As if, I thought, but at least it might get her off my back.
“Hey, Presley,” Ethan said with a smile. She definitely noticed that since her eyes bugged out even more.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Ethan. How long have you known our Ashlyn here?”
Our? How many people did she think she was? I really, really wasn’t prepared to deal with this. I definitely couldn’t do this now and definitely not starting with Presley, of all people. She could be absolutely vicious, and anything she discovered would be known by every man, woman, and grandparent in our social circle within an hour. I needed a quick escape.
“We met just a couple of days ago,” Ethan said, blushing. He tossed a shy glance at me, and his tongue popped out to spin his lip rings in a circle. He practically had “my dick’s been in her pussy” sketched across his forehead. Oh dear lord, she would eat him alive if he kept that up. I would, of course, be her dessert.
“Did you now?” Presley turned her syrupy-sweet smile on me. “Ashlyn hasn’t mentioned you.”
“Oh, well…um…” Ethan stammered as he glanced at me sideways and then looked down at the ground. His tongue popped out and ran over his lip rings again. He placed his left hand behind his neck and rubbed at the back of his head, sending his hair flying all over the place in the light spring breeze.
Shit.
“Presley, I really need to get going…”
“Maybe Ethan can join us at the club this evening.” Presley continued to press. My eyes widened in shock. There was no way she would invite him somewhere without a completely devious plan in her head. I absolutely, positively had to get both of us away from her as quickly as possible.
“Which club?” Ethan asked.
“Club Mania,” Presley said, increasing her smile to the point of looking rather maniacal. There was no way Ethan could get in there, and I could tell by her expression that she knew it. She was definitely doing this on purpose.
“Oh…um…I think that place is twenty-one and up,” Ethan said.
“Well, yeah!” Presley laughed. “It’s bad enough we have to put up with the older undergrads! I like a place that doesn’t allow any children.”
“Yeah, well…” Ethan glanced over at me again. “I’m not an undergrad, at least, but I think I’ll pass. Thanks anyway.”
“Presley, I told you I had studying to do…”
“You said maybe, Ashlyn,” Presley said, grinning at me and raising her eyebrows. “Is there anything else you want to discuss? Maybe your friend here can fill me in on where you were all weekend, hmm?”
“Drop it, Presley.” I glared at her through narrowed eyes. My heart was beating so fast, she could probably hear it through my chest. “I need to get to the library, and you need to get to your chem lab.”
“Well, we’ll just have to continue this later, won’t we?” Presley resumed the insane clown smile again. “It was truly a pleasure, Ethan. Maybe we’ll see you at the club in a few years?”
She started laughing hysterically as she sauntered off with her high-heeled boots clicking against the sidewalk. I glared after her for a minute and then tried to get my bearings. Even with her now out of the immediate picture, I didn’t know what to do next. Everything had happened so fast, and I had no idea how to proceed. I glanced around the courtyard, making sure I wasn’t going to get ambushed by anyone else I knew.
“You didn’t want her to know,” Ethan said as soon as Presley was out of earshot. He was looking at her retreating form and not looking at me at all.
“Ignore her,” I said quickly.
“That is probably good advice,” Ethan agreed, finally turning to me. His eyes were dark, and his voice took on a level of venom that didn’t seem at all right coming out of his beautiful mouth. “Do you ever take your own advice to heart?”
“What does that mean?” Even as I said it, I knew exactly wha
t he was implying.
“Obviously, you don’t ignore her.” Ethan stopped and turned towards me, his darkened eyes narrowed a little. “You were embarrassed. You didn’t want her to see me.”
“Ethan, it’s not like that,” I said. What was it like? I didn’t know what to say. “You’re just…a little hard to explain.”
“Why?”
“Presley won’t even recognize you as human if you aren’t a member of her father’s country club,” I explained. I sounded frantic. I was frantic. How could I explain someone like Presley to him? It’s not like I could do or say anything to make her less nasty. Having known her most of my life, I understood why she acted the way she did and accepted her for who she was, but that didn’t help me explain why she treated people like that. If I had been prepared, I might have been able to say something to her that wouldn’t have made this so painfully awkward, but he hadn’t given me the chance.
“I don’t really give a shit what she thinks,” Ethan said. The tone of his voice had turned hard, the venom gone and replaced with something worse—something cold and nearly emotionless. “Your being embarrassed by me means something, though.”