Chapter 37
“Ow! Stupid thing!”
I don’t mean to giggle, but I can’t help it because it reminds me of how many times Hailey burned her fingers flat ironing my hair for junior prom last year. She gives me a scathing look in the mirror while sucking on the thumb she just scalded.
“Why didn’t you get Meredith to come over and do this? She’s the hairdo wizard.”
“She had plans with Darrel. And just think, I’ll be doing this for you soon for your junior prom.”
“If I go,” Hailey mumbles, taking another section of my hair and sliding it between the hot plates.
It’s Friday night. The night I’m going with Fallon to whatever VIP function his dad is making him attend.
The event is being held at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Science in Raleigh, so my inner nerd is doing a happy dance.
I love that freaking place. At least I know I won’t be bored and can wander around the exhibits.
“What do you mean, if you go?” I ask Hailey.
Hailey finishes what she’s doing and puts the flat iron down on the bathroom countertop. “Several reasons, the top two being that we’ll be at Highland and not Fallen Brook, and I’m currently single.”
Thank God for small favors. I’m usually not a violent person. I say usually because I did beat the crap out of Maria weeks ago when she was bullying Hailey. But I know my violent streak would ignite if I ever came face to face with Hailey’s ex, Bryant.
Also, the Highland thing isn’t the most popular topic of conversation at the moment.
I get Daniel’s reasoning for transferring us mid-year.
I really do. Hailey and I have spent most of our time together talking about it.
I could fight him on it. I’m days shy of eighteen which means I’m almost legally an adult.
But Hailey and I agree that we’ve put our uncle through enough drama since he became our guardian.
We owe him so much. If spending the next five months at Highland is our penance, then so be it.
I’ll just need to figure out a way to handle Marshall if he decides to make my life miserable.
The upside of going to Highland is that I’ll have Elijah there.
The stuff at school is escalating, and I’m almost positive that Maria is behind it all.
I’m still livid over the fact that she used Ryder to make Marshall jealous.
The fight at the Fields was her fault. She knows Ryder is sick.
Maria has messed with me and the ones I love for the last time.
Old Elizabeth may have been a meek doormat, but New Elizabeth certainly is not.
I really do hope that karma comes around and takes a great, big bite out of her.
After spritzing my hair with hairspray, Hailey rests her chin on top of my head from behind as we both look at our reflections in the mirror.
“You are so beautiful, Lizzie.”
I raise my hand and cup her face. “So are you, Hales. Mom would be so proud of you.” Hailey has come a long way since returning home.
She backs away without a reply just as her phone goes off in her bedroom. “That’s probably Brea. We’re hanging tonight.”
“Go. Have fun. And thank you for sacrificing your fingers to do my hair.
She laughs and it makes me smile. Her laughter is coming more and more often these days. When I walk into my bedroom, I shriek when I’m met with Jayson and Julien sitting on my bed.
Hailey pops her head in and waves hi and bye to them as she rushes into her room to get her phone.
Julien gives me a wolf whistle. “Loving that bathrobe, babe.”
It’s my favorite unicorn bathrobe and also the one I was wearing when Julien and I video chatted last Valentine’s Day right before Jayson picked me up for our date.
That was the night Jayson gave me the paper stars and the swing.
It was also the night we lost our virginity to one another.
Lost isn’t the right word. Gave would be a better word to use.
“You’re hilarious,” I reply, walking over to where I hung the dress I’m wearing tonight.
The dress is one I’ve had for a couple of years.
It’s a simple black cocktail dress that I bought on a whim and never have gotten the chance to air out.
When I tried it on earlier, it was a little snug, but it still fit.
I’ll need to start thinking about buying some maternity clothes soon.
I’ll need to start thinking about a lot of things, mainly, all the baby stuff I’ll have to purchase.
“What are you guys doing here? Not that I’m complaining,” I say, walking back into the bathroom to get dressed.
When I come back out, Jayson stands up and it’s then that I notice how nicely dressed they both are. Jayson is wearing black trousers and a dark blue dress shirt with the top button undone. Julien is dressed in charcoal gray trousers and a light gray dress shirt.
My eyes narrow. “He didn’t.”
“He most certainly did,” Jayson replies, walking over to me, my necklace with all the charms on it in his hand.
Without him having to say it, I know that Fallon asked them to come with us. A smile spreads across my face. Tonight just got better. I get to spend it with my three favorite guys.
Jayson turns me and drapes the necklace around my neck.
The light glide of his finger down the slope of my shoulder sends a shiver over my skin.
I used to love the way he touched me like I was precious.
Treasured. There were a lot of things about Jayson I used to love.
There were also a lot of things about him that I grew to dislike.
His possessiveness and the way he used to decide everything for me without asking how I felt about it were two of the big things I grew to hate about our relationship.
But he’s changed, just like I have. It makes me wonder…
My nose crinkles when a smell assaults my nostrils. Daniel must be in the kitchen making dinner for him and Hailey. With my bedroom door open, I catch a whiff of whatever he is cooking
Stepping away from Jayson, I poke my head out of my bedroom and look down the hall. “Daniel, what are you making?” I yell
“Tacos,” he shouts back.
I haven’t had morning sickness for a few days, and I thought I was finally over it. I thought wrong.
“Liz, what’s wr—” Jayson starts to ask me when he sees me turn green.
I hold up a finger and rush into the bathroom to pray to the porcelain god, as the saying goes. Sometimes, being pregnant sucks.
“You know, I could get used to this high life stuff,” Jayson says as he reclines back, arms spread wide across the leather seat of Fallon’s SUV stretch limo.
I’m sitting next to Fallon; Jayson and Julien are across from us.
Julien is busy playing with all the buttons that make different things happen in the vehicle.
He’s already raised up and down—several times—the privacy window between us and the driver.
He’s turned on the small television, the radio, blasted hot air in our faces, and messed with the controls that made the seats warm up as well as vibrate. That last one felt really weird.
“You excited about tomorrow?” Fallon asks while reaching over to snatch a small remote control away from Julien to stop him from pressing more buttons. Julien pouts.
When Fallon arrived at the house, holding a bouquet of pink roses, and dressed to the nines in an elegant suit and tie, I thought my brain had fallen out of my head, I was so tongue tied. Because, holy moly, he looked delicious.
Going back to what he asked, I nod. “I am very, very excited.”
Tomorrow is the day Fallon is taking me to the recording studio in Raleigh, which is actually where we’re heading right now for the private event. I finally finished the song I had been working on and I can’t wait to play it.
“I wish we could come with you,” Jayson laments. Julien stops what he’s doing, looking at me to gage my reaction.
They’re going to visit Ryder at the hospital. Since he’s in isolation, they have to wear protective gear from head to toe—face masks, gloves, booties, the works—when they go inside his room. It’s to prevent Ryder from being exposed to any outside germs.
“You can talk about him. I’m not going to fly off the handle or swoon into a faint at the mention of his name,” I half joke.
They keep treating Ryder like Voldemort from the Harry Potter books—he who shall not be named.
And I keep telling them that I’m fine. Which is somewhat true.
Clearly, I’m not. Look at what I did the other day at the hospital.
I stood there like an idiot, holding poster boards to recreate a scene from a movie, reaffirming my devotion to a man who is afraid to love me back because of a disease he doesn’t think he’ll survive.
But when you love someone like I love Ryder, you can’t just flip a switch and turn it off like an electric lightbulb.
Love is more like a flame. You tend to it and stoke it to keep it going.
Once that stops, it takes a while for the flame to die down and burn out.
Sometimes it never does. Sometimes what remains is a small, glowing ember, ready to ignite again at the slightest breeze.
“Will you take something to him for me?” I ask them.
I bought a paperback of Where the Red Fern Grows to give to him.
It was the book I let Ryder borrow the first day we met in third grade.
For that first week, since the twins were home sick with the flu at the time, I would go over to Ryder’s house after we got off the bus.
We would sit outside in his backyard and read the book together out loud.
He would read a chapter, then I would. It’s one of my most cherished memories of us as kids.
“Absolutely,” Jayson and Julien reply.
“You guys freak me out when you do that,” Fallon comments, then shifts in the seat when the limo slows down. “We’re here.”