Chapter 6
Somewhere Between Hello and Goodbye, There Was Love
Aria
“Higher. No, too high. A bit more to the left, more, more, a little bit more—stop! Too far.”
I sigh. “Forget it. My arm’s about to fall off. We’ll leave it as is.”
Harper crosses her arms and raises an eyebrow. “The lights are screwy.”
“No one will notice.” The ladder’s wobbling dangerously as I make my way back down.
“I’m noticing.”
I roll my eyes, stick the roll of tape into my pocket, and fold the ladder back up. “You’re abnormal. The whole lounge is made out of string lights. Wherever you look, Harper, there are lights. No one’s going to notice that number eighty-three up there is off.”
Harper shrugs and follows me to the storage closet. “If you say so. Where’s your mom?”
“At the doctor’s.”
“Still?”
“Yeah. She’s having one of her episodes.”
Earlier this morning my mother could hardly get out of bed.
My heart bled as I watched her force one leg after the other, bit by bit, across the mattress while grabbing hold of the metal rods along the sides.
She didn’t want any help. Every time I tried, she pushed me away because she’s too proud.
I hate that. She’s not doing well, and when my mom’s not doing well, I feel like shit.
But I understand because I’m just as proud as she is.
“How’s she getting back?”
I close the door to the storage closet and walk over to the big wooden cabinet beneath the TV to look for the board games. “William’s bringing her. You know where Xtreme Activity is? I could’ve sworn it was here with the others.”
“A kid set it on fire.”
“What?!”
“At games night last year. An aggressive kid who couldn’t stand to lose. He totally lost his mind and threw the whole game along with the box into the fireplace. One guest filmed it with their phone. You can find it on YouTube if you look for ‘Weird guy goes weirder in Aspen.’ You want to see it?”
I frown. “No. That was my favorite game.”
Harper grabs the lighter off the mantelpiece and starts stacking wood and trying to get it lit. “You just shouldn’t have left.”
“You know why I left, Harp.” I pull Monopoly, Taboo, Scrabble, and Twister out of the cabinet and put them down on the big table before making my way back toward Harper. “Stop holding that against me all the time.”
My best friend doesn’t look at me. She messes around with the fireplace poker instead. The flames are glittering in her eyes, but that often happens, even when there’s nothing on fire.
“You hurt me.”
Warmth seeps through my veins. Harp rarely shows her feelings.
Her parents are cold, and she grew up the same way.
No hugs, no nice words, hardly any moments of comfort, and no tears…
ever. Ever since we were kids, Harp has avoided being at home as best she can.
She practically grew up with us. The B I needed myself so bad, Harp.
But that doesn’t mean I didn’t think about you.
Whenever I saw someone in the cafeteria mix ketchup and mayo, you immediately came to mind.
And whenever one of my roommates used mousse, I’d think of how you’d wrinkle your nose and say, ‘Use Curl I was only gone for two minutes, but the entire B&B looks like a battlefield.
The wooden floor is teeming with pumpkin-covered newspaper.
Paisley is digging into her pumpkin as if looking for diamonds, while Harper is just sitting next to her, looking a little overwhelmed, a Swiss Army knife in one hand, her own pumpkin in the other. She doesn’t like to get dirty.
Paisley knows that, but she just keeps talking at her incessantly. “Halloween just comes once a year. Once a year. Come on. You can wash your hands afterward. Now carve a face. I want to see what you come up with!”
“I can’t carve,” Harper says. I get the feeling she’s only interacting because Knox has just stepped inside. Paisley and Harp aren’t the best of friends, but they slowly seem to be becoming okay with each other.
Knox puts his pumpkin on the side table, sits down next to Paisley, and pulls out his pocketknife.
“Everyone can carve.”