One Big Mistake: a friends to lovers rom-com

by Whitney Barbetti

  “I can’t believe you’re throwing this hissy fit over Roger. Canceling our plans because of my coworker? Who,” she said, lowering her voice, “you know I have no feelings for at all. Not that it matters.” She raised her eyebrow and set her jaw.

  Not that it matters. Fucking right it mattered. When I was planning on doing the big ask, to admit my feelings for her, it sure mattered who she had feelings for.

  Fuck. I wanted to tell her, “Actually, I need to go rescue your sister so that you have one less fucking stress in your life.” But I couldn’t do that, I couldn’t watch her fold in on herself again. What was that saying? Better to ask forgiveness instead of permission?

  Maybe an angry Navy was marginally better than a sad Navy, and sad Navy would come back if I told her what had happened. “Yeah,” I finally said. “I’m fucking jealous of that little shit stain. And it does matter to me, who you have feelings for. You happy?” At least all of that was true.

  I set the stupid coffee cup with more force than I’d intended on a shelf and turned, heading toward the door without a second glance.

  When I rolled up to the apartment building, I didn’t see Jade anywhere on the sidewalk. A few people on the sidewalk strolled by, giving a second look at my mud-covered vehicle and probably wondering what the fuck I was doing in this neighborhood. In an area of fancy silver and shiny black cars, my old sloppily painted truck stood out like a sore thumb.

  I pulled my phone out and dialed Jade’s number.

  “Are you here?” she asked.

  “Yeah. That’s why I’m calling you.” I crouched in my truck to see better out the windshield, but I didn’t see Jade anywhere. “Are you hiding or something?”

  She coughed. “Hey, I didn’t mention this and I’m really sorry, but would you be able to spot me some cash?”

  Where the hell was she? “Uh, sure. How much do you need?”

  “Two-hundred?” She coughed again. “Sorry,” she added after a beat of silence on my end.

  “Two hundred bucks? What’d you do?”

  “Slashed a tire.”

  “Jesus.” I sighed and covered my eyes with my arm. “Fine.”

  “Thank you. I’ll pay you back, I promise. I just don’t have any cash on me.”

  It was hard to imagine a sixteen-year-old having that kind of cash, especially considering Jade’s lack of job, so I resigned myself to never seeing that cash again. “Are you going to come out, or…?”

  “I’m on my way.” I could hear the clattering of her heels on the concrete. She was moving quickly. Before I could see her in any of my windows or mirrors, she wrenched my passenger side open. “Hey.”

  I handed her the two hundred I’d dug from my wallet.

  “I’ll be back in a second.” She took off, leaving the passenger door open. Seconds later she was back and hopping in the truck. “Ready.”

  I pulled a U-turn and headed back out of town, the way I’d come in. Once we were on the highway, I turned down the music Jade had turned up. “Alright, Jade. Spill it.”

  “The two-hundred?”

  “All of it. Why were you in the city? Why did you need a ride? Whose tires did you slash?”

  “Only one tire.”

  “Oh, my mistake. You slashed only one tire.”

  “Yeah,” she confirmed, missing my sarcasm entirely. “It was my boyfriend’s. Andrew. Well, I guess he’s my ex now. But if I hadn’t given him two hundred, his mom would’ve called Navy, or my aunt, and I would’ve had to hear it from the both of them until the end of time.” She fiddled with her seatbelt. “I went to the party with him. But he bailed on me and I couldn’t find him and then I did and he was making out with some chick.” She sniffed and rubbed a hand over her nose. It was then that I really took her in: torn jeans, baggy shirt that had seen better days, messy hair and mascara smears that ran from her eyeballs down her cheeks. She clearly had had a bad night.

  “So, your logical solution to seeing him sucking face with someone else was to slash his tires?”

  “Tire,” she corrected. “And yes. I mean, there was no way I was going to ride home with him anyway.”

  “But then you realized he didn’t appreciate his tire being slashed.”

  “Right. And he’s been telling me this whole time we’ve been together that it’s his car. He just parks it at his parents’ house because he doesn’t want it to get vandalized at his apartment complex.”

  I snorted. What a dumb ass. “So his apartment complex?”

  “It’s not even his. It’s his friend’s. We stayed there sometimes, but only because the friend was out of town and technically Andrew was housesitting. He didn’t live there.”

  “You’re sixteen,” I said, reminding her but also myself. “And you’re talking about staying with your boyfriend at some other dude’s house?”

  “Right.” She didn’t see the problem with this.

  “You were right to be worried about Navy’s reaction,” I said after a moment of gathering my thoughts. “I’m assuming she doesn’t know you went to a party in the city?”

  “No. I snuck out.”

  I sighed. “You’re really trying to stress her out, aren’t you?”

  “It’s not a big deal, Keane.”

  “You’re at a party in a city with a guy your sister hasn’t met—she hasn’t met him, right?” I took her silence as my answer. “And she doesn’t know you’re there, and she thinks you’re at home right now. And you put yourself in a position to be stranded, after slashing someone’s tire. And then you had to pony up cash you didn’t have. Right, this is all not a big deal at all. You’re totally right. Any negative reaction Navy will have is an overreaction.” I hoped she heard the sarcasm in my voice.

  “That’s why we can’t tell her.”

  “Oh, we’re going to tell her,” I said, anger and frustration settling in my gut. “It should be you who tells her. She’s never going to treat you like an adult unless you start acting like one, Jade. And admitting your fuck ups is the first step.” I took the exit that led back to Amber Lake, wishing I’d told Navy where I was going in the first place.

  “Well, I can’t go home just yet.”

  “What the hell? I thought that was why I was picking you up. So I could take you home?”

  “Yeah.” She sniffed and then she burped, and I realized immediately what was wrong.

  “You’re drunk. Jesus, Jade. Seriously?”

  “It was a party,” she said, like I was dumb.

  “And that’s why you slashed this dude’s tires like you’re the heroine in some country song.”

  “Just one tire,” she blubbered. “And he deserved it.” She made a sound like she was crying, and I flexed my body more toward my door. I wasn’t familiar with sixteen-year-old heartbreak. This was a tricky path to navigate without a guidebook.

  “Fine,” I said after a moment. “I’ll take you to Debbie’s. You’ll eat a few slices, sober up. And then I’ll take you home and you’ll tell Navy all the ways you fucked up. And you’ll figure out a way to make it up to her. And pay me back,” I added. It wasn’t about the money, but the responsibility of her actions. I was reminded of the conversation Navy had with her, about paying to fix hair after it’d been ruined by Rose. Jade needed to learn a lesson and since she’d just been rescued from a bad situation, making up for the mistakes she made would be a good first step.

  “Okay,” she said after a minute. Tears dripped down her oversized shirt as we wordlessly made our way back to Amber Lake.

  I had half a mind to text Navy, to let her know what was going on. But I wanted to give Jade the opportunity to act like an adult, admit what she’d done without my prompting.

  So, I drove us to Debbie’s pizza and bought us both slices.

  Jade hiccupped and stared down at her pizza like she didn’t know what to do with it. She’d sobered up a bit on the drive, so I knew she wasn’t as drunk as she’d been when I picked her up.

  My mind flashed to weeks before, when I
’d sat at this very spot with Jade’s sister and cheered her up after what had apparently been a rough night.

  I’d give anything to be sitting across from Navy right now. Our little argument at the store made me feel regret like it was a palpable thing; something I had to carry in my shirt pocket. I hadn’t meant to lose it that bad. “Eat up, Jade. We gotta get home before your sister has a heart attack”

  “I don’t even want to go home. Don’t you have that cabin? Let me stay there until she cools off. School’s out for summer,” she added, as if my only protest would be that she had school to go to.

  “Uh, no. That’s not happening.”

  “Why not?” Jade tipped her hair to the side, looking very much like her biggest sister when she did that.

  “It’s not done yet,” I said, turning my attention to my half-eaten slice.

  “So, the only objection is that your cabin isn’t done being renovated?”

  What was with the line of questioning? I looked at her closely. “Eat up,” I repeated. “No talking until you’re at least halfway done.”

  “Is Violet there?”

  I was mid-sip when she asked that and nearly swallowed my straw along with the soda.

  “I take it that’s a yes.”

  How the fuck did she know about that? I racked my brain, trying to think of all the times I might’ve slipped up on accident.

  “I fucking knew it.” Jade’s eyes came back to life as anger poured through her. “Navy preaches being honest, but Violet is back in town and she hasn’t said a damn word.”

  Fuck, fuck, motherfucking fuuuuck. How was I supposed to handle this? I didn’t know, so I shoveled more pizza in my mouth. Fuck it, I wouldn’t wait for Jade to sober up. With as angry as she was, who knew when she’d start to blather on. So, as gently as I could with pizza shoved into my cheek, I said, “I’m sure there’s probably a good reason why she didn’t tell you.”

  “Bullshit.” Jade shoved her pizza slice away. “Tell me the truth, Keane.”

  24

  NAVY

  I was on my way to the bank after my shift was over when Rose called me.

  “Hey, I’ll be home in a few.”

  “I can’t find Jade.”

  Panic swept through me instantly. “What do you mean? I thought you guys were just going to hang out at home today.”

  “Yeah, that was the plan. But she’s not here. I’ve checked everywhere.”

  I parked my car in front of the night drop at the bank. “Did you call her?”

  “Yes. And texted. She didn’t answer.”

  I pulled up the app on my phone that allowed me to see the locations of all three sisters. After Jade’s attempted sneak-out, I’d insisted on it.

  Okay, Jade was still in Amber Lake, at least. Her location was only a couple miles away. I zoomed in on the map until I figured out where she was.

  “I’ll get her,” I said. “Just stay home.”

  “I’m not sure how I’d go anywhere, anyway,” she said drily before hanging up.

  Jade was at Debbie’s Pizza, which surprised me. Maybe she’d gotten a ride from a friend. That’s what my hope was, at least. If she was with her boyfriend, I would need to drag her home. But the fact that she was ignoring Rose’s calls and texts was worrying.

  I dropped the deposit in the night drop and made my way through traffic. I heaved a sigh, feeling like this night just couldn’t get any worse. This day, really. Between Delilah quitting and then Keane’s argument with me at the store, and the fact that I hadn’t had a day off in weeks, I was feeling run-down. But the Keane argument hurt the most.

  He had never talked to me like that. He’d never looked so upset, and I knew that I was the cause of that frustration. I’d skirted the conversation about us for weeks and it was starting to affect Keane negatively. Yeah, he’d very nearly kissed me the week before in the back of his truck—and part of me wished he had. But I didn’t feel like we could go there, do that again, without talking first. So my options were to delay to inevitable or face my fears. Keane may have made jokes about kissing me, but I didn’t know how serious he was. And I couldn’t play dodgeball with my heart.

  I wanted to call Keane. Who knew what awaited me with Jade. What I really wanted was to make amends with Keane. But after dialing him, the call went to voicemail within two rings. Had he purposefully sent my call to voicemail?

  I’d been so happy seeing him at the store, even at my very worst. And when he’d temporarily left to get me a coffee, I’d felt joy for the first time today. Keane was the source of much of my happiness these days. That little crush I’d had on him in high school was nothing like the full-blown heartache I now felt. Just looking at me made my insides go all crazy. I finally understood all those Pinterest love quotes, about how love could make you sick and scared and excited and full and happy and restless and sometimes all of those at once. It didn’t make sense, but the way I felt didn’t need to make sense. It just needed to feel good. And it did. So, so good.

  I pulled down the street to Debbie’s Pizza, remembering that the last time I’d been there had been with Keane. He’d made me laugh, had given me a much-needed mental reprieve. It’d been a turning point in our friendship, that was for sure.

  I was so in my head about that night as I pulled into the parking lot that when I immediately spotted Keane’s truck, I thought it was my imagination.

  But it wasn’t. It was definitely Keane’s truck parked where he always parked.

  He must have spotted Jade in there. But why hadn’t he called me to tell me? Probably because he was still mad at me.

  I exited the car and walked inside. After only a few seconds of searching, I found Keane, in the same booth we’d sat in weeks before. But across from him was Jade, whose eyes went wide at seeing me.

  What the hell was going on?

  Keane’s back was to me as he tapped his pizza crust on his plate like he was playing a drum. Jade, meanwhile, stared at me as I approached them slowly. Her makeup was all messed up and her shirt appeared to be stained. What was she doing, here with Keane?

  “What?” Keane asked when he finally took notice of Jade’s expression. Turning, his eyes collided with mine.

  No one spoke for a moment. There was just the din of the pizza makers behind the counter and the lull of the easy listening radio playing over the speakers.

  “Navy,” Keane said, like I was the last person he expected to see. His face held shock, but something else. Like he’d just been caught.

  “What’s going on?” I looked between the two of them, and they looked at each other before looking at me. “Why aren’t you home?” I asked Jade.

  “I…”

  “And you didn’t answer my call just now?” I had no right to feel hurt, but for some reason him sending my call to voicemail, when he’d apparently been with my sister, hurt like hell all of a sudden. “You sent me to voicemail?”

  “I don’t know where to start,” Keane said, looking at Jade like she was his way out of this mess.

  “Start with the truth,” I suggested. I felt awkward, standing at the end of the booth as I looked at them both.

  “Um…”

  My blood pressure was rising. My heart was pounding. Something was going on, and I knew whatever it was, Keane had lied to me. He didn’t look like he’d happened to run into Jade at this restaurant.

  “Jade. What the hell is going on?” My voice was low, but my tone told her I wasn’t going to stand here like an idiot while she fumbled over her words.

  “Keane picked me up,” she said, sliding a sideways glance at him. “At a party. In the city.” She brushed her messy hair from her face, and I caught a whiff of her.

  I couldn’t even process what she’d said. “Have you seriously been drinking?”

  She closed her mouth and nodded solemnly.

  I couldn’t continue this conversation in public. “Come on,” I said, angling my head toward the door. “Let’s go home and talk.”

  To my s
urprise, Jade didn’t argue. Maybe it was the presence of other kids in the restaurant close to her age that had her walking ahead of me out the door like nothing was wrong. I turned to Keane, opened my mouth to say something. But what did I say? He’d ignored my call and had apparently picked up my drunk sister. Part of me was relieved that he’d done that for me, but a bigger part of me was hurt that he hadn’t told me.

  I didn’t know what to say to him. He just looked at me with those puppy dog eyes until I turned on my heel and followed my sister to the car.

  I didn’t look back to see if Keane had followed. I didn’t need to, because by the time we’d pulled into the driveway of my aunt’s house, I saw Keane’s headlights not far behind. Hopefully he had the sense to wait until I could talk to him.

  We exited the car and I realized I was trembling. From anger, from repressed aching? I didn’t know. The entire ride home had been wordless. I’d run over a million things in my mind, wanting to compose myself before I unloaded. But after walking through the door, all of my carefully prepared sentences had just melted into the exhaustion that took precedence.

  I was connecting all the dots. Keane had seemed agitated after bringing my coffee to me, claiming he was jealous. But for him to have gone to the city to get my sister, I knew that he must have known he’d have to cancel our movie plans to get Jade. So he’d lied to me. That little argument he’d instigated had been all complete and utter bullshit.

  My eyelids were heavy, and my eyes were dry. All I wanted was to lock myself in a quiet room and indulge in the feeling of not letting anyone down. But I couldn’t do that.

  I’d cost my aunt one of her employees. One of my little sisters was drunk and had just been rescued by my best friend—who hadn’t told me about it. In fact, he’d lied to me.

  Jade sank onto the couch the minute we were inside, and I went into the kitchen, needing a cup of coffee before I could handle something like this. I poured two mugs, intending one for Jade, but when I entered the living room, Keane was there too, sitting in the only armchair. He was watching me carefully, probably just as stunned as Jade was that I hadn’t blown up already.