Blended Ch 46

“Are you mad at Rachel for being a jerk? Or at yourself for being there?” Piper asks.

Bella grimaces. “Both. It’s just not that simple.”

“Is it actually complicated or are you overthinking?”

“If I knew the answer to that, I’d be CEO of Apple by now.”

Bella really is mad. Piper can count on the fingers of one hand how many times she’s seen her this prickly. “Keep going.”

“I had to put myself out there. I don’t know if a wet T-shirt contest was the best place to start. Then—look, why is she doing this? I get to feel this way so she can get a dopamine hit from people liking it? Or does she actually have a problem with me?”

“Which one of these things bothers you more?” Piper puts her left and right hand on the table. “The part where she’s a jerk, or the part where you’re doubting yourself—like was it stupid to go last night, and did you offend her somehow? Did you screw up?”

“Obviously the second one.”

“Yeah. It’s easy to get stuck on stuff like that. One thing at a time. Did you screw up last night?”

“Maybe. Maybe I should’ve done something lowkey.”

“Even if it was a mistake, it is worse than if you’d stayed home? Or was it worth it to disrupt a cycle of avoidance?”

“I don’t know.”

“You’re thinking you screwed up, but all I saw was someone bravely trying to step outside her comfort zone, which was long overdue,” Piper says.

Bella nods. “That does seem like a healthier way to look at it. Why’s she coming after me, though?”

Piper laughs. “Because she’s stupid. She had to post something because she wasn’t up there. She wasn’t the center of attention, so she has to put herself in there. She’s scared of me. For some reason. And she knows that Kayla would not think twice to slap the shit out of her in front of a room full of people. But you? She doesn’t think you’ll do anything. And she probably doesn’t like you being around CCL. People respect you, Bella. They know you’re going places. Rachel’s in tight with CGH. For certain types of narcissists, if you do something different from what they’re doing, they interpret that as you saying that what they’re doing is wrong—because if it were right, you’d be doing it too. And they don’t like that. So, there might be some of that in here too. I don’t know. But the bottom line is that you didn’t do anything wrong. And even if you had, that’s just life. We all mess up.” Piper thinks of a flushed, passionate Riley for a moment with a flash of guilt. The idea there had been to make Riley more independent; not to make her more attached to Piper.

“You’re right. I know you’re right. I need to like, be healthy about this.”

“It’s OK. Like I said, anyone would see that and be upset.”

Bella looks at Piper and lowers her voice. “Last night was nice, by the way. And thanks for breakfast.”

“My pleasure.”

“Isn’t Riley kind of weird today?” Bella whispers.

Piper expected this. “She had sex last night.”

Bella’s mouth drops open. “Meghan? Good for her.”

Piper nods. Benign deception. “But don’t congratulate her or anything. Let her have it.”

Bella nods. “Yeah. For sure. Go Riley.” She smiles. “Do you think, uh… oh sheesh, I’ll just say it. She was on the bottom, wasn’t she?”

“I bet they did it all,” Piper says, taking a drink.

Bella does a little fist pump. “Good. Good. She needed that.” She blushes. “Maybe I did too.” Then her expression turns sour. “I’m just so mad. If she wants drama so bad, maybe I should give it to her.” She groans like a teenager.

Time to give her one last nudge, then let her handle this however she sees fit. Bella’s an adult. Piper is not her mother.