What's a Girl Gotta Do? by Holly Bourne Read Free Book Online Page B

“You ate it all last night.”
    â€œI don’t think I can handle any more cheese,” I said. “Can we get chocolate instead?”
    â€œSeconded,” Amber said. “I was doing Boursin burps all night.”
    â€œSexy.” I winked.
    â€œOh, don’t I know it. I told Kyle about them. He was suitably appalled.”
    â€œHe’ll still love you anyway. That boy is OBSESSED with you.” Kyle was Amber’s trans-Atlantic boyfriend. He was worryingly perfect, apart from the fact he lived thousands of miles away.
    I looked at the others. Joel had finished his burger but put his headphones in. Jane shared one headphone with him, doing the same half-smile she always did to us when she was only half there. I seriously thought that, after a year of going out together, Jane and Joel would’ve cooled things down. But, if anything, they seemed even more besotted with each other. Only Oli was still paying any attention, with his shockingly green eyes. I could totally see what Evie saw in him. Though I could never put up with his terminal shyness…even though he had some pretty good explanations for it.
    â€œWhat do you think, Oli?” I picked up a now-cold chip and ate it. “A guy’s opinion would be useful…as long as it’s positive.” I gave him a mock-evil.
    He laughed, and held his hands up in defence. “I think it sounds interesting,” he said. “You know what you should do, though?”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œGet someone to film it. Make it into an online video campaign. It will reach more people that way.”
    I was quiet as I digested what a very good idea that was.
    â€œWhat a very good idea that was,” I said.
    Oli went bright red. Evie looked at him, then he looked at Evie, then she went bright red too.
    â€œNone of us can use a camera though,” Amber pointed out.
    â€œWe have a few wannabe film-makers in film studies, don’t we, Evie?”
    She nodded, still red. “We could ask around?”
    â€œThat would be amazing!”
    I felt all full of love and meaning and fight and cold chips. I was onto something…I could just feel it…
    Until Amber muttered. “Uh oh, Teddy alert. Teddy alert.”
    My tummy squidged up. “Oh bollocks, where?”
    â€œSix o’clock.”
    I twisted my head around gormlessly. “Amber, where the heck is six o’clock…? Oh…here he is.”
    Teddy was heading straight over with a lunch tray. His hair flopped in his eyes, but not enough to cover the huge stinky stinkeye he very deliberately gave me when he realized I was there. He didn’t have his usual bunch of hyena mates with him, otherwise he’d probably have said something.
    My stomach turned again. Teddy was this hairy rugby guy I dated last year who seemed fun at first and then got totally intense super quickly. When he told me he was in love with me, on, like, our third date, I freaked out but ended things as considerately as I could. He didn’t take it well though. He still didn’t take it well. Him and his rugby team went totally ballistic when the girls and I campaigned for a rape song to get taken off the college jukebox and made our lives hell.
    â€œI’ve honestly never seen so much hatred in anyone’s eyes before,” Evie marvelled.
    â€œShh,” I said, before looking up to smile at him.
    He saw, he definitely saw. But he just stopped and gave me a very slow and deliberate sneer. Then he stalked off in the opposite direction.
    â€œWow,” Amber said. “Do you think he came over just to sneer at you?”
    Evie chuckled. “That’s what happens when you take an intense person’s virginity and then dump them.”
    â€œHey!” I said, trying not to smile. I’d felt guilty about Teddy for months, but even with all my apologizing, he still went out of his way to make me feel like a slutty she-wolf. “I didn’t