“I have it all planned out.” Courtney is talking to me, but her eyes are on her reflection in the bathroom mirror at La Buena Vida Restaurante. “My graduation party is going to have a guest list of one.” She pauses and tucks her blonde hair behind her ear. “Of course, I don’t want to wait that long.” She glances at me. “I turn eighteen in two months. So that might be when we commit the inevitable.”
“But he’ll still be your teacher; he’s not going to risk his job to mess around with you.”
She replies with heavy sarcasm. “He would if he loved me.”
“No, he wouldn’t. If he really loved you, he wouldn’t go sneaking around with you, he’d wait. Lust makes people sneak around.” I thought of Mike and countless others. “But love is out in the open.”
“After everything that has happened, you still believe in love, don’t you?”
“Yeah, of course. Love is what makes life worth living.”
“Callie, love is just a fairy tale. It’s no more real than Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny. And just like when you find out that it’s actually your parents putting presents under the tree, it sucks when you realize love doesn’t exist either.”
“How lovely, Courtney. Don’t be surprised if Hallmark puts your sentiments on a card.”
“Ooh, you know what kind of card would be fun to write?”
“What?”
“Break up cards.”
“Do they even sell those?”
“I don’t know,” she considers, “but they should.” She faces the mirror and swipes some red gloss on her lips. “It was fun. It was great. But now it’s time to separate.” She turns toward me. “Catchy, huh?” She dusts powder on her face. “And the front of the card could have a big heart broken in two pieces.”
“What are you trying to say? Are you going to break up with Ian?”
“No.” She pauses. “I like him and all, but it is going to end…eventually.”
We exit the restroom and find Ian, leaning against the wall. “I was about to check on you two.”
“We were fine—just talking.” Courtney smiles.
“I don’t get why girls gotta’ go to the bathroom to talk.”
“Because we can’t do it in front of you, silly.” She saunters off to say goodbye to Marianna and Mr. Martinez.
I turn toward Ian. “We weren’t talking about you.”
“Yeah, I know.” He flicks his head at Courtney as she gives Mr. Martinez a goodbye hug. “It’s pretty obvious who she was talking about.”
I bite down on my lip.
He leans in. “And you were probably talking about Ryan.”
“No, I wasn’t.”
“Oh, come on, it’s so obvious that you like him.”
I shake my head. “No, I don’t.”
“Yes, you do.”
“Listen, if I liked him, then I wouldn’t have—”
“What?”
I answer quietly. “Kissed my ex today.”
“You want me to tell Ryan that?”
“Tell him whatever you want—it’s not like I’m ever gonna’ talk to him again.”
“Your loss.”
“My loss? He’s the one who stormed off.”
“You probably did something to upset him.”
“I didn’t do anything, Ian. I just told him the truth.”
“Yeah,” he begins, his eyes drifting in Courtney’s direction, “sometimes the truth hurts.”
*****
The Secrets We Keep Page 33
