Changing Everything Read Free Page A

someone-call-TMZ-my-vagina-was-one-chair-or-car-ride-away-from-saying-hello-to-the-world short.
    “I need to wear jeans with this,” I grumbled.
    “I’ll kill you if you mess with my creation. And hurry up, it’s weird that there’s a party in your apartment, and you’re hiding out in here.”
    I wasn’t hiding. I was waiting for Kristen to leave so I could change. Glancing at the four-inch stilettos I was in, my grimace turned into a look of horror when I realized I looked like every girl Eli normally hooked up with. “I look like I’m trying too hard.”
    “No, you look like you’re about to make Eli Jenkins regret that he didn’t snatch you up a long time ago.”
    I looked through the mirror at where she was kicking her feet in the air while hanging off my bed. “Exactly. Like I’m trying too hard.” Looking back down at the shirt that deceptively made my boobs look massive, I suppressed a sigh. “And it’s all gonna be for nothing.”
    “You don’t know that,” Kristen challenged in a singsong voice.
    “Eli uses me to pick up and ward off women. He’s not about to care if you and Jason are trying to set me up with some guy.”
    “I beg to differ.” Her voice hadn’t lost the musical lilt. When I just raised an eyebrow, she groaned and rolled over so she was lying on her stomach. “He beat the shit out of homeboy who you gave your V-card to in college.”
    “Eli beat him up because he posted a naked picture of me with the words ‘Deflowered by Johnny G’ in blood red all over our dorm, which he’d taken of me while I was sleeping.”
    Kristen propped herself up on her elbows and held her hands out, palms up. “If that’s the way you want to see it. I choose to see it like this: Even though he deserved to get his ass beat regardless because of the picture and disgusting way that frat bragged about their conquests, that was how Eli found out you lost your virginity. Eli was jealous, and it’s not like Johnny tried to hide he was the one behind it all. Therefore, Eli took his anger out on the bastard.”
    “Lan—”
    “Don’t language me!”
    I smiled and fluffed my hair one last time before turning. “ Fine , I’m ready . . . and your theory has to be flawed since Eli had been talking to me about the girls he’d been banging, and I hooked up with Johnny to try to get back at Eli. It didn’t work, just like tonight won’t work.”
    “We’ll see.”
    With a deep breath, I opened my door and made it two steps before Kristen’s husband, Jason, was walking toward us.
    “My two favorite girls; you both look beautiful.” Pulling Kristen close to his side, he grabbed me in a quick hug and glanced behind him. “I’m gonna tell him, Paisley, swear to Christ I’m going to.”
    “Tell who, what?”
    “Eli,” he sneered. “He told me about what happened last weekend when you showed up for Sunday morning.”
    Ah. Yeah. That . . . Thanks for the reminder. I no longer felt confident in my slutty shirt-dress. I felt like a stupid girl who had no idea what she was trying to do as I was reminded of the countless times Eli had crushed me. “Yeah.” I laughed uneasily. “It was kind of awkward.”
    “He needs to know. He would never hurt you on purpose, and he has no idea that he’s doing it now. I can’t sit back and keep watching you get your heart broken over him.”
    “Jason, no! You promised,” I begged. “You swore you wouldn’t tell him how I felt.”
    He ground his jaw and looked behind him again to make sure no one was coming down the hall. “You can’t ask us to keep watching you go through this. This has to stop, and maybe if he knows how you feel, you’ll find out he feels the same.”
    A spark of hope ignited deep in my chest, but I was quick to put it out. “You can’t know that, and, besides, you’re both trying to stop it now anyway. By you trying to set me up with this Sean guy, and Kristen making me look like a streetwalker . . . I know what you’re