The Rockstar Who Loves Me

Song 14 ♫ Wherever You Need Me

"This calls for a girl's night," Dawn announced as soon as I picked the phone up on Saturday morning.

By this she meant the catastrophe last night turned out to be.

As soon as Tae Yang had taken me out of the restaurant, we dashed across the parking lot in case Bryce was in pursuit. Hiding behind my car, Tae Yang taught me a few breathing exercises. They helped me not break into waterworks or colorful cursing and he stayed with me until I was stable enough to drive home.

On the way, I called Mom and told her what had happened. She, in turn, called Quinta and Dawn and put them up to date. They'd suggested getting together to drink high octane booze and shit on men, but all I'd wanted was to go to bed and cry by myself.

"What do you say?" Dawn insisted, even though it was only nine in the morning.

I was still a very warm burrito wrapped up in bedsheets and aside from craving a very greasy breakfast, this was all I wanted to do for the foreseeable future.

"You can't just waste the day away in bed," she said.

I cracked an eye open, half expecting her to be looming over me in my room but I was by myself. "How do you know? Did you install a camera in my room?"

"It's what you always do after a heartbreak."

I grunted. I had very mixed feelings at being so predictable. On the one hand they knew exactly how to cheer me up. On the other, they'd acquired that knowledge because I kept making the same mistakes over and over.

There was a knock on my door before Mom's voice came out with, "Párate, te hice huevo revuelto con arepa frita."

I ripped the bed sheets away from me.

"Voy!" I told Mom, then to Dawn I said, "Okay, fine. Let's go to Tampa tonight."

On the other end of the line, Dawn hollered.

Thus, plans were made. After breakfast, I put some Olga Tañón and danced in the living room with Mom, before we got ready for a big night out with the girls. I tested one of the bath bombs I'd been making myself and soaked until my fingertips turned into raisins, then spent an hour and a half doing my hair and one third of that with makeup. I put on one of my favorite dresses, red with colorful flowers, and with a cut that was inspired in the '50s.

Mom and I picked Quinta up and then Dawn, and I drove us all the way to our favorite casino in Tampa.

"Don't worry, darling," Quinta said while we were halfway. "We'll let you get shitfaced and I can drive us back."

I glanced at Mom beside me with wide eyes. That plan sounded like a whole ass nightmare. Last time Quinta drove us we'd almost got into two accidents.

Mom mouthed at me not to worry and pointed at herself. Whew.

The first thing we did when we arrived was a beeline for the bar. Never mind it was only five in the evening, this was the main attraction of the night. We bought a round of red wine for all of us, if only so we could pretend to be classy bitches for a bit.

Then we headed over to the slot machines. Neither of us was a huge gambler, mostly because we lacked the funds and compensated that with plenty of common sense, but we did enjoy the excitement of bingo—and bingo only started after six thirty, so we needed to spend our time doing something low risk until then.

"What if I win big this time?" Quinta cracked her fingers and pulled the lever.

Dawn snorted. "If you do, you should treat us to Brazilian grill."