Chapter: Wrong and Wronger

“Oh. My. Dub. That almost looks like the dumb Spiffington.”

SHIT. She’s behind me, but like I know that fucking voice.  It’s fucking Precious. Right. Of course, Jed’s Grandpa got her in to Uni. 

I turn around. Whoa! Jed’s Grandpa also got her a rack. Niiiiice rack. Shit shit shit.  Must not notice fucking Precious and her nice fucking rack.

“I certainly didn’t expect to see you here”, she says.  “Mr. Least Likely to Succeed.  But then, you must still be butt buddies with nerd boy.”

“Fuck off, Precious”, I say. I’m trying not to look at her rack but like her buttons don’t work very well, ha.

“Articulate as ever”, she says.  “Well, when you’re kissing my darling nephew good night, make sure to tell him I’m coming for him.”  She smirks.  “I expect I’ll be able to hear him freaking out from over in the sorority house.”

I start to turn away so I won’t have to look at her rack anymore.  Dub, why are you such a BITCH.

“Your boyfriend took my spot in Temporal Studies, idiot” – oh, I guess I said that last part out loud.  She says, “The Wainwright legacy spot. Father has named me the Wainwright legacy, that spot is mine…and it will be, next term.  We all know dear Jedediah is just a time bomb waiting to go off.”  She leans in closer.  “Is it true that he fainted in front of Professor Morlock?”

I’m so fucking mad I can’t talk.  Mostly.  “Fuck off”, I say.

She makes a disgusted noise. “What a joke”, she says.  “If I find myself horizontal in the vicinity of Professor Morlock, trust me, it’ll be because he’s screaming my name.  And that will be just before we send you and nerd boy packing – excuse the expression – back to the Valley where you belong.  With the rest of the Spiffington trash.”

“McIRISH”, I say.

Then a bunch of other girls come up and they’re like, hey Precious.  Precious waves and like smirks at me.  “It wasn’t a pleasure”, she says.  “And I don’t want to see either of you at the sorority. Ever”,  and she goes off with the other girls.

"Well WE don't want to see YOU in the BIG BONG GARAGE", I yell after her. 

Fucking Precious.

But that is not the worst thing. No.

So I meet Bree at the burger joint.  It’s okay, and like Bree is paying, and I’m thinking, yes, tonight we break in the new bed.

Bree says, “Tarik. Now that you’re here at University, we have to talk.”

I’m like, in the middle of the Quadruple Bacon Explosion Burger so, like, talking is not happening.  I kind of wave at her, like, go.

Bree says. “I told you I’m not exclusive.”

I like nod.

Bree says, “I think now that you’re here, we should both see other people.”

I like nod. 

Bree says, “And not see each other so much.”

Whoa.  I stop chewing.  But then, mouth full of bacon, so I like start again, but my heart’s not in it.

Bree says, “Don’t look like that. We can still see each other. Just not so much.”

I put the burger down.  Like, I don’t even want the bacon.

Bree says, “It’s not you, Tarik. Really. It’s me. I’m on partial scholarship. I have to keep up my grades. And I’m on report from when we got caught – I can’t afford to lose any of my jobs.  And when I’m with you, I just….”  She looks away.

Oh man.

Bree says, “Don’t look like that. Hey, we’ll see each other on Thursdays.  That’s when you have art lab, right?”

I shrug.

Bree says, “Well then. You'll see me there.  You'll, uh, really see me there.”  

I say, “I guess we’re not breaking in the bed tonight, then.”

Bree like groans and I think, like, “Gotcha”, but then she slaps her hand down on the table, like whoa.  “Not tonight”, she says.  She gets up.  “Not tonight”, she says.  She puts money down on the table.  “Thursday”, she says, and she blows me a kiss and leaves.

They’re like closing the joint and they kick me out. 

I go home and Ally is like, “Dude”, and she has a whole row of brew sitting out waiting for me.  Bree like, called her.  So we have a few.  She asks me if I want to talk about it.

"Fuck no. I don’t want to talk about BREE and I don’t want to talk about PRECIOUS."

“Precious?”, she says.  “Oh, we are going to talk about Precious.”  She gives me another one.  And then I tell her about Precious.  We have a couple more before I like, crash.

So this morning, I like go to class. Again. I know. But like, before I get there, the skater dude from the other side of the class like flags me down. “Dude, are you the tagger?”

“I’m a MCIRISH”, I say. 

“Yeah, whatever, were you the one who tagged the sorority?”, he says.  "Those sorority girls are on the warpath."

Hot girl from class like turns around and comes back when he says that.  “Are you talking about the tagging?  It's all over Chirpee. The Fruhmie girls think it was one of us”, she says. “Some guy named Derek. Isn't that you?”

“I’m TARIK”, I say.  “And I don’t go to the sorority because one of the girls there is a fucking bitch.”

“That’s what the tag says”, says Hot Girl.  “ ‘Precious is a fucking bitch.’ ” 

“YES”, I say.  She steps back, dammit.  “I mean, she is”, I say.  “But it wasn’t me.”  And then Maddie goes by, and so we mostly stop talking and go in to class.   But skater-dude like, air high-fives me, and I air high-five him back. 

Huh. So someone else knows about Precious.  I almost wish I had done it, now.

Cause you know Precious would lose her shit over something like that.