She dragged the dye bottle along another part before she said, “No comment.”
“Anyway, Rob’s not a jerk, so you can’t even compare the two.”
She parted my hair with a gloved finger. “What about his abs?”
I thought about that quick show I’d gotten of his belly when he’d stretched down in the lounge. I hadn’t been able to tell if he had a six-pack, but what I did see was definitely dazzling. “Also no comment.” Though his hot body was only part of his appeal. He was all around dateable and not just eye-candy, though he was that, too.
Kaylee sighed. “Well, I think it’s a bad idea. But no matter what, you have to tell Brooklyn. You can’t let her come back to find out you’re dating her brother. Remember how upset she got about even the thought of it before.”
“Even if it does turn into anything, which it might not,” I said casually with a flip of my hand, as though I wasn’t praying really hard that it did turn into something, “it definitely won’t last until after Christmas. It’s just a rebound thing. You know, some making out and minor groping.”
“Minor groping?”
“Please. Tell me you don’t grope your duke.”
She made an unspellable noise.
“That’s what I thought.”
“He’s not a duke yet,” she said. Like that made a difference or was any sort of defense. “But still, you have to tell her. What if he tells her something is going on? Can you imagine how that would make her feel, to hear it from him?”
“Fine,” I huffed, because she was right. “But I have no way of getting a hold of her. I’ll text him and make sure she got home okay; maybe she got a new phone at the airport or something. Hand me mine,” I reached out toward the desk where my phone sat just out of my reach.
“My hands are covered in dye.”
“Hold on,” I said, leaning forward out of my chair and grabbing my cell. “Oh no,” fell out of my mouth as I opened up the screen and saw that I’d missed a few texts. All from Dave.
“What?”
“I completely forgot to text Dave back from before and I turned the sound off when Rob and I were watching the movie.” I sighed, still dreading talking to Dave. “Brooklyn didn’t tell him what’s going on and he tried to get a hold of her and when he couldn’t, he came to me.”
Kaylee stopped with the dye and came around to face me. “How are you doing with this?”
I shrugged. “Fine. It’s no big deal.”
“It doesn’t sound like ‘no big deal.’” She cocked her head, looking like she would have crossed her arms if it hadn’t been for the dye-coated gloves and bottle in her hand.
I shrugged.
“Emmie?”
I couldn’t meet her eyes when she looked at me like that. Between her and Rob, I felt like I had no secrets anymore. She knew already, it was just a matter of me saying it out loud. “It’s bothering me a little more than I thought it would. Okay? It’s stupid because I don’t want him and they make sense together, but I guess...” I trailed off on an exhale.
She nodded and then glanced at the bottle. “Sorry, I better finish this or you’ll be overdeveloped in some spots.” I waved her forward and she returned to her task. “It makes sense, though, Emmie. I mean, he was your boyfriend. Of course you would still have feelings for him.”
“No, I...”
She cut me off. “Not feelings like you want to be with him, but he was your boyfriend and she is your roommate, no matter how much it makes sense for them to be together. You’re human, you are allowed to have feelings.”
It was nothing I didn’t know deep down, but it was nice to have her say it. “Thank you,” I said, fighting tears.
As Kaylee continued putting the dye in my hair, I looked down at my phone, putting off the inevitable. Stop being a chicken and get on with it, I told myself.
“I still need to tell him what happened to her,” I said as I started typing back to him. It was going to take forever for me to explain by text. I sighed and dialed him, putting him on speaker to avoid getting dye all over my phone.
“Em, what’s going on?” he said, not even bothering to say hello. He always used to say hello. “Where’s Brooklyn? Is everything okay?”
I fought the urge to sigh as his slightly panicked question confirmed that I’d have to be the one to tell him everything. I wasn’t too surprised that he was frantic; between Brooklyn’s phone being disconnected and my response time normally being minutes, not hours, he was bound to think the worst.
“Brooklyn’s dad had a heart attack. She left this morning for London.”
“Oh no,” he said, his voice full of sympathy. “Is he going to be okay?”
“I don’t know. I think she lost her phone; that’s why you can’t get a hold of her. I can’t, either.”
He cursed. It echoed exactly how I felt. Then he asked me a bunch of questions I couldn’t answer. Finally, when he realized I’d told him everything I knew, I thought he was going to end the call with me. But no.
“So, Em, about that text...”
Kaylee froze behind me. Probably because I froze, too, suddenly realizing what Dave was about to say. “No,” I blurted before he had a chance to say anything else. “We’re good. Seriously.”
“I just want to make sure you’re okay with me and...”
“Fine, Dave. Seriously. I was just telling Kaylee here that I’m good. I’m super-happy for you and Brooklyn. Super-duper happy.” Could I be any lamer? Super-duper happy? Yeesh.
“Okay, cool,” he said.
“Really. And anyway, I’m dating someone, so yeah, we’re good.” What did I just say?
The rain against the window sounded deafening in the sudden silence that stretched between us before he finally said, “You’re dating someone? Already?”
Already? He must have realized how douchey he’d sounded, because he quickly said, “Not that you shouldn’t, I'm just surprised, that’s all. Do I know him?”
Kaylee still hadn’t moved behind me and I would have bet money she was holding her breath, waiting for what I was about to say. I should have taken the phone off speaker, but really, now that she knew the most embarrassing part, what did it matter? “I don’t think so,” I said. “He doesn’t go to Westwood. He’s older.”
“Oh. Uh, okay then. I’m glad, Emmie, really. I feel bad about us and just want you to be happy.”
I closed my eyes. How could he be so nice? I had dumped him. Although all I wanted for him was the same. I was just being selfish and needed to get over myself. So it didn’t work out with him; at least I knew I’d always have a good friend.
“I’m good, Dave. Don’t feel bad, we’re better as friends, right?”
“Yeah. That’s important to me—your friendship, I mean—and I just needed to hear from you that you’re okay, but if you’re dating someone...I mean, that’s cool.”
He almost sounded like he didn’t believe me. “His name’s Rob,” I blurted out. “I think it might be serious. I mean, I know it’s soon, but it’s pretty intense, you know?”
I looked up and Kaylee was standing in front of me, wide-eyed.
I shook my head at her and looked down at my phone, cursing my flaming cheeks.
“Wait,” Dave said. “You don’t mean Rob Prescott, Brooklyn’s brother?”
Oh. My. God. “What?” I squeaked, looking up. Kaylee’s eyes were even wider than before.
“Is that who you’re dating? Not that it’s my business, but if it’s her brother...”
Kaylee raised her eyebrows, also waiting for my answer. Perfect.
“You know him?” I asked, having to clear my throat.
“Yeah. He drove me back to Westwood from the hospital that night.”
That night. The night of his anaphylaxis and my desperate confessions. Of course he drove him home. How stupid are you, Emmeline?
“Uh, yeah, same guy. But...don’t say anything to Brooklyn, okay? She doesn’t know yet and I was going to tell her, but then she had t
o go to London and it didn’t seem like the right time.”
“Right. Of course.”
I squeezed my eyes closed. “So, promise me you won’t tell her?”
“I won’t, Em. Not that I have any way of getting a hold of her anyway.”
“I’m sure she’ll get a new cell,” I assured him. “Once I get her number, I’ll let you know. I’ve gotta go, okay? I’m dyeing my hair and need to go wash it out before it burns my scalp.”
Though a burned scalp sounded a lot less painful than this conversation. Still, it was a good excuse to get off the phone. Hell, I would have set my hair on fire to get off the phone.
“Okay, well, thanks for letting me know.”
“Don’t forget your promise,” I said and ended the call after his final reassurance. I dropped the phone into my lap.
“So that was interesting,” Kaylee said, pulling off her gloves.
“Or you know, not.”
“What text, Emmie?”
I looked up at her. “Huh?”
“What text was he talking about?”
I wanted to pull my hair out, but it was presently covered in goo. “How long until I need to rinse?” I asked, desperate to change the subject.
Kaylee glanced at the clock on Brooklyn’s nightstand. “Twelve minutes; plenty of time to spill.”
“When did you get so bossy?”
“When did you start making up boyfriends?” she asked, not backing down.
“I could be dating him.”
“Eh hem, ‘it’s kind of serious?'”
“Fine,” I exhaled loudly and then took another deep breath to prepare myself for even more humiliation. “Here’s what happened: the day of the Thanksgiving food drive, I went into town to help out. I had been hemming and hawing about it all morning, so I’d missed going on the bus with everyone. Just as well, I guess, considering. Anyway, I stopped at the drug store to get my hair dye while I was there, and as I was leaving, I saw them on the street.
“Something just felt off, you know? Maybe I was lonely or hormonal or whatever, but I was having second thoughts about breaking up with Dave. He’s a really good guy, you know?”
I looked up at Kaylee and she nodded. “He is a great guy. No argument here.” She nodded at me to continue.
“Well,” I looked down at my hands. “I wanted to talk to him then, but there were so many people around and I knew it was a bad idea. Especially since I was feeling kind of vulnerable, so I thought I’d just come back here and text him that I wanted to see him. How could I have known what was happening? I never could have known that while I was missing him and thinking we should get back together, he was hooking up with Brooklyn.” I swallowed and looked away, trying to keep myself from crying. I stared at the window for a second, watching the freezing rain pelting against the glass.
“And when he wasn’t returning my messages, I got more and more freaked out. I thought he was ignoring me, which made me even crazier and more determined to get him back.”
Kaylee cringed. I nodded and laughed humorlessly. “I know: what Emmie wants, Emmie gets, right? Well, not this time. Though not for lack of trying; I kept sending him more crazy texts, each one more frantic than the last. He must have thought I was losing my mind. Ugh, what a nightmare. I’m only a handful of cats away from being a pathetic disaster.”
I put my face in my hands, realizing too late that I still had all that dye in my hair.
That set me off; I started bawling.
“Oh, Emmie, it’s okay,” Kaylee said as she slipped an arm around my shoulders and gently led me to the bathroom. “He didn’t seem to hold any of that against you. You two are such good friends—even from before you were going out—and I bet he was just concerned and felt bad about how it went down. I’m sorry I even brought it up.”
She turned on the tap and I rinsed the dye off my hands. “Are you sure?” I asked, still needing some reassurance.
“Yes,” she said, nodding and looking at me in the mirror. “I’m sure of it. Although you probably shouldn’t have lied about dating Rob.”
I gave her a halfhearted shrug. “It’s not a lie if we’re dating. So I’m not good at remembering dates.”
“Huh?”
“Maybe we started dating yesterday, maybe we started next week. I don’t know; I don’t look at the calendar every single minute.”
She rolled her eyes. “You’re something else. Fine, bend your truth. But you still have to tell Brooklyn. Now come on, we’d better rinse out that hair. I can’t wait to see you as a redhead!”
Sleep Tight
“It looks great, Emmie,” Kaylee said with a wide grin as I put the hair dryer down onto the counter. She was sitting on the closed toilet lid, keeping me company. She had no idea how much it meant that she was here, but I loved her for it.
“I almost don’t recognize you; it’s so different.”
“Thanks,” I said, looking at it from different angles. I would have preferred to go back to my natural blond, but would have had to completely strip it of the black first and I didn’t want to kill my hair. Red was okay, though. Like Kaylee said, it was different and maybe a change was just what I needed. New hair, new boyfriend (a girl could be hopeful).
“Ready to do some shopping?” I asked.
She nodded and got up. “You know I can’t chip in, but I can help you pick stuff. Does that count?”
“Absolutely,” I said as I turned out the light and followed her out into the dorm room. “It’s way more fun shopping with a buddy and you can pick out the sciencey stuff; I never know what kids who are into science and math will like. I’d hoped Brooklyn would help...” I trailed off, realizing Kaylee might think she was second choice. I tried to back-pedal a bit. “Not that I...”
But Kaylee cut me off with a wave. “I get it. But I feel so bad for Brooklyn,” she said. “Still no word, huh?” She looked over at my phone.
I picked it up, but there weren’t any messages. I wasn’t sure if Brooklyn would even know my number to contact me, but she could have called our land line from home. Though she was probably so stressed out, she hadn’t thought of it. Still, Rob should have heard from her by now.
I texted him: Hey. Heard from B?
I waited, but he didn’t text back right away and I didn’t want to seem pathetic(er) to Kaylee, so I made sure the sound was on and put the phone down within easy reach. I scooted up next to her on my bed and put my laptop over both of our legs so we could shop together.
“Where should we start?” I asked.
She shrugged. “I haven’t shopped for toys in a while. Toys R Us?”
“Good call,” I said as I typed into the nav bar. Then my phone sounded.
It was from Rob: Yes, sorry. Got busy. She’s home safe.
“Brooklyn’s home,” I said for Kaylee’s benefit. “Feel free to put whatever in the cart.” I waved toward the laptop and then typed back to Rob:
Does she have a new cell? I asked, though I secretly liked having an excuse to communicate through him. But I did want to talk to her. And then there was that whole Dave thing and how I’d promised I’d let him know.
Not yet. I’ll let you know.
How’s Dad?
Ok. I dont think it’s critical. Rx for R&R
That was good news, at least. I blew out a relieved breath. Good to hear.
I fiddled with the phone for a few seconds, waiting for his response, but all I got was a Thx. Not exactly the opening I was hoping for. Not that I had ever been the type to wait around for openings.
So, want to hang out this weekend? I typed and then held my breath.
That depends.
I grinned as I could almost hear his voice and see the look on his face: the one with one sexy eyebrow lifted.
On? I typed back, preparing for some serious flirting.
Do we get to watch The Shining again? I missed it earlier.
Yeah. So much for flirting. If that’s what he was going for, he needed a lesson in flirting eti
quette 101. I didn’t even care if it meant he would sleep on my lap again, there was no way I would endure watching that horror again. Oh hell no! I typed. Not on your life. If we watch another movie, it will be Pride and Prejudice.
That sounds awfully girly.
I laughed. Exactly. I’m not going to sleep tonight, thanks to you.
Oh come on, its just a movie.
Just a movie, right. I turned to Kaylee. “So have you ever seen The Shining?”
Her wide eyes answered my question even before she said, “Oh God, yeah. It’s one of my Dad’s favorites; he knew Stanley Kubrick—the director. That movie is awful. But kind of cool. But mostly awful.” She shivered. My thoughts exactly, about the awful, at least.
You owe me, I typed, hoping he’d rise to the bait.
IOU what?
I thought about it. I could go the direct route a la Chelly and imply an actual hookup. Or I could toe the friend line for a bit longer. Direct sounded good and was usually my MO, but I sort of chickened out. Rob was not a Westwood boy; he was college age and I really had no experience with college men and how they operated. There was also the slight chance that he thought of me as his little sister’s roommate so maybe a bit more feeling him out would avoid a potentially disastrous outcome in case I’d been reading him wrong.
So I took the easy road: 1 viewing of P&P from start to finish.
Can I sleep through it?
Okay, so maybe having him on my lap for a Pride and Prejudice viewing would be nice, but I couldn’t exactly let on. So I typed a very indignant, NO! Throwing in the exclamation point just to make sure he got the message.
He returned with a: :-P ok. Fine. When? I’m free 2mrrw
I smiled. Meet u in the lounge at 2.
He gave me another smilie face, which put a smile on my face as I slid the phone back onto my nightstand.
“Is that what I look like?” Kaylee said.
I scooted over next to her again. “What?”
“When I text with Declan. Do I get that goofy grin on my face?”
“What goofy grin?” I said, trying my best to wipe said goofy grin away. Unsuccessfully. Kaylee just laughed.
“Shut up,” I said. “And yes. But yours is way goofier.”
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