Chapter 36
Ryder and Brea are the first to arrive tonight. She and Hailey immediately disappear into Hailey’s room. Soon after, Meredith, Trevor, Darrel, Jayson, Julien, and Elijah walk in. Celeste texted me ten minutes ago to say that she and Davis are running late.
The boys push me and Meredith aside, mansplaining how it is their job to do the grilling out on the back patio, which translates into Julien and Elijah firing up the grill while Ryder, Jayson, Trevor, and Darrel pass a football around in the backyard.
Meredith and I give them our best eye rolls, then she promptly ushers me inside the house and down the hall to my bedroom for some girl gossip time.
Before my bedroom door closes, she throws her arms around me. I’m seven inches taller than she is so it’s like hugging a little sister.
“I missed you, stupid.
“I’ve missed you, too, Mer.”
“Apology accepted for not texting me.”
My body trembles with laughter. “Just like that?”
Meredith shoves me over to my bed and pushes me down to sit. “Just like that. That’s what friends do. But you still owe me an explanation. With details. Lots and lots of details. Fallon details first, then Ryder details. Where is Fallon anyway?”
I spoke with him this morning right after I got off the phone with Meredith. “When I invited him to come over tonight, he said, and I quote, ‘High school groups aren’t my thing, kitten.’”
“Oh, please! What a crock of poo-doo. He came to that football game, didn’t he?
I get up from the bed and walk over to my dresser, picking up a small, wrapped present. “I think he’s just trying to give me and the boys some time alone. And me and Hailey.”
Meredith looks around my room like she’s expecting Hailey to appear. “That’s right. Where is your long-lost sister?”
“In her room with Brea, Ryder’s sister. They used to be best friends.”
I’m not so sure about that now. Brea looked peeved at Hailey when she arrived, and Hailey just looked blank. Void. Empty. Just like she did with me. I really hope that Dr. Clairemont and the teen therapy group Daniel is insisting Hailey attend will help bring my sister back to life.
“I know Hailey is taking our parents’ deaths really hard, but it’s difficult to talk with her about it because she has barely said two words to me.
“That’s right. She didn’t know. God, how awful to come home and find that out.”
I just nod in agreement, not adding anything more. I’m still a bit bitter about that. Hailey should have been here. But there’s no place for those kinds of morose thoughts tonight. Tonight, I want to spend time with my friends.
Handing Meredith the present, I sit back down on the bed beside her. “I got this for you.”
I tried to buy a little something for everyone at each city Fallon and I visited. The gifts are my way of showing my friends that even though I was gone, they were always in my thoughts.
Ripping the wrapping off, Meredith squeals when she opens the box to reveal a silver charm bracelet.
“Elizabeth, this is gorgeous!” she exclaims
“I picked out a charm for you at every place we stopped.” I show her by touching each charm as I go. “An NYC for New York City, a snowflake for Iceland, a Union Jack for London, the Eiffel Tower for Paris, and a flower for Barcelona.
“I definitely forgive you now,” she says, clasping the bracelet around her wrist
“But you said you already forgave me.”
“That was my metaphorical forgiveness. This is my literal forgiveness.”
“I missed you, Mer,” I tell her again. She leans over and hugs me, and we topple over sideways in a fit of giggles.
“Selfie!” she says, taking out her phone. We press cheek-to-cheek for the picture, sticking our tongues out, and I make devil horns above my head. She shares the picture to my phone.
Meredith leaps off the bed and grabs my hairbrush and some hair clips from my dresser.
“You know I’m not a keep-still-kind-of girl with my ADHD.
Have to stay busy. So, while you tell me about your trip, I’m going to play with your hair.
What happened to the pink?” she asks, lifting a strand of my blond hair up
“It faded out. I’m thinking of maybe doing blue next, or green to match my eyes.
She glides the brush down my hair. “I really liked the pink.”
“Pink it is.” There are some cherry Kool-Aid packets in the kitchen. Perhaps, Meredith can help me color the tips this weekend.
“Knock, knock,” Celeste announces, opening my bedroom door. “I heard this is where the cool girls’ party is at.”
Meredith and I wave Celeste in. She gives me a hug with a “welcome back,” then joins us on the bed. “Are we doing makeovers? I’m so in. Where’s your nail polish?” she asks me
“Bathroom cabinet,” I reply, pointing over to my bathroom door.
While she’s opening and closing the different cabinet doors, she asks loudly, “Why are there men’s shaving foam, cologne, deodorant, a men’s razor, and his-and-her toothbrushes in here?”
Meredith cackles gleefully, pointing the hairbrush at me. “You dirty girl. Are you and Ryder shacking up?” She waggles her brows up and down and I give her my best deadpan expression.
Celeste comes back out of the bathroom—pink, red, and black bottles of nail polish in her hands. “Your uncle is letting Ryder live here?” she asks, her shock apparent.
“Kind of?” I answer, and Meredith slaps me in the arm with the brush. “Ow!”
“Stop being evasive. You two are most assuredly doing the dirty.”
I zip my lips by pressing them together tightly, but my red cheeks give me away.
Celeste sighs and falls back onto the bed. “Sex with Davis is out of this world. I think he may have ruined me for my future husband.”
“You don’t think that you and Davis will get married?
Celeste looks over at me. “I’m a realist, Elizabeth.
I love Davis with all my heart, but do I really think that we’ll still be together in twenty years?
Not likely. Therefore, I’m going to enjoy every day I have with him.
That way, when I’m old and gray, sitting in a rocker on my front porch with my thirty cats, I’ll have happy memories of my first boyfriend and how he rocked my world. ”
We all burst out laughing.
“I wish sex with Darrel was as life-changing as that,” Meredith tells Celeste. “I guess that’s to be expected when you and your boyfriend start out together as clueless virgins.”
Celeste holds up a finger. “I can help with that.” She whips out her phone and goes to a website. Meredith and I huddle together to see her screen.
My eyes about bug out. “Is that a porn site?”
Celeste gives us a big smile. “Yep. I’ll send you both the link. Davis and I watch it and then we try the things we see. Trust me. You won’t regret it.”
“Um, no thanks,” I tell her, scandalized by the notion of even suggesting that to Ryder. Holy cow, my face feels like it’s on fire right now.
Meredith is on the opposite spectrum that I am. She gives Celeste a very fervent, “Yes, please!”
How in the heck did we go from doing our nails to talking about watching porn?
I’m not going to pontificate about my private life because it’s none of their business.
But I can for a fact say—inside my head, of course—that both Ryder and Jayson definitely “rocked my world.” Ryder rocked mine three times already today.
Wait. That sounded weird, even in my own head.
I shouldn’t be thinking about my current boyfriend and my ex at the same time in that way either. Just no.
Thankfully, Meredith goes back to playing with my hair and Celeste starts doing her nails.
“Okay, missy. Time for you to fess up,” Mer tells me.
Celeste looks up expectantly while blowing on her newly lacquered fingertip. As Meredith twists my hair into one of her artistic creations, I tell them both everything. By the time my voice is tired from talking, Meredith has given me a hairstyle fit for a debutante ball
“Wow, Elizabeth. That’s a lot to take in. Like, a lot, a lot.”
“But so freaking romantic! Like Pretty Woman,” Celeste adds. “I can’t wait to tell Beth how Ryder flew to Spain on one of Fallon’s private jets to get his girl!”
Somewhere down the hall, Darrel yells for Meredith, asking where the heck she is.
“I guess that’s our cue to join the boys,” she announces.