Walking Disaster

“Are you going?”
    “Yeah,” I said without hesitation. It wasn’t a date party, after all, just a weekend kegger. Those I didn’t mind. And no fucking way was I going to let Parker have an
entire night with her. She’d come back . . . ugh, I didn’t even wanna think about it. He’d flash his Abercrombie smile, or take her to his parents’ restaurant to parade his
money, or find some other way to sleaze into her pants.
    Shepley looked at me. “You said last week you weren’t.”
    “I changed my mind, Shep. What’s the problem?”
    “Nothing,” he grumbled, retreating to his bedroom.
    America frowned. “You know what the problem is,” she said. “Why don’t you quit driving him crazy and just get it over with.” She joined Shepley in his room, and
their voices were reduced to murmuring behind the closed door.
    “Well, I’m glad everyone else knows,” Abby said.
    Abby wasn’t the only one confused by Shepley’s behavior. Earlier he was teasing me about her, and now he was being a little bitch. What could have happened between then and now that
had him freaked out? Maybe he would feel better once he figured out that I’d finally decided I was done with the other girls and just wanted Abby. Maybe the fact that I had actually admitted
to caring about her made Shepley worry even more. I wasn’t exactly boyfriend material. Yep. That made more sense.
    I stood. “I’m going to take a quick shower.”
    “Is there something going on with them?” Abby asked.
    “No, he’s just paranoid.”
    “It’s because of us,” she guessed.
    A weird floating feeling came over me. She said
us
.
    “What?” she asked, eyeing me suspiciously.
    “You’re right. It’s because of us. Don’t fall asleep, okay? I wanna talk to you about something.”
    It took less than five minutes for me to wash up, but I stood under the stream of water for at least five more, planning what to say to Abby. Wasting more time wasn’t an option. She was
here for the next month, and that was the perfect time to prove to her that I wasn’t who she thought I was. For her, at least, I was different, and we could spend the next four weeks
dispelling any suspicions she might have.
    I stepped out of the shower and dried off, excited and nervous as hell about what possibilities could spawn from the conversation we were about to have. Just before opening the door, I could
hear a scuffle in the hall.
    America said something, her voice desperate. I cracked open the door and listened.
    “You promised, Abby. When I told you to spare judgment, I didn’t mean for you two to get involved! I thought you were just friends!”
    “We are,” Abby said.
    “No, you’re not!” Shepley fumed.
    America spoke, “Baby, I told you it will be fine.”
    “Why are you pushing this, Mare? I told you what’s going to happen!”
    “And I told you it won’t! Don’t you trust me?”
    Shepley stomped into his room.
    After a few seconds of silence, America spoke again. “I just can’t get it into his head that whether you and Travis work out or not, it won’t affect us. But he’s been
burned too many times. He doesn’t believe me.”
    Dammit, Shepley. Not the ideal segue. I opened the door a bit more, just enough to see Abby’s face.
    “What are you talking about, Mare? Travis and I aren’t together. We
are
just friends. You heard him earlier . . . he’s not interested in me that way.”
    Fuck. This was getting worse by the minute.
    “You heard that?” America asked, surprise evident in her voice.
    “Well, yeah.”
    “And you believe it?”
    Abby shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. It’ll never happen. He told me he doesn’t see me like that, anyway. Besides, he’s a total commitment-phobe, I’d be
hard-pressed to find a girlfriend outside of you that he hasn’t slept with, and I can’t keep up with his mood swings. I can’t believe Shep thinks otherwise.”
    Every bit of hope I’d had slipped away with her words. The disappointment was crushing. For a few seconds, the pain was unmanageable, until I let the anger take over. Anger was always
easier to control.
    “Because not only does he know Travis . . . he’s talked to Travis, Abby.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “Mare?” Shepley called from the bedroom.
    America sighed. “You’re my best friend. I think I know you better than you know yourself sometimes. I see you two together, and the only difference between me and Shep and you and
Travis is that we’re having