36. Luke
CHAPTER 36
Luke
Taking out my right hand that’s shoved in my jeans’ pocket, I reach out to shake the hands of Gigi’s high school friends one by one, hoping they don’t notice the cold sweat covering my palm. I forgot how popular she was in high school. She was on the cheer team, for fuck’s sake. She was the opposite of me. At Ravensfield, if Gigi’s not with me, she’s mostly with Zoey or Zach. I guess that’s what happens when your boyfriend kills himself in his dorm room—you become a social pariah.
“I’m Mackenzie,” the girl with the blonde hair says as she squeezes my hand. “My brother used to be in your grade. Noah Baylor?”
“Luke,” I answer, nodding. “Yeah, I know him.” He used to ask me whether I sold weed or not, as if everyone who’s poor deals drugs.
“Lauren,” another one introduces herself in a sing-song voice. “I was Gigi’s bff in high school.”
“Luke.”
“I’m Lauren’s boyfriend,” the tall guy next to her says, offering me a firm grip. “Bryan. Nice to meet you, man.”
“Luke.” How many times do I have to say my name tonight?
The next girl that’s standing between Lauren and Gigi reaches her hand out but says nothing. She gawks at me with an uncertain smile, tilting her head to the side. Slowly, she looks at her friends before shaking her head as she apologizes. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to stare,” Gigi’s friend says. “You look so much—" She has the wisdom to cut herself off, but I finish her sentence in my head for her. You look so much like Andrew. “I’m Ivy.”
“Our grandmas were twins,” I offer her an explanation, taking her hand. “Luke.”
As I introduce myself for the fourth, fifth, and sixth time, my mind wanders off to a place I promised myself I wouldn’t go shortly after I realized I had feelings for Gigi. When there are only two of you left in the family, it’s hard not to compare yourself. I thought I was done playing this game when Andrew died, but tonight is proving me wrong.
While I’m sticking out like a sore thumb in this group of former cheerleaders, Bryan is fitting right in. The guy looks like he could be a jock, or at least he belongs to the cool crowd. I bet Andrew had no problem charming their pants off when Gigi introduced them. I bet he did charm their pants off.
“Luke, are you okay?” my girlfriend whispers while her friends are looking at the menu. Her hand slides down to my knee, putting pressure so that I’d stop bobbing it up and down.
“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?”
“Sooo,” Lauren coos. “Tell us all the juicy details. How does it feel like to be dating the stepsis?” She giggles. She actually fucking giggles.
“Babe,” Bryan warns Lauren, shooting me a sympathetic look. Should I be calling Gigi babe, too? Did Andrew do it? Does she like to be called babe?
“What?” Lauren looks at her boyfriend, showing no signs of stopping. “I’m just curious, okay? Gigi doesn’t tell me anything. She’s all the way in Ravensfield while we’re in Texas. I want to hear all the juicy deets.” Her eyes dart to me again as she flashes me a big smile. “So, Luke. The floor is yours. Spill.”
“It’s fine, Lauren. We’re happy,” Gigi answers for me, saving me the trouble. Why is her answer like that? She doesn’t sound like someone who’s in the best relationship they’ve ever experienced. Because that’s how I feel. I don’t know what I would’ve said to Lauren, but it’s fine , would not be fucking it.
The rest of the dinner goes by excruciatingly slowly. Bryan goes out for a smoke and I follow him outside. Not that I need one, but I’m just not used to this. A table full of chatty girls talking about movies, gossip, and the caption of their selfies. I never did this with Autumn. We met in college, so all her friends already knew me. Since our relationship was already on a downward spiral after the weekend I met her parents, I never met her high school crew.
When Gigi told me her friends were back home from college and she would like me to meet them, I was happy. I still am. I guess I’m just not used to this side of Gigi. The cheerleader. The popular girl. The one who mirrors Andrew’s high school life so well it hurts my chest just to think about it.
My cousin was all-around perfect. Grandmas and grandpas in his congregation would gush about how he had impeccable manners, clueless to the fact that he was sneaking off to parties at night, while girls would swoon over how cute he was. His teammates, the ones I have met anyway, didn’t care about any of that. They, however, respected the hell out of him for being a damn good shooting guard.
The one thing that always made me envious of Andrew was the way he still had an intact family. It would make me so fucking pissed when he told me that he didn’t want to spend time with his parents. It drove me wild when he started skipping church when he started dating Gigi. When he completely bailed, I had to find excuses for him to calm his parents down even though he also withdrew from me. The son of the pastor doesn’t get to stop coming.
Tonight, I’m starting to realize there is one more point that I should add to the list of things that Andrew is better at than me. Being a part of Gigi’s life.