you back there. A thank you will suffice."
"Thanks, Muriel," I said. "I think." She did just call me a cow.
"Thank you!" Tina shrieked. "Thank you, cow bitch!"
"Can I take you out of this dress now?" Rhys asked once we were alone in our room.
The drama had died down, about an hour after Veronica asked her friend to leave. I kind of felt bad for Veronica, but she confessed that her friendship with Tina was long overdue for an ending.
"I'm perfectly capable of taking my own dress off," I said to Rhys. "I've been doing it since I was two."
I stepped away from him and unzipped my dress. When I was nearly naked, he looked at me expectantly, but I plucked a pair of shorts and a tee shirt from my suitcase and quickly put them on.
"I am so tired," I said, climbing into bed.
Rhys was still standing in the middle of the room, looking at me with apprehension.
"What's wrong with you?" I asked.
"I was wondering the same about you."
"I told you. I'm tired." I covered my eyes with my arm.
"You're being evasive."
"Am I? I thought I was being perfectly honest."
"Sure, but you left out a lot of the honesty part."
"You wanted to know what was wrong with me. I said I was tired. Clearly you can see that I'm tired."
"Lindsey," he sighed and ran his hand over his face.
"I'm cow bitch."
"You're trying to go off topic."
"I don't know what the topic is."
He shook his head, and even though it was a gesture of frustration, it was still sexy. Even without the smile.
"You handled Tina well," he said a minute later as he settled into the rocking chair.
"I handle all of your 'exes' well," I said with a faint smile.
He frowned, but I smiled wider, which made his frown deepen. Ying and yang we are.
"Did you know she was going to be here?" I looked away from him and started picking at my nails, chipping off some of the paint.
"Yeah."
"Then you shouldn't have brought me here," I said in a low voice.
"I know Tina can be a little over the top sometimes, but I didn't think she would hurt you," he argued softly.
"She didn't hurt me," I said quickly, glancing at him. "I hurt
her
, just by being present in the one place she knew she could have you."
"I didn't make any promises to her."
"Yeah, I know that," I laughed darkly. "That's not your style."
I looked over at him. Rhys's face hardened ever so slightly. Even that was sexy, and I wanted to reach out and touch his face, but I kept my hands to myself.
"I promised to not hurt you," he said.
"We both know you can't keep that promise," I said stiffly. "For you to keep that promise, other promises would have to be made, and you're not prepared to do that. You can't even say you love me."
He tried to object, but I talked over him.
"No, Rhys! I asked you if you did and you said yes, but you haven't actually said it yourself. Saying it is entirely different than just confirming it with a one word answer. You answered me to appease me, but you can't say it because you know it will mean other things you don't want."
He opened his mouth to speak, but I cut him off again.
"No! Don't say it now because I brought it up. You will again only be attempting to appease me.