She unfolded it and nearly threw up again. There, on the front page of the entertainment section, was Nick kissing some other girl. “NICKOLAS GENE CARTER!” she yelled.
He bolted into her room. “What? Huh? Are you okay?”
“Uh, do you wanna tell me what the hell this is?” she asked, thrusting the paper in his face.
“Oh, shit. Meg, that’s from a long time ago! That picture was taken before I met you!”
“We met three and a half months ago! This is a paper from today,” she stated.
“But…”
“The press wouldn’t wait a minute more than they had to before publishing this. This is too good. This has to be recent, Nick.”
“It was just one kiss! I’m sorry, sweetie!”
She couldn’t believe how hypocritical she was being, but she didn’t care, either. She had been drunk. Staying calm, she asked a simple question. “Who is she?”
“She’s an ex-girlfriend. I ran into her at a party, the party that picture was taken at. We talked, and then she kissed me, but then I stopped because of you.”
“She kissed you or you kissed her?”
He winced. “It was a mutual thing…”
“How could you do this to me? I trusted you!”
“I’m so sorry, Maggie! It was just that one kiss! It didn’t mean anything!” he insisted.
“Save it, Nick. I don’t wanna hear it. Please just go.”
“What are you saying about us?”
“I don’t know. I need to think this through.” As she said that, the phone rang. She didn’t feel like getting it, so she just stared at Nick while it rang, tears falling steadily down her cheeks.
The answering machine picked up. “Hey, you’ve reached the answering machine of Liz and Maggie. We’re probably out studying at the library…okay, more likely out partying, but it doesn’t matter. Leave us your name and number and maybe we’ll call you back!”
“Meg, it’s Matt. If you’re there, pick up. I woke up this morning and I remembered everything that happened last night, and I know we said to forget it happened, but I wanted to talk to you about it. I mean, we made out!” Nick’s jaw dropped, and Meg looked down and started playing with her hair again as the message continued. “I guess you’re really not home, so I’ll just call back or you can call me back or something.” Then he hung up, leaving a quite uncomfortable situation in Meg’s apartment.
“You’re not going to forgive me for one little kiss when you made out with Matt last night?”
“That was different! I was drunk!” she exclaimed. “I don’t take alcohol well.”
“Oh, that’s an excuse. I was drunk, so I can cheat on my boyfriend. Gee, that makes sense!”
“That’s not what I’m saying. I know I was wrong. But still, you kissed another girl out of your own free will! I was so trashed last night that I didn’t even realize what was going on!”
“I can’t believe you!”
“Just get out, Nick. I don’t wanna deal with you right now.”