Unmaking Hunter Kennedy

by Anne Eliot

  Dustin could tell Vere was not pleased. Looking down at the huge mess of bags he realized he’d probably just drawn a lot of attention to himself with this deal.

  Guys from Bakersfield might not have this much change to spare. “Yes. I robbed a bank. Of course not. I have a—a trust fund going to waste,” he said using the carefree bravado he’d learned from Vere. “I decided I didn’t want to argue with you two over who was paying for what, nor did I want to discuss fashion or tastes, because I am the boss of this makeover. Inside these bags you will find your futures as popular beauties. Down to a homecoming dress for each of you.”

  “Wow! Yay!” Jenna clapped her hands.

  Vere chewed on her lip and tilted her head to the side. “Dustin. This is too much.”

  Jenna spun her chair around and around with undisguised glee until the stylist stopped her. “This is awesome. I love you, Daddy Warbucks! But I’m not going to homecoming, remember?”

  “Anything you don’t like, take it back. The receipts are all there.”

  Dustin met Vere’s troubled gaze and realized he had to get out of here. The stylist had finished spraying Vere with a fog of spray-gel. His thoughts drained out of him like water.

  He sucked in a deep breath and just had to stop and stare all over again.

  “That should do it for both of them,” the stylist said. She handed him a receipt. Also to avoid arguments, he’d paid earlier on his way out to the shops.

  “I’ll get my mom to pay you back for most of this, Dustin. She’s been offering to do this with me for years.” Vere stood and peeled off the stylist’s cape and placed it on the chair.

  “Yeah, me too. I was due for a haircut,” Jenna added.

  “Whatever,” Dustin managed to sound cool and collected but he was desperately aware his brain was about to shut down.

  Vere’s glorious hair, about four inches shorter now, and cut to frame her face, slid across her back and shoulders in a dry waterfall of sparkling gold highlights. The stylist hadn’t added a lot of color, just enough to make Vere’s brown eyes stand out and show off the green specks hidden in their depths.

  They were definitely not hidden now.

  Hell.

  He sighed and pulled in a breath of nails. He thought he could handle being near Vere and quietly admire her from afar. But with her looking like this and wasting it all on Curtis, the friend thing was going to be impossible.

  His heart hurt, everything hurt. This had gone too far.

  He didn’t think he could hang out with her any more, not without causing a scene or making a fool out of himself. His lungs tightened as though they’d turned into a suffocating brace.

  Vere, unaware of his terrible disquiet, got out her hair ties and quickly pulled the glowing, highlighted mass back into her bun. “There.” She sighed with apparent relief and turned to face him with a smile. “That feels better.”

  “Good God!” Dustin accidently said that out loud.

  It couldn’t be helped. The highlights streaked across her crown and her newly shaped, arching eyebrows enhanced her usual pixie look to over-the-top gorgeous! Her bun was no longer a wild and out of balance cluster clump. This stunning, made-over bun had instantly framed her face with wisps of hair that were now too short to get caught in the rubber bands. A few longer, soft looking tendrils had dropped out, and now curled softly against the back of her neck.

  “Wow,” Jenna echoed his thoughts. “Vere. You can’t even hide in your bun anymore. Now you look just like a Princess Barbie.”

  Vere turned back to the mirror as though to analyze what they’d said.

  Dustin mourned the loss of his cute, blushing gnome girl and her missing tumbleweed topper.

  There was no way Dustin would be at school tomorrow to watch her debut. He’d just developed a huge case of the heartbreak flu.

  Jenna jumped out of her chair. “Now show me what’s in those bags. I’m dying.”

  “Stay back. Just stay back!” Dustin almost laughed because he’d meant those words for Vere who wasn’t even looking at him, or moving.

  He figured he was only seconds from losing his mind.

  Vere turned to him, surprised.

  Dustin looked away quickly and gestured to the bags to cover his outburst. “Uh. You two will have to check out the loot on your own. I’m done with the mall. I have to get back for some—stuff. I’ve called Nan. She’s meeting me out front in like...five minutes,” he lied.

  Shit. It’s going to take her forever to drive down here.

  “You guys will have to finish up without me. Sorry, should have warned you,” he added.

  Vere raised her now, perfectly distracting brow as though she sensed something was off.

  Well it is way off! So! Way! OFF.

  “Oh. It does feel like we’ve been here for hours,” she said.

  “Three hours and fourteen minutes, to be exact,” he choked out, heart racing.

  Shit. Why did I say that? I sound like I’m going crazy.

  Oh. Whatever. I am.

  “One more thing—about the dresses,” he tried to cover. “In case I forget.” He couldn’t drag his gaze away from Vere’s.

  “What?” Jenna asked, as she jumped up and down in front of the bags. “OMG. Dresses!”

  Dustin broke Vere’s gaze and forced his eyes to stay on Jenna. “The cream colored dress, I—uh—picked it for Vere. It’s going to make her eyes glow. The sea-green one is yours, Jenna. It should do the same,” he added, swallowing the lump in his throat.

  He couldn’t understand Jenna’s reply. She’d dived squealing into one of the department store bags.

  He didn’t have to look up to know Vere had heard, though. Who cares? He felt like an utter fool.

  A fool in love. Hell, that’s what I am.

  A fool in love, with no ride home.

  The lump returned to his throat. For the first time in a long time he noticed he’d forgotten to breathe.

  Without another word he raised a silent hand to them and stalked out of the salon.

  **

  When Dustin finally made it home three hours later, he spent the evening alone in his room cleaning up. He decided to check his phone, but the drawer to his night stand was jammed.

  The now crumpled, cardboard hair-color box and his old plane tickets from LAX to DEN were the culprits blocking his entry. He had press to down and tear the box in half to un-wedge the drawer. Staring at the shredded model’s face in the bottom of his trash can, he read the words: ‘black Italian coffee’ to himself as he ran his fingers through his hair.

  He hadn’t had his own hair colored at the salon because he didn’t want Jenna to question why he needed to do that.

  Maybe tomorrow, he’d ask Aunt Nan to go get him a new box of this junk. He could color it again himself in the bathroom and be ready to go by Tuesday. Maybe. But more than anything, he simply didn’t want to dye his hair anymore.

  The only thing left in the drawer was his once beloved cell phone.

  He plugged it into the wall and waited for it to get enough juice to power up. He snorted when he noticed his email box and the alerts that told him he now had over 32 new text messages and emails combined. At a glance it looked as though all of them had been sent by Martin over the weekend.

  He was not going to read any of his suck-up, fake bullshit. Instead, he did what Martin had asked him not to do.

  He called his mother’s number directly. It was time.

  Her voice mail clicked on without one ring. He hadn’t expected her to answer. His mother was a call-screening queen.

  Instead of hanging up, he listened like a starving person to the buttery, raspy sound of his mom’s polite voice mail message.: ‘Hi. You’ve reached Molly Kennedy. Please leave a message and I’ll get back to you right away.’

  When the phone beeped he spoke without thinking, “Uh. Mom. It’s me. I’m doing all right. Wondering how you are. I—if you have any time—I’d sure like it if you came out here. It would be cool, y
ou know, to see you. Nan would love it and—I miss you. I want to see you. To talk, face-to-face. I want to you know that I’m sorry. Sorry about everything and that I know you are, too.”

  When he finished, he hung up and unplugged the phone quickly. It was tempting to get into the emails and text messages, but he didn’t want to feel worse than he already did. He knew somehow, all that unread crap would add to his angst.

  Whatever was in there had come too late. At this point he truly didn’t care about anything from his old world besides, fixing things between him and his mom and getting on with his life. On his terms.

  Tomorrow he’d delete all of it without opening even one.

  He placed the phone back and grabbed up his guitar. He flipped the amp to low volume, and played, making up yet another sad, sweet, song that he didn’t write down.

  He couldn’t.

  This one, like all the others, was about Vere and how she looked today, yesterday, and the first time he saw her.

  How she made him feel.

  The lyrics flowed into him as easily as rain falling from the sky. It was some of the best stuff he’d ever put together. He tried to talk himself out of his feelings, the pain in his heart, and ignore the word love altogether.

  But as he played and played, letting the somber tones of the guitar fill the room, he sang everything he wasn’t brave enough to utter in words. To himself, to his mom and to his soul.

  He let his fingers wander the strings, and allowed his heart to soar all the way to loving Vere how he wasn’t allowed to love her face to face. It wasn’t enough, it would never be enough. But it was something.

  When his room grew dark, he knew he’d failed miserably once again at formulating a plan on how to fix everything. His stomach rumbled so he finally got up and went down to join Aunt Nan for dinner.

  He would wait until after they ate to bring up how he thought he wasn’t feeling so good. He’d sit with Aunt Nan and watch her favorite home makeover show. He’d mention how he felt sort of sweaty and dizzy.

  He’d then go upstairs too early for bed.

  He’d have it all set up, so when he didn’t go to school tomorrow morning, Aunt Nan would believe him when he told her that he was sick and unable to leave his bed.

  It wasn’t that he was acting like a sore loser. That wasn’t it.

  He did feel sick, because his heart had crumpled into a ball hours ago. An event, he was now certain, had caused the thing to stop beating all together.

  For real.

  It’s not going to fade away by morning that’s for sure! And it’s not going to get better watching Vere go after another guy.

  It will take some damn time.

  A damn, long time. With me, sick. In bed.

  35: party pointers needed

  VERE

  Vere pelted up the stairs. She had ten minutes to brush her teeth and locate one giant ball of courage.

  Dustin was coming over in ten—to hopefully help her with her latest guy exposure coaching session. This lesson, if Dustin even agreed to it, was going to be a doozy.

  It was the most important one of all.

  Thank GOD Mom and Dad are out playing a tennis tournament this afternoon.

  She stopped in front of the mirror and gulped as she reached for the toothbrush. Did she really have the courage to do this? She did. It was just Dustin. Her Dustin McHugh. She shouldn’t be nervous to ask him anything. He’d said exactly that since their friendship started.

  ‘Ask me anything, Vere’, he’d said.

  And she knew he’d meant it. He’d helped her with everything else along the way, why not this? If only she’d had more time to talk to him about her crazy plan. But she hadn’t seen him all week. With the party she’d been invited to (along with Curtis and everyone who was anyone) looming in just a few hours she’d hit the now-or-never point!

  Dustin had missed school Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Early in the week she’d called over to Nan’s place. Dustin had told her he was too sick to see her. Ordered her not to come over. She’d tried once, but Nan said he wouldn’t even get out of bed.

  On Thursday, Dustin was at school, but every time she caught sight of him, he seemed to be wandering off in the opposite direction.

  She could swear the guy had grown deaf or something.

  The same thing had happened Friday. She figured he was settling back into his classes. Catching up on missed work. Plus he’d started making other friends besides her. A point he’d made when she finally caught up to him Friday afternoon and he’d told her he was going to the movies with ‘other friends’.

  It still stung a little that he hadn’t asked her to come along too, because almost an entire week had passed since they’d hung out. So much for them being such best friends, after all.

  Vere reached for the dental floss. As she worked the floss into each tooth, she admitted that she was partly to blame for some of it. She’d had such a good week. Their make-overs had caused quite a stir. Vere and Jenna both felt as though they’d entered another world.

  Dustin had sure known his stuff. They’d been flooded with so much attention that Vere had acted like a kid in a candy store, flirting and openly chatting with so many different guys she never would have spoken to before. It was fun to be so...noticed. So awesome to believe in herself and have real confidence!

  By the end of the week, especially Friday afternoon, Vere had just wanted to pull on Charlie’s old sweatshirt, clamp her hair into a bun, and return to her former invisible life.

  Which is exactly what she’d done all last night and this long, Saturday morning.

  It had been enough to rejuvenate her, and with the party looming she’d started to panic.

  She thought about tonight—and her week with Curtis.

  Since Monday, Curtis had gone sort of crazy on her. She’d loved that he liked her new look. There was no question left in her mind that the guy didn’t have eyes only for her.

  To have that solidified felt great. He’d showered her with attention and compliments. He’d also staked his claim by glowering at any guy whom he thought might be flirting with her. That part had been a dream come true.

  Only, the dream was not what she’d imagined it would be. All that cute knee tapping and the circles he made on her legs, and those smoldering strange looks had escalated a bit too much for Vere’s liking. To the point it had started to make her feel creepy just thinking about it.

  About him.

  She assumed it was nerves and anticipation for the next level. How embarrassing that her next level was only kissing. Everyone else was way past that—so she had no idea why she would even be afraid. It wasn’t as if he were trying to grope up her shirt or anything. He’d been a gentleman. An annoying, loud one that made it clear what he wanted, but still. Maybe her nervousness was annoying him right back.

  Either way, she couldn’t shake a new feeling she had about Curtis. A feeling she couldn’t even define. This feeling kept making her heart race every time he was near, but not in a good way. She’d sort of had the urge to actually ditch drama class. Who ditched class because she was about to go to the next level with the boy of their dreams?

  It was not like her to even consider that. As the week wore on, the urge to ditch drama class had grown. Curtis seemed to have turned into an octopus. He had grown extra hands, and they were always on her.

  And while they were in front of everyone!

  She would have to talk to him about the PDA thing, soon.

  All of his touching and ogling and deflecting those darn hands had played a major part in why she’d felt so exhausted. She figured she would have to get used to those hands on some level if she was going to be his real girlfriend.

  And she did want to be that, but only if he could tone it down.

  She’d been invited to sit with Curtis at the ‘popular jocks and girlfriends of jocks’ table in the lunchroom. Jenna had been included, too! Vere’s blushing and shy attacks seemed to be quickly becoming a bad memory.


  She hadn’t turned red in days!

  To top it all off, Kristen Hodjwick had been so nice them all week that it had kind of started freaking Vere out even more. Kristen had even invited Vere to the ‘Saturday party’ she’d been planning. At her house.

  As in tonight. As in—at Kristen Hodjwick’s house! Unbelievable!

  Vere hadn’t hung out within a five-mile radius of Kristen since the day of ‘the incident’. Tonight was going to be so strange, but wonderful.

  Because it means everything is in the past! And that I’ve got a future! Finally.

  Curtis and Charlie had agreed to ‘meet them there’. Kristen’s house was only one cul-de-sac over. Charlie would have the car so he and Curtis could make it back from some late afternoon scrimmage in time, and she and Jenna would walk to the party and drive home together.

  Things had been pretty strange between Jenna and Charlie ever since Jenna’s marriage speech up at the cabin. Today had been the first day Charlie and Jenna had gone from dead silence at school to speaking a little. Maybe it was all going to blow over and go back to normal between all of them.

  She hoped so. She wanted everything to just feel normal, even between herself and Curtis. She had five hours and twenty-two minutes to get herself together.

  It was an unspoken rule that going to this football party and meeting Curtis there would make or break their identity as a real, live public couple. Tonight, she expected at least once, to kiss Curtis. To stake her own claim, on her own guy!

  How cool would that be?

  The fact that he’d be taking her to homecoming the following weekend was not enough to make their relationship solidly noted. The kiss, in front of everyone, would get them both Facebook official.

  Which they still were not! Because she refused to send him the ‘relationship’ request first, and so far, he hadn’t sent one to her. UGH Why? Maybe he was waiting for tonight too. Because of their past, because of ‘the incident’, everyone would be watching. Double watching to see if she’d mess up.

  Vere swallowed. Her heart raced in panic at the thought.