Saving from Monkeys by Jessie L. Star Read Free Book Online Page A

leave, and I stared after her somewhat longingly, wishing that I, too, could make such an easy escape. But no, I was doomed to look across the table and observe a significant player from my past cuddling someone so important from my present. Not that I had some horribly traumatic history I was trying to put behind me, exactly, but I'd definitely made a conscious decision years ago that my past would remain exactly that, my past. I certainly hadn't intended to go out to lunch with it, at any rate.
    "I can't get over this," Abigail shook her head slightly in amazement, verbalising the overriding vibe around the table. "What are the odds?"
    "Rox thinks we set it up on purpose," Elliot smirked and I tried to subtly kick him under the table. "And she just kicked me," he added, making me wish I'd taken the opportunity to kick him much, much harder.
    "Set it up?" Jonah asked, leaning back and making his chair creak ominously. "What, like we both made a deal to go and sleep with the girls from room 314 that night or something?"
    "Yeah, that's pretty much how she put it," Elliot nodded while I narrowed my eyes as something suddenly became blindingly clear to me.
    "Wait a minute, you told him about...?" It was much too distasteful a sentence to finish, so the 'us having sex' bit hung unspoken in the air. It was to my eternal embarrassment that everyone around the table still knew what I meant.
    "You clearly told her ." He gestured towards Abi who, to be fair, wasn't exactly at a loss as to what we were discussing.
    "That's different!" I said hotly. "She's my best friend."
    "And he's mine, so what's your point?"
    "My point ..." I faltered for a moment, not exactly sure what my point was, but sure that I was right and he was wrong, "...is that a gentleman isn't supposed to tell!" I was actually quite proud of that as a save, but needless to say, Elliot didn't share my opinion and scoffed before saying,
    "Making you, what? A lady? As far as I was aware, a lady isn't exactly supposed to get so hammered she-"
    " Mate ," Jonah cut him off warningly and there was a tense moment of silence. It was broken as Elliot and I let out heavy sighs at almost exactly the same time.
    Forcing myself to look at him, I could see that he'd reached the same conclusion I had. Obnoxious as we clearly found each other, the lunch was supposed to be about Abi and Jonah.
    "Truce?" Elliot held out his hand and I raised my eyebrows. What was with today and Jonah and Elliot suddenly wanting to shake my hand? They never had before and they'd had a good 10 years to get the urge. Still, it was the right thing to do, so I took it, although I couldn't help saying stiffly,
    "I accept your capitulation."
    " Rox ," it was Abi's turn to chastise and I begrudgingly accepted it.
    "Fine, truce," I said heavily and Elliot and I solemnly shook on it.
    Although it was only a brief few moments when we were palm to palm, I found myself considering his hand with interest. This hand, I thought, has presumably touched other parts of my body. I tried to feel disgusted by this, but I couldn't fool myself. He had a good grasp, warm and firm; there was, irritatingly enough, nothing to be repulsed by.
    "Why've you gone red?"
    The rest of him, however, provided plenty to dislike.
    I dropped his hand quickly. "Global warming," I said swiftly. "So, Whal-, I mean Jonah, Abi told me you're doing Engineering?"
    Asking people about the course they did at uni was akin to older people discussing where they worked; it was safe chit-chat ground. After a few minutes I even forgot to be weirded out by talking to Jonah as just a normal person rather than someone contractually obliged to mop up his sick. It didn't take long for me to come to the conclusion that he'd vastly improved in the few years since I'd really had anything to do with him. As a teenager he'd been so carefree he had come across as decidedly care less and brief interactions with him had invariably made me wish I had an English to Grunt