The Shamrock Read Free Page A

you anywhere near my house.”
    Sirai just flipped her the bird, even though she was grinning. “Bitch.”
    “And an amazing one at that.” She got a bag of chips. “Here’s a question. It’s Saturday night and instead of being with a certain Irishman, you’re gonna be staring at Jason’s naked ass with me. Why is that?”
    “Well, I don’t think staring at Jason’s ass should be taken as some sort of bad alternative. Honestly, if somebody made me choose…”
    “Just answer the question and stop stalling.”
    Sirai shrugged. “We can’t stand each other so…”
    Candy shook her head. “That’s called sexual tension, my friend. What I don’t get is why you don’t act on it?”
    “Maybe because that same Irishman has been virtually ignoring my presence all week.”
    “Wait…what? No fights? No threats of leaving you on the outskirts of an Arabian desert? No random wedgies?”
    “We said we wouldn’t mention the wedgie incident.”
    “No,” Candy shook her head. “ You said we wouldn’t mention the wedgie incident. I never agreed.”
    “Yeah well, none of those have happened. As a matter of fact, Ardan has been…polite,” Sirai grumbled.
    Candice froze, tried to speak but nothing came out, finally she set back and shrugged. “I got nothing.”
    “Me either.”
    “So what’s your plan?”
    “Plan? What plan?”
    “Well, it’s obvious from the way you’re sitting over there and pouting, you want things to go back to normal, so what’s your plan?”
    Sirai frowned. “I don’t have one.”
    “Wait, wait, wait, you don’t have a plan? The same chick that when we didn’t have a ride to after-prom, pulled up curbside in an ice cream truck with the words, ‘No time to explain. Just get in’ pouring outta her mouth before I could even ask what was going on? You’re telling me she doesn’t have a plan?”
    No, she didn’t because she knew Ardan was up to something. He was being just too damn nice. His questions were actual questions without the sarcasm attached. When he requested something, it really was a request and not a demand. And every time he looked at her there was something very calculating about his gaze. All of this made Sirai very, very irritable and very, very paranoid.
    She reached for her phone. “For now, my only plan is to order a pizza and enjoy Jason’s ass.”
    Candy rolled her eyes. “You know what you need to be calling in instead of pizza?”
    “No,” Sirai sighed as she dialed. “What?”
    “An order of dick, extra large, lots of meat.”
    And with that, Sirai pushed her best friend off the couch even though she felt like she was about to choke on something vital for laughing so hard.
     

     
    “So what you’re saying is, you have every intention of paying her back for her small larceny urge that she fulfilled, yet you’re waiting it out?”
    Ardan looked up from wiping down the bar. “Precisely.”
    Braedan sat on a stool across from him. “Why?”
    He stopped. “What?”
    “Why not just get it over with? I mean, what’s the point in waiting it out if you’re gonna do it anyway?”
    Placing the rag down, Ardan leaned on his elbows and grinned. “Because paranoia drives people to do very strange yet entertaining things, little brother.”
    Finally catching on, Braedan grinned back. “Ah, you want her on edge so she doesn’t know when it’s coming; just that it is.”
    “Take notes, maybe it’ll help you finally get a shot at Candice.”
    “I have a shot at Candice and if she’d stop with this stupid prank vendetta then I could actually take said shot.”
    Ardan shook his head. “And this is exactly why last April Fool’s when you suggested the idea of strapping her into a chair and forcing her to watch a marathon of ‘Homeboys in Outer Space’ I told you it was a bad idea. Nothing good can come from that type of inhuman torture. Therefore you are still living with the consequences.” He raised a brow. “Speaking of which, that