Not Your Fault by Cheyanne Young Read Free Book Online Page B

nerves right now. As I walk through the parking lot, each step closer to the fun house makes me feel like it’s one step closer to my own demise. What if Kris lied about the team-building thing and what if he only invited me? The whole thing could be a lie to get me alone so he can…what? I shake my head. It’s not as if he would want to do anything to me. I’m not the killer here. I’m not the person who abandoned the other one.
    But I’m on the verge of a freaking panic attack at the ridiculous idea that this is all a setup to get me alone. Maybe I should have brought my sister.
    The scent of wine and cherry blossom body spray crushes into me as Susan appears out of nowhere and wraps her drunken arm around my shoulder. “Do we have the best boss ever, or what?” she says, nodding her head in an answer to her own question. She reaches into the pocket of her velour track pants and tosses golden coins into the air. “Open bar and as many tokens as we want.”
    I steady my arm around her waist in an attempt to keep her drunk walk from pulling both of us to the ground. I guess I was wrong about the Kris only inviting me thing. Of course he wouldn’t do that. He probably tried not to invite me at all. Up ahead, Koby holds open the door for us. He’s the part time high school kid we hired to wipe down the machines and take out the trash every day.
    “How many drinks has she had?” I ask him as he leads us inside the crowded warehouse full of lights and noises and people. And somewhere, Kris Payne.
    “Not many,” he says, leading the way to the adult section in the back. “But I think she may have arrived a little tipsy,” he whispers into my ear.
    “I heard that!” Susan punches him playfully in the arm. Some of my anxiety melts away. I can handle being around Kris when I’m also with Susan and the rest of my coworkers. It’s not as if anyone here is a mind reader and knows about the thoughts I had while lying naked with my boyfriend just an hour ago.
    A waitress in black pants and a purple cleavage-baring tank top with the Fun Max House logo across the chest hands me an ice-cold beer from the tray in her hand. I thank her and drink half the bottle in one gulp. I’m going to be just fine. Kris Payne can suck it.
    The two-day shift workers, Jennifer and Geoff, play a game of pool so poorly that it looks like both of them are losing. They’re both college-dropouts who met each other at the gym, fell in love at the gym, got jobs and the gym, and then were married last spring. Thankfully, the wedding wasn’t in the gym. I’m doing a pretty good job of small talking with them about their shitty pool game, the glorious weather, and other pointless topics when a figure walks toward us from the pizza buffet.
    It feels like a rock hits my chest and got gets between my ribcage. The weight crushes my lungs and makes it hard to breathe. And all he’s doing is walking with a plate of pepperoni pizza slices stacked into a pyramid in one hand and a beer in the other.
    He wears black board shorts and a black T-shirt that fits over his chest as if it were tailor made for him. His five o’clock shadow makes me wonder what it’d feel like having it brush across my cheek. My knees go weak and I grab onto the side of the pool table.
    Yeah, okay…what did I say about him needing to suck it? I need to remember that. He abandoned me in high school. He means nothing to me. He can suck it.
    Gripping my own beer tightly in my hand, I repeat these words in my mind, all while keeping a smile on my face. No one needs to know that I’ve fallen off the deep end here, especially Kris. Jessica sinks the number eight ball and then throws a fit, arguing that she didn’t know that ball was an instant game-ending ball.
    “I think there’s a dirty joke somewhere in there,” Geoff says after his wife finishes her rant about sinking balls in the corner hole. Kris lets out a laugh and fist-bumps Geoff.
    “There definitely is,” Kris