Chapter 4

Was it Christy Vargas, the person whom Paige shared a short-lived friendship with in eighth grade? Christy Vargas, an image of the most dramatic year of Paige’s life? Christy Vargas, the one person in the world that Paige truly hated and feared at the same time?

Paige had sworn she would never see her again since The Incident, with Christy’s family moving a lot because her dad was in the Marines. But there she was, with her dark brown curls tied in a high bun, as she stared back at Paige. Again, what the **** was she doing here, of all places? It was where The Incident happen, so why come back to the place that brought back those miserable memories?

Christy Vargas, who actually looked better three years older than when they first met, lifted a corner of her lips. “Weird to see you here,” she began. Her left eye wandered inward, just like Paige remembered.

She tried to put on a face as stone-cold as Christy’s even though her hands shook underneath the table. “What are you doing here?”

“I did enough stalking to get a job here on the exact night you’d be here. And you know I’m here to wreck the rest of your life.”

Paige shook her head. “Stop it, please.”

“Geez, calm down. I applied for a job here after I moved back.”

“Why?”

“Because my family is broke as **** and I need to help provide.”

Paige shook her head again. “Why did you come back?”

Christy’s expression softened for a millisecond before she put back on her stone-cold-bitch face. “None of your business. But I’ll be honest, I actually didn’t expect to see you at work tonight. I wanted to carry out my plan of revenge as soon as I started school.”

“Please tell me you’re still kidding.”

But Christy just shrugged. “It’s not like it hasn’t been something to think about in the last three years.” And with that, she left to wait on a table near the bathroom.

A headache struck Paige’s head, and she rested her forehead on her fist. Just like that, she was depressed again. This night was an incredible roller coaster with twists and turns and climbs and drops.

Then Andrew came back, but Paige didn’t want to deal with him anymore. Her headache was making her thirty times crankier.

“What did you and Colette talk about for the past hour?” she asked while resisting the urge to add more sarcasm in her voice.

He raised his hands up. “Hey, that wasn’t an hour, okay? We just talked about her job. And how Gary might like her.”

“Pft. Gary doesn’t have crushes.”

“Yeah, he better not. I can’t see him with Colette, period.” He shook his head and folded his arms.

Did he really have it that bad, and during this date? She sat back and wondered how anyone, even his best friends, could deal with someone like him.

As soon as Mark, while carrying plates on his hands, came out from the kitchen and headed to their table, her spirits lifted right away. She remembered she needed to give her number somehow. Flat-out asking in front of Andrew sounded acceptable at this point.

As Mark set down the food, he looked at Andrew messaging on Snapchat and turned to Paige. She nodded with her lips forming a thin line.

“Hey, um, do you have a pen?” she asked.

“Yeah.” He searched his pockets and handed one to her.

She wrote her number on her napkin and gave it to him. “If you ever get lost or need a date, feel free to ask me.”

“Sweet. I got something for you, too,” he said, winking. “I’ll come back later.”

Paige still had her smile on as she ate when Andrew put away his phone.

“Why the smile?” Andrew asked as he forked a scallop.

She half-shrugged. “The food’s good.” Or was it because their cute and punny waiter served her pasta? After all, the pasta was the cheapest and least appetizing one on the menu, so it was most likely because of Mark. She wondered if a certain body part of his tasted good, too.

He finally appeared from the kitchen with a tiny bowl of gelato. Chocolate?

“Yum,” she commented.

“It’s on me. Hope you like it.”

Cutie was serving her free gelato? It couldn’t get any better than this.

***Download NovelToon to enjoy a better reading experience!***