Stupid Girl // Garbage

The ride to Salt Creek made me sick. Literally. As soon as we got here, I was racing to the bathroom and losing my lunch, my breakfast and probably last night's dinner. The perfect start to the weekend. I groan and rinse my mouth, wandering back to the main lobby where my family is waiting. Mom, Dad, my sister and my relatives are all standing together with their suitcases, talking.

"Oh, there you are sweetie! Feeling better?" My mom puts her arm around my shoulder and pulls me in.

"Sure, I'm great." My tone says that I'm anything but great.

"Your tummy has always been so sensitive." She gives my back a little rub and suddenly I'm six years old again.

I shrug. Whatever, we're here now for the long weekend. My Aunt Jess and her family surprised us with a weekend at the Salt Creek resort for some skiing. They've got money to burn and this is how they choose to burn it. I have to say, for a family from North Hills, they stay pretty grounded. Jeff and his sister Kyra aren't the usual stuck up snobs that live in their neighborhood.

Unlike that asshat, Matt.

"Anyway," my uncle Leo interjects, "we have adjoining cabins and brunch planned for tomorrow morning at ours. Then we'll hit the slopes." Leo hands my dad the room key while we gather our things to head out.

"Leo, you really didn't have to splurge on a cabin. We would have been fine with just a room," my mom says. She loves doing things with her sister's family, but I know she's a little uncomfortable with how much money they spend on outings like this.

"Nonsense." He just waves her off as we follow the pathway to the cabins.

Set at the end of the private section is two huge, multi-level cabins. My mouth gapes because I think these cabins are bigger than our house. My family heads to our cabin and my cousins head to theirs. Jeff already informed me that he and Kyra would be over to ours as soon as they get things settled. My parents and my sister, Sawyer, will head over to their cabin to hang out as well. With my sister being on the autism spectrum, she prefers to stick close to my mom when the surroundings are unfamiliar.

Dad unlocks the door and we all step inside. Holy crap. I look around at the open area filled with upscale furniture. This is no country log cabin. Everything is luxury. Huge floor to ceiling picture windows in the back of the main room overlooks an amazing view of the snow-covered mountains. The moon is full, making the white snow seem to glow. There's already a fire crackling in the iron pot-bellied stove in the corner. Overstuffed couches and loungers surround the sitting area. The room opens up to a fully appointed kitchen with stainless steel appliances and granite countertops. As if my mom is going to cook on vacation, but I guess some people might.

I drag my bag into one of the bedrooms, there are six, and find a queen-sized sleigh bed. I drop everything and make a running dive onto the plush bedding, sinking into the softness and sighing.  Ok, this might not be so bad. I hate skiing but sleeping in this thing? Yeah, I'm down for a good long snooze.

Before I can even relax, I hear my mom call to me that they are headed to Aunt Jess's place and I can join if I want.

"Jeff said he and Kyra are coming here." I reply and head to the bathroom to brush my teeth. I still have rank breath from my car ride disaster. I hear the door shut as I'm rinsing and spitting.

After cleaning up and grabbing a snack from the fully stocked kitchen, I set myself up on one of the loungers. Blanket, cookies and hot cocoa certainly don't hurt. I hear a knock then the door opens revealing Kyra and Jeff. Kyra's already changed into comfortable hang out sweatpants, but Jeff is still in boots, jeans and a flannel shirt. He's such a bumpkin sometimes.

"Your place is the mirror image of ours," he says as he grabs a seat on the couch. "We could have just shared a cabin with all of this space."

"Right?" I say. Uncle Leo likes to splurge but Jeff has always been pretty sensible. "I guess the adults wanted to have space to get away from us."

Kyra rolls her eyes and Jeff laughs.

"I'm the one that needs space from mom," Kyra says. "She keeps bugging me about boys and I'm just done."

"Boys?" Jeff sits up straighter. "What boys? Who've you been talking to?"

"Calm down, killer. No one is talking to me. That's the problem. Mom is dying to take me prom dress shopping. She's trying to get me to talk someone into taking me."

Jeff leans back, but the look in his eyes says he's about to throw down with someone. "I can't take any more school drama. Please don't try to date anyone I know." He rubs his hands over his face and suddenly I need to know what drama he's speaking of.

"Jeffy," I croon, "Who's been a bad boy?" I point a finger at him and swirl it in a circle. "Spill the details, mister. I need more drama in my life."

The funny thing is, I really could use a little drama. My life consists of soccer practice and homework. I'm boring myself to death. Drama would add a little spark to the dull days of existence. The bit of intrigue brought on by taking Matt home with me from the Lot lasted for a few days, but I need more. I might be addicted, now that I think about it. I'm dying for a hit.

"Oh no you don't. I was not happy to find out about the drama you did have, little girl. I'm not adding any to the mix." Jeff gives me the evil eye. "You should have told me what happened with Matt. I didn't appreciate being ambushed by Pete and then practically dragging him off of Matt at lunch the other day."

Kyra's eyes pop while my mouth drops. She and I speak at the same time.

"What are you talking about?"

"Matt and Pete were fighting?"

Jeff groans and throws his head back on the couch "This is the opposite of what I need right now."

"You started it," I remind him. "Now you need to finish it. What exactly happened with Matt?"

Without lifting his head, he just rolls it to the side to glare at me. "You are obsessed. First you start asking me all kinds of questions about his dating habits and if he really is that big of an asshole, and now you want more information? I don't think so."

I cringe. Yeah, I may have gone too far with the Matt questions right after he left my house. I was proud at the time that I was able to wait an entire four hours before I started texting Jeff. Something about Matt left me with unquenchable curiosity and I had to know if that was the real him or if he was fronting to cover his shame at getting so plastered after his ex-girlfriend left him there.

Basically, Jeff let me know in no uncertain terms that Matt likes the ladies and the ladies like him. He's no stranger to a hook up and leaves broken hearts in his wake. Jeff wasn't surprised at all that Amber turned and ran from him when she did and was actually impressed she had lasted as long as she had.

In other words, stay the fuck away from Matt.

I got the message loud and clear. That doesn't mean I'm not still curious.

"Dude. The guy is a major train wreck. Noted. But what happens where there is a train wreck? People stop to stare at the destruction. That's all this is. And what the hell else do we have to do right now? Do you see a TV anywhere? No Netflix or Hulu to be found. So, entertain me, cousin." I lean back and grab my hot cocoa, take a sip and let my pointed stare linger.

Kyra speaks up. "Yeah, Jeff. Tell us about naughty Matt. I want to know. How else will I be able to pick up on the signs that a guy is bad news?"

Kyra gives me a little side smirk while Jeff has his eyes closed in defeat. I wink at her in a 'nice move' kind of way. She really pulled out the big guns with the protect-his-little-sister-from-boys angle. And by the way Jeff is inhaling I think it worked.

"Jeez. Fine, but don't badger me for the rest of the weekend, got it? I want to ski in peace."

Kyra and I both give him the three-finger girl scout promise, "We swear!" and lean forward for the story.

"Couple days ago, Amber found Matt at lunch and ripped him a new one about all of his cheating ways. I guess she hadn't been aware until recently that he had girls on the side the entire time they were dating."

Both Kyra and I make a little noise of disapproval. Cheaters suck. Jeff waits until we quiet down before continuing.

"Pete gave him a hard time about how Amber just burned him at the stake publicly and Matt didn't take it very well. A few insults were thrown back and forth and then they started brawling. I pulled Matt off of Pete and held him back. Sean kept Pete from pouncing again, and then Pete just took off. I have no idea what's up between the two of them." Jeff shook his head and grunted.

"Sounds like a girl," I say.

"Sounds like Amber," Kyra clarifies. Jeff and I both throw looks her way. "What? It's pretty obvious if they were popping off to each other about her and then they start throwing blows." Kyra just shrugs. "Boys are actually pretty simple to figure out."

Jeff's jaw drops. "So you didn't need a tutoring session? Nicely played, Kyra. You are something else." He gets up and stomps to the door. "I'm going to explore the grounds. Alone." Then he slams the door.

Kyra looks at me with a twinkle in her eyes "I brought an iPad and I have a hot spot on my phone. Are you ready for a Gilmore Girls binge fest?"

I laugh. "Sure thing." I join Kyra on the couch and settle in to watch, but the show isn't anywhere on my mind. The player, the asshat I had in my bed who seems totally broken up over a girl, is the only guy on my mind. What kind of cheater gets that torn up over an ex?

Maybe one who realizes what he lost? That's the thing. He is a dick, a total jerk. But usually those kinds of people are in pain. What kind of pain is Matt working through? And why in the heck do I care so much...

I have to say, I freaking loved writing this chapter! First, it's a little window into a scene that was once again described in MTT but didn't happen. Second, I got to introduce Salt Creek! This is a location that I'm planning four novellas around, and a couple of characters from this series will show up there *internal author squeal*

So...Matt is a train wreck that Hannah can't help watching. We'll see how that all plays out in the next couple of chapters. I'm at 20k words in this story already and it's going so gooooood!

Stupid Girl is one of my favorites from the 90s, and Hannah's curiosity might make her seem kinda stupid, but *smirk* she ain't.

https://youtu.be/2GhPUAVgHZc

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