My stomach twisted at the thought of seeing Grayson.
Pushing that thought out of my mind, I got to work. “Hi, welcome to Rossy’s. What can I get you?”
The girl on the left finally managed to look up from her phone. Our gazes collided, her eyes going wide. “Uh, hey,” she greeted.
It clicked then. She had sat behind me during economics last semester. I shifted my weight, suddenly becoming uncomfortable. “Hey.”
Her friends, who were also nearly a decade younger than me, were no longer looking at the menu. Instead, they were staring at me like I was some sort of freak. “I didn’t know you worked here,” my former classmate said, pocketing her phone.
Great. She wanted to make conversation.
“Yeah, have been for a while,” I answered, instantly regretting my words as her friend next to her asked, “Do you know this lady?”
“Yeah, we were in the same econ class last semester,” she answered, smiling at me.
I didn’t have the strength to return it.
“Oh, are you getting your graduate degree or something?” the third girl asked.
Shame coated my tongue, rotten and foul. “Undergraduate,” I pushed out, pulling the towel off my shoulder and twisting it in my hands.
Then came the silence, awkward and palpable. It was as if all the air in the shop had been sucked out, leaving me to choke on the judgmental stares and mistakes of my past.
“Late start, huh?” the mean girl quipped, smirking.
“Amy,” my former classmate hissed, glaring at her friend.
“What? It’s the truth.” She rolled her eyes before meeting mine again. “There’s nothing wrong with that, of course. I think it’s really cool when older people go back to college.”
The girl in the middle said nothing, cheeks red as her eyes dropped to the floor.
I hummed, giving the bitch a wide smile. “Sure is. What can I get you?”
“Three PSLs please.”
Typical.
I snatched the tablet off the counter, punched in their basic order, and held it out to my former classmate for payment as the other two walked away, disappearing into the fantasy section. “Sorry about that,” she muttered, pressing her card to the screen.
I turned my head back to her as the recipe printed. “A word of advice,” I deadpanned coldly.
She nodded.
I leaned in, ripping the recipe from the printer and holding it out to her between two fingers. “Don’t associate yourself with bitches if you intend to be a good person. That shit rubs off quickly.” Her lips parted, my words hitting her right where I needed them to. “You can pick up your drinks at the end of the counter.”
By the time all the Mean Girls 2.0 were sipping on their pumpkin spice lattes in the romance section, Cardinal and Grayson had come in. My eyes immediately went to Grayson’s face, scanning his dark features as he scanned the store, his hand on the small of his fiancée’s back.
“Hi, Margo!” Cardinal chirped, moving away from him and coming to me. Her blue eyes were brighter than usual today, the rich navy sweater she was wearing being the cause.“Congratulations on passing your exam! I jumped out of my seat when you texted!”
I lifted my chin and cleared my throat, feeling Grayson’s eyes on me.Keep it cool. Don’t give anything away.“Thank you. Glad it’s over,” I told her. “How was the lunch date?”
“It was good. I texted you to see if you wanted anything, but you never responded.”
“Yeah, I needed to get back into town before the rain hit,” I told her, giving her my back as Grayson approached.
“Margo,” he greeted, his voice deep.
I lifted my hand and gave him a casual two-finger wave, my eyes on the coffee bean grinder. “Hey. Cardinal, do you want your usual?” I asked, my cheeks heating.