Megan Hart - Switch

get in line for the funnel cakes."

We parted and I pushed my way through the crowd. The

prizes might be cheap and the food overpriced, but

nobody seemed to care. Kids carried baloons in ice-

cream-covered fists and couples walked hand in hand. I

got in line behind a couple with matching tattoos on their

wrists, a pair of joined hearts. As I watched them whisper

and giggle, their fingers linked, their eyes for nobody else,

envy roled slowly over in my gut.

Against my skin, lace and satin once again reminded me

how it felt to be wanted. Craved. Obeyed. None of it did

me any good standing here in the setting, early spring sun,

with a ten-dolar bil clutched in my fist and nobody there

to hold my hand.

I looked back through the crowd for Eric but caught only

a glimpse of what might have been the top of his dark,

curly hair. The crowd around the boom box had grown

and the DJ standing on a smal platform with a microphone

in his hand was now announcing some sort of contest. The

line in front of me was moving faster than I'd expected and

I placed my order and walked away with a paper plate of

hot fried dough covered in powdered sugar before the DJ

was even done drawing a winner.

At first look they were just another couple, she in tottery

heels better suited to a pinup-model calendar than a strol

along the river, and him in faded, baggy jeans and a T-shirt

that showed off the muscles in his arms. The reddish

sunlight turned his blond hair auburn, and I blamed that as

the reason that I didn't recognize him at first, but the real

reason was that with another woman on his arm, Austin

had become a stranger.

She, on the other hand, recognized me right away and let

out a squeal that could have cracked a mirror. "Paige!"

Kira. With Austin. My Austin? My teeth clenched,

grinding, in instant reaction, and I couldn't force a smile.

Our eyes met, his and mine, and while I don't know what

Our eyes met, his and mine, and while I don't know what

mine revealed, his showed me he didn't like what he saw.

His expression changed, and I recognized him again.

"Hi." I kept my voice even when I looked at her.

She slid her hand down his bare arm, her fingertips

lingering on the inside of his wrist before diving down to

capture his fingers. Austin didn't pul away, but he didn't

tighten his grip, either. I noticed, and so did she, but Kira

was good at getting what she wanted. She curled her

fingers into his, instead.

"Are you here alone?" Acid didn't drip from her tone. She

sounded genuinely curious.

And who knows, maybe she was. We'd already

established high school was over and our rivalry should

have folowed suit. I'd fucked Jack once upon a time, and

now she was fucking Austin. Tit for tat, literaly. I

should've let it go.

"No. I'm here with a friend." The way I said friend made it clear that's not what I meant.

Oh, I knew the tic of Austin's jaw, the slow narrowing of

his eyes. Kira might be fucking him, but she didn't know

his eyes. Kira might be fucking him, but she didn't know

him. Not the way I did.

She leaned into his arm, and I couldn't get a handle on if

she was being affectionate or cunty, if she was always that

way or if she was trying to work my nerves. I guessed the

latter.

"A boyfriend?" She pushed too hard.

Austin took his hand away to reach for my plate. He

grabbed off a hunk of now-cool funnel cake and ate it.

Powdered sugar coated his lips and he licked each finger

slowly, his gaze never leaving mine.

"Help yourself," I told him. I held the plate out to her.

"Want some?"

Kira wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed, but there wasn't

realy any way she could've missed Austin's look. She

shook her head. "No. I can't eat that stuff. I'd have to

exercise for a week."

"Paige, you been exercising for a week?" Austin shoved

his hands in his pockets, down deep, and the jeans sunk

lower on his hips to show a strip of tanned bely beneath

lower on his hips to show a strip of tanned bely beneath

his T-shirt.

"No. I'l take my chances." I tore off a piece for myself and bit into the heavy sweetness, then licked sugar from my

fingers, too.

It wasn't nice, what we were doing to her, but it wasn't my

fault she wasn't very good at it. It wasn't my fault he stil

wanted me even after al this time. I looked again for Eric

and spotted him being handed a T-shirt. In a minute he'd

be heading this way. I didn't want to introduce Eric to

Austin.

"Austin and I were going to watch the barge concert. Do

you…do you want to come along?"

I gave her a real look then, my once-upon-a-time best

friend. She didn't try to reach for Austin again, and the

corners of her mouth and eyes drooped. I remembered

how once we'd practiced putting on eyeliner in her

mother's bathroom, and how Kira had been the one to

teach me how to use a tampon when my mother had been

inexplicably too embarrassed. She'd punched a guy in the

nuts for hassling me and lent me her favorite lipstick

without a second thought. She wanted Austin, and I knew

without a second thought. She wanted Austin, and I knew

I should let her have him since I didn't want him anymore.

So, I did.

Chapter 29

"Another time." I spotted Eric closer now, his T-shirt dangling from a front pocket. "I'l catch you guys later."

I left without a backward glance and hurried through the

crowd to get to Eric before he got to me. "Hey."

"Hey." He looked at my half-eaten funnel cake. "Is it good?"

"You can have some." I'd lost my appetite for it.

With a shrug, Eric took a piece and chewed it. "These

always smel better than they taste."

I risked a glance over my shoulder, expecting to see a sea

of strangers. I saw Austin, his face tight, and Kira, staring

up at him. "Yeah. Listen, do you mind if I bug out? I've got

a kiler headache al of a sudden."

Eric's brow furrowed, and he reached to rub the back of

my neck. The gesture, automatic but casual, ought to have

made me feel better, but I wanted to cringe away from his

touch. He gave my neck a gentle squeeze and let go.

"Sure, no problem. I'l walk back with you if you want."

"I don't want to ruin this for you." I didn't look behind us again, just started moving back toward the Manor. I

dumped the funnel cake in the first garbage can I passed.

"Nah. These things are the same as that funnel cake. I'l

walk you back."

I was already walking, but I shot him a glance. "Are you

sure?"

"Paige, realy. Not a problem. Oops, watch it." Eric

reached to steer me away from a puddle of something I

hoped was spiled fruit smoothie and not something

grosser.

His fingers gripped my arm just hard enough to keep me

from stumbling, and my heart thumped harder at the

pressure. Lace and satin pressed my skin beneath my

clothes. He held on a little longer than necessary but let go

sooner than I wanted him to.

In the lobby he checked for mail even though he'd stopped

to peek in the box on the way out. I knew how he felt

when he found nothing but the Tenant Association

when he found nothing but the Tenant Association

newsletter, but he turned to me with a grin anyway.

"Looks like they're planning another barbecue. If it's

anything like last year's the beer wil be warm and the food

cold."