Elite - Chapter 26
Saturday
It was easy to push the conversation with Mr. Pruitt to the back of my mind when I went back to my room.
Kennedy was sitting on my bed getting her nails painted, laughing with Justin.
Her hair was piled on top of her head in big rollers.
I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen her with such a big smile.
I just wanted to focus on the dance and having fun for one night.
Besides, Miller wasn’t here. So I couldn’t talk to him right now anyway. Going down to the staff floor was absolutely not the right move. Mr. Pruitt was clearly watching me. And I wasn’t going to give him a reason to fire Miller.
“Don’t you love this color?” Kennedy asked as she showed me her purple nails. The hue matched her dress perfectly.
“It’s great.” I sat down next to her on the bed. “So let me get this straight, Justin. You’re an assistant, a stylist, and a…”
“Self-proclaimed makeover artist!” He put the brush back into the nail polish.
“Your father called and asked if I had any recommendations, so I recommended myself right into this gig. I knew you’d be a valuable client.
Now pick a color. We don’t have much time.
” He opened up one of the plastic containers he’d come in with.
It was filled with a whole rainbow of nail polishes, a blow dryer, more bobby pins than I could imagine, and so much freaking hairspray.
More hairspray than should ever be in anyone’s hair.
I suddenly understood how Justin always kept his hair just so.
“If we’re running low on time, I can skip doing my nails,” I said. “I never really bother to paint my nails.”
“Nonsense. There’s always time to be fabulous.” He rifled through the colors and lifted up a silver one with sparkles. “How about this?”
Kennedy gave me an encouraging nod.
The silver sparkles looked fun. I felt a smile spreading across my face. “Okay.”
“I could get used to this,” Kennedy said as she blew on her nails. “Oh, our drinks are here!”
I looked up to see Tiffany coming in with a tray of glasses filled to the brim with something clear and bubbly.
I remembered when I’d gone over to The Hunters’ house for help with my project. They’d had someone serve alcohol even though we were all underage. Why were adults agreeing to this?
“You asked her to bring us drinks?” I asked.
“No. She offered,” Kennedy said and lifted one off the tray. “Don’t worry. It’s just sparkling water. Not punch.”
I laughed. I couldn’t be mad about sparkling water. I grabbed one too. “Thank you so much, Tiffany.”
She smiled. “Anything else I can grab for you? I know Barbara just pulled some chocolate scones out of the oven.”
Kennedy and I both looked at each other.
“We would love some scones,” Kennedy said in a ditsy voice that sounded a lot like Isabella.
Tiffany laughed.
For a few minutes there, I thought Kennedy was getting more used to this lifestyle than I was. But she was just having fun. And Tiffany was enjoying it too.
“Right away, ma’am,” she said and we all giggled.
“I swear to God, if you girls smudge your nails I’m not redoing them,” Justin said as he snagged the sparkling water out of my hand for himself. “Be still.”
“Yes, sir.”
He laughed too. But then slapped the back of my hand when I fidgeted again.
“This room isn’t nearly as bad as the rest of the house,” Kennedy said. “I love the color. Everything is so light and airy now that the smell of pee is gone. It reminds me of this beach house I went to when I was a kid.”
“Mr. Pruitt picked out the color,” I said.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“Interesting. I guess his wife decorated the rest of the apartment? Who knew he was such a bright and cheery guy?”
Justin laughed and then silently scolded himself for some imperfection I couldn’t see on my nails.
“My mom loved yellow,” I said. “And he remembered.”
“That’s sweet.” Kennedy reached up to touch one of her rollers.
“Don’t you dare touch that,” Justin said. “It needs time to set.” He screwed the cap back on the silver nail polish. “Now what to do with your hair,” he said to me and shoved the sparkling water back into my hand.
I didn’t really have any suggestions for him. I’d never had my hair done before.
He continued to stare at me for a few more seconds before he snapped his fingers. “I’ve got it. It’s going to be fantabulous. You’re going to love it .” His voice went up about 12 octaves and his eyes rolled back into his head when he said love it.
He seemed to be selling it pretty hard. But I trusted his judgment. The clothes he’d helped pick out had looked good on me. He knew what he was doing. He was going to plan weddings one day. So he could surely handle a hairdo.
Kennedy lifted her camera, being careful not to mess up her nails, and snapped a picture of me. “This is seriously the best day ever. I don’t want to ever forget it. Can you get one of us together?” she asked Justin and handed him the camera.
“Promise you won’t touch your hair again?” he asked.
She nodded.
He took the camera from her. “Say cheese,” he said.
I smiled as big as I could. Kennedy was right. I didn’t want to forget today either. We’d basically gotten a spa day without leaving my room. Plus Kennedy was allowed to visit whenever she wanted now.
“What happened to your new cell phone?” she asked as she took the camera back from Justin.
“It’s in my dresser.”
“Why?”
“Because it was annoying.”
She laughed and walked over to the dresser. “Why was it annoying? It has so many new features that mine doesn’t.” She pulled it out and turned it back on. It immediately started buzzing in her hand. “Whoa.”
“What?”
“You have so many missed calls and text from Matt.” She squealed and started reading the texts to me:
“Brooklyn please just let me explain,” she said in a deep voice.
“I never slept with Rachel. I swear to God.”
“You can’t shut me out too.”
I swallowed down the lump in my throat. None of the Untouchables had been seen together all week.
I was pretty sure their friendship had burst into flames just like Matt and my relationship.
Probably around the same time that James put his fist through a window.
Matt had lost everything. And I knew what that felt like.
Kennedy scrolled down. “There’s like a bajillion messages here, Brooklyn. How could you ignore all of these? Oh my God, they get even better.” She continued reading:
“I’ll do anything to get you back. Just say the word.”
“Meet me downstairs. Please.”
“Mr. Pruitt won’t let me up anymore because our relationship contract has a discrepancy. What the hell is he even talking about?”
“I’m sorry I made you look like a fool at lunch by not telling you the truth.
I should have told you. But nothing happened between me and Rachel.
Isabella jumped to a wild conclusion. And she was holding it over my head.
You know that I’m worried about James. You know that this would hurt him.
I don’t understand why you don’t believe me. ”
“I’d never lie to you, Brooklyn. Never.”
“Will it help if I make a fool of myself?”
Kennedy looked up from the phone. “He made a fool of himself for you, Brooklyn. Even though he didn’t know if it would work because you were ghosting him. It’s so romantic.” She pressed the phone against her chest with a sigh.
“What did he do?” Justin asked as he started messing with my hair.
“To make me mad? Or to try to win me back?”
“I got the gist of the mad part. He hooked up with someone else while you were together.”
“No, not while we were together. Before we were together.”
Justin lowered his round brush. “So why are you mad at him exactly? He can’t undo his past.”
“Because he didn’t tell me about it.” And he hurt his friend who he swore he was trying to protect. The only thing Matt had been protecting was himself.
“Did you tell him about all of your past relationships?” He propped the brush on his hip like he was going to hit me with it.
“No. But I’ve never been in a relationship before. There was nothing to tell.”
“Oh, honey. You have a boy blowing up your inbox. And another hunk of a man staring at you with googly eyes.” He waved his hand in the direction of the door, and I assumed he was talking about Miller. “I don’t see the problem.”
I wasn’t really sure if I did anymore either.
“I’d kill to be in your shoes. All the good men are straight.” He started working on my hair again.
Maybe he was right. Not the straight thing. I honestly had no idea if that was true. But my shoes seemed pretty great right about now. I looked down at my Keds. What the hell was I doing?
Kennedy put the phone down on my lap, with another text message opened on it:
“Brooklyn, I love you. I wouldn’t have said it if I didn’t mean it. I’ve never told anyone else that. I’ve never felt like this about anyone else. I don’t want to give up on us. Please talk to me. I need you.”
I pressed my lips together.
“You have to text him back,” Kennedy said. “What if he’s telling the truth? What if he didn’t sleep with Rachel? What if it’s all just a crazy big misunderstanding?”
I stared at the phone. I needed to hear Matt out. I owed him that much.
“Before you text him back,” Justin said. “What in the name of Judy Garland is a relationship contract? Is that some kind of kinky sex thing? Because if it is, I need a copy ASAP.”
“No.” I laughed. “It’s because my dad’s a crazy person and needs to know all my business.”
Kennedy gasped.
But I’d already heard what I said. It was the first time I’d ever referred to Mr. Pruitt as my dad . It made me feel all warm and fuzzy. I had a dad. And he acted like it too.
“Well, your father tips well,” Justin said. “So how bad could he really be?”
If good versus evil was so easily defined by a tip, my life would be so much better. But Justin did have a good point. A monster wouldn’t leave a tip at all. My dad wasn’t a monster. I looked down at the texts. Maybe the monster was me.
I quickly typed out a response to Matt. “Are you still going to homecoming?”
Matt’s response came almost immediately. “Yes, I’ll pick you up in an hour.”
Of course he jumped to that conclusion. I wasn’t going to give in to him taking me. I already had my date. Kennedy and I were going to have a fun, drama free evening. “I’ll just see you there.”
The phone buzzed. “Save a dance for me?”
“Always.” I clicked send before I could change my mind. I’d give Matt the length of one dance to explain himself.