“It’s not a big deal,” she said before he could interject. “Science and math have always come easier to me.”
“And you didn’t think that you should look into them as a major?”
“I don’t know. Accountant and research expert sound boring.”
“Not all of science is being stuck in a room. Some of it is field work, getting your hands dirty.”
“Like what?”
“Like detective, psychiatrist, professor, women’s advocate.”
“Huh.”
He grinned. “I’m not going to put pressure on you while we’re eating at a fast food place, but you should look into it some more. See if anything sparks your interest.”
“I will,” Shayler said, and she meant it. But right now was not when she wanted to think about it, not after such a weird night.
“Good.”
Shayler picked at the last of her fries, trying to process what’d happened with David. They’d gone to a club, made out, had some intense foreplay, and now he was helping her choose a career. They were friends, but every time Shayler glanced at him, she felt some gravitational force that wanted her as close to him as possible. Trying to analyze it wasn’t doing anything but giving her headache. He leaned forward and brushed a crumb from the corner of her mouth.
“Will you come to Becca’s birthday?” she asked, blaming the invite on her frazzled nerves.
“What?”
“It’s in two weeks, and it should be fun. Actually, it’s Rebecca’s birthday so it might be lame, but my friends will be there. And maybe you could come?” She twisted a curl around her finger so tight it cut off her circulation.
“If you want me there, I’ll be there.”
Shayler made a small whimpering noise in the back of her throat. She couldn’t help but feel like she was diving head first into a pool of rocks and sharpened knives, but the thought of her life without David wasn’t worth giving into her fears. Shayler would never be a girlfriend, not until she was receiving social security checks and taking her teeth out before bed. Friends, though, she could manage. She hoped.
Chapter Twenty-Four
“Come on.” Shayler tugged on her best friend’s sleeve, forcing her into the passenger seat of her car.
Rebecca had spent the last thirty minutes arguing with Shayler, and now Shayler was ten minutes late to the surprise party. And she was the one with the birthday girl. Luckily, Derek had anticipated something like this and scheduled everyone to arrive twenty minutes after the actual start time.
“I just don’t see why you’re stalking some waiter when you like David.”
Shayler slammed Rebecca’s door and jogged to the driver’s seat. “I don’t like David, and the waiter’s cute.”
“You told me last week that, after your little parking lot fling, you don’t care about your slump anymore.”
Shayler cursed herself for telling Rebecca everything and for not bringing duct tape. So much for getting to Bella Mia smoothly. “I only said that so you’d stop worrying about me. I’m actually super horny, and this guy looks like he’d be great in bed. So can we go now?”
“You’re being strange.”
“I’m always strange.”
“No, you’re weirder than normal.”
Shayler hightailed it out of the parking lot and sped toward the hill that gave way to the downtown area and, specifically, the all-important Italian restaurant. Rebecca picked at the baby-doll dress Shayler had gotten her as a present the day before.
“I don’t get why I couldn’t bring Derek if we’re only going so you can hit on someone.”
“Because we need us time.”
“Girls’ night was two days ago.”
“We’re best friends. That’s not enough.”
A red light put another stop to their voyage, and Shayler hit the steering wheel and cursed. Three minutes and she’d be fucking late. Which was fine normally, but she knew Derek would give her some god-awful speech on responsibility as though he were Father Theresa.
“Back to David, why won’t you date him? He likes you. You like him. What’s the problem?”
“I don’t like him.”
“You guys”—Rebecca lowered her voice—“had foreplay.”
“We were releasing sexual tension.”
“Mhm.”
“Don’t get all motherly on me,” Shayler warned. “I’m not in the mood today.”
“He’s perfect for you.”
“You met him for like five seconds.”
“You talk about him enough to make up for that.”
Shayler growled and pressed her foot on the accelerator. She didn’t ease up until Bella Mia was in sight. The rustic restaurant was packed, but Derek must’ve had everyone park in the back because she didn’t see any vehicles she recognized. Not that she was looking for any one in particular.
“What’s this guy’s name?” Rebecca asked.
“Who?”
“The guy we’re here to stalk?”
“Oh. Uh, Hank.”
“Hank?” Rebecca frowned. “Hank is supposed to be hot?”
“Don’t judge, Rebecca. Hank has feelings too. He can’t help what his parents named him.”
“Sorry.”
Shayler dragged Rebecca to the front doors, hauling ass before they weren’t technically on time anymore. Rebecca was doing one of her pursed-lip frowns as she tried to keep up Shayler’s pace.
“Two, please,” Shayler said to the hostess, out of breath. She squinted her eyes and nodded once, thankful that the hostess seemed to pick up on her code.
“Right this way.”
Shayler blew a piece of hair away from her face. She’d been dreading this party since Derek had first brought it up, but she’d done her job. It was over now.
The hostess led them to a dimly lit table in the back, next to the party room. “The romantic table,” she said with a wink.
“Great, thanks,” Rebecca said.
Shayler huffed. “Actually, I was thinking something a little less cozy.” She nodded to the closed, shutter doors.
The hostess blinked. “I’m sorry?”
“What is going on with you?” Rebecca whispered. “This is fine, thank you.”
Shayler shrieked and grabbed Rebecca’s arm, stomping them to the doors. She ignored the hostess exclaiming they were having a private party, ignored Rebecca’s high-pitched, stuttering protests. Pulling the door open, Shayler revealed their friends to a stunned Rebecca.
Ansley and Trish tossed a pile of confetti in the air. “Surprise!”
Derek stood in the front, smirking and holding a big balloon in the shape of a cupcake. “Surprise.”
Rebecca shook Shayler off and ran to her boyfriend. It was uncomfortable for Shayler to watch her best friend tear up and embrace him like he’d been gone for the last thirty years.
“I can’t … what?” Rebecca laughed through her tears. “You threw me a party?”
“Of course. You have to celebrate your twenty-first in style. It’s no movie night, but—”
“It’s amazing.” Rebeca gazed into his eyes. “I love you.”
He bent down to kiss her, and Shayler looked away, afraid she’d see the donuts she’d eaten this morning make a reappearance. As she glanced around the room, she noticed David. He was behind Ansley and Trish, talking to some dude she’d never seen before. She stepped around Rebecca and Derek, who were attached to each other’s faces like they were trying to suck the life force out of one another, and made her way to him.
“You came,” she said, beaming for the first time that day.
He smiled back. “Yeah.”
“Hey, Shay,” Ansley said.
“Ans. Trish. Where’s Debbie?”
“She’s bringing the poet later on,” Ansley explained.
“Cool.”
“He’s actually pretty lame, but she likes him so we deal,” Trish said, a hand stuffed into her retro suede skirt.
Shayler’s gaze came back to
the strange guy in front of her. “And you are?”
“Sorry, this is Damion’s boyfriend, Chris,” Ansley explained.
Shayler exhaled. “Holy shit, no offense, but I thought you might be Ansley’s mysterious boyfriend.”
Chris laughed. “No offense taken. We just started dating, so it’s kind of new.”
“Yeah, and I don’t have a mysterious boyfriend,” Ansley said.
“I know, it’s starting to make me worried.”
“Speaking of introductions, are you ever gonna introduce us to the hot nerd? Trish asked.
“He can probably hear you,” Damion said, coming up beside her.
David glanced at the ground, his ears turning a light pink. Shayler rolled her eyes. “Hot nerd, AKA David, this is Trish, Ansley, Damion, and Chris. People, this is David.”
“Your tutor?” Trish asked.
“No, my friend.”
“Right,” Ansley mumbled.
Shayler gestured to her face-sucking best friend. “Are they ever gonna stop?”
Damion shook his head and wrapped an arm around Chris. “Probably not. He’s been obsessing over this party for the last week. You don’t know how many times I’ve been asked if lilac matches purple or if he really needed to buy drinks.”
“Wouldn’t he want to enjoy his party then?”
“I think this is his version of enjoying it,” Damion said.
The six of them turned and stared at the overly-happy couple. Shayler flicked her hair off her shoulder and marched forward, physically pulling them apart at the shoulders.
“Becca, since you missed it, you know David and this is Chris,” she said, gesturing to the two men who were shyly waving.
“O-oh.” Rebecca blushed and pushed her hair behind her ear. “Sorry. I’m, uh, I’m Rebecca.”
Derek leaned down. “I think they know that. This is your birthday party.”
Rebecca swatted at his chest and shook hands with Chris and waved to David, thanking them for coming. As the boys wished her happy birthday and started their conversation up again, Rebecca turned to Damion and mouthed he’s hot. Then she winked at Shayler.
“I’m surprised you weren’t late,” Ansley said.
“Yeah, we almost were. Getting Becca in a car without Derek means you get interrogated like you’re trying to bring a bottle of shampoo on an airplane.”
“Hey!” Rebecca said, walking to the table and sitting at the head.
Shayler sat beside her, to her left, and Derek sat to her right. As long as he didn’t plan on making goo-goo eyes at his girlfriend the whole time, Shayler didn’t mind sitting across from him. Especially since David was in the seat next to her.
She waited for the party to really start, but everyone chose that second to break off into cliques. Rebecca and Derek started flirting, or arguing, Shayler could never really tell with them. Ansley and Trish were at the far end of the table, gossiping about something that was obviously important. David, Damion, and Chris were talking in hushed voices about, well, probably bathroom cleaner or something knowing David and Damion. And she was left alone.
“Happy birthday, Becca!” she said louder than normal, taking attention away from their separate conversations.
Rebecca grinned. “Thanks, Shay. I can’t believe I thought you were dragging me here to hit on someone named Hank.”
“Yeah. Hank sounds gross.”
“I thought it wasn’t his fault?”
“It’s not, but I’m still not sleeping with him.”
“Are we talking about a hypothetical guy right now?” David asked.
“They’re crazy. You get used to it,” Derek explained.
“Yes, talk about us as though we aren’t here,” Rebecca said. “That will win you brownie points.”
“I threw you a party, I don’t need to win any more points.”
“And you call us weird?” Shayler flicked a napkin that’d been folded into a butterfly at Derek. “Who’s the real freak here, David Tutera?”
“Is that supposed to be an insult?” Derek furrowed his brow. “Who is that?”
“He’s a famous wedding slash party planner, which you’d know if you watched reality television like the rest of the world.”
“I don’t watch reality shows,” Rebecca said. “There’s nothing wrong with that.”
An echo of agreement circled the table with only Ansley on Shayler’s side. She ignored David’s deep belly laughs and Trish’s wheezy giggles and pointed a fork at Derek. “Where is everyone else, by the way? And where’s the food?”
“There are more people coming?” Rebecca asked, a sunny smile brightening her face.
Derek shot Shayler a dirty look. “Thanks for that… They, and the food, will be here shortly.”
“Why?”
He reached into his pocket and fumbled with something small and black. “There’s, uh, something I want to do. And I guess I should do it now.”
Shayler froze in her seat, unable to move an inch of her body as Derek took a knee in front of her best friend. At the start of the semester, she’d made a joke about Derek proposing, but it’d been meant to be funny. Not real. She wasn’t prepared for this.
Peeling her gaze away from Derek, she looked at David. He seemed comfortable enough witnessing an actual tragedy taking place. Her best friend, married. At twenty-one. Popping out babies, not bothering to finish school. Never going out again. No more girls’ nights. No more sleepovers or Rebecca barging into her house. Just diapers and breastmilk and flimsy bras that didn’t even have lining. Shayler rocked back and forth.
“Rebecca Washington,” Derek started, the black box perched on his hand. “I know we’ve been together for a few months and this all seems fast, but I’m the happiest I’ve ever been. Because of you. With you, there’s no more shit from the past, and I don’t worry about the future. It’s cheesy as fuck, but it’s from a Tom Cruise movie, so I’ll just say that … you complete me. As infuriating as you can be, I don’t want to picture my life without you. Ever. And I love you. Would you, please…”
Shayler clutched her napkin, close to going into shock. She needed an inhaler. Her breathing was erratic and wispy, and her brain started to spin. Derek opened the box, and something shiny and gold glittered inside.
“Would you consider moving in with me? Or me moving in with you since we can’t exactly have a girl live in the frat?”
“Yes. Oh my God, yes.”
Rebecca’s short sob was enough to make Shayler’s breathing stop entirely. Her best friend smacked Derek on the shoulder, and David nudged Shayler with a happy grin on his face. In fact, everyone seemed ecstatic. But Shayler felt cold, hollow.
“You’ve only been dating a few months. You can’t… Where are you gonna live?”
Derek rolled his eyes and stroked Rebecca’s cheek. “I mean, maybe her place. We’ve got a year left in school, I want to spend it with her.”
Rebecca bit her lip and gazed at him. “I do, too. I don’t care where we are.”
“B-but Ansley lives there,” Shayler argued.
“Relax, Shay,” Ansley whispered.
She faced the blonde who seemed calm. Too calm. “You knew?”
“We talked about it when I was doing invites.”
“You’re gonna live with the two of them?”
“For a month or two until I can find a place of my own, yeah.”
The more Shayler debated the issues, the more her best friend’s smile dimmed. So she sunk into the rigid chair and sat on her hands. “Better invest in some good noise-canceling headphones.”
Rebecca and Derek began another make-out session, but sweeter this time, which was horrid. Slow. No tongues. Just soft kisses and I love yous. Shayler felt like her great aunt had when she’d sat down to watch Fifty Shades of Grey, thinking it was just a cute romantic comedy.
“Hey, are you okay?” David whispered, angling his chair so that he faced only her.
Shayler did the same and let her right leg rest against his
left leg. “It’s soon. Too soon. They just started dating after Christmas, and … before that … it wasn’t good.”
“They’ll figure it out. If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work.”
“No. You don’t get it. He really hurt her last year. She was in pieces, he put her back together, and if he leaves again…” Shayler chewed on her lip, unable to find the words.
“Look at them, Shayler. Really.”
She did. Derek was standing now, bent over so he could show Rebecca that stupid birthday flower he’d bought her. They were cracking up watching it sing a birthday song, and then Rebecca hit his bicep and they laughed some more. Love. It was so obvious and so repulsive.
“Okay, okay. I get it.”
David frowned. “Why does it scare you that much?”
“It doesn’t.”
“You hate the idea of love.”
“She’s young. Barely twenty-one.”
“When people know what they want, age doesn’t matter.”
Shayler grumbled to herself, scooting her chair in the opposite direction. It didn’t matter that David was right, and if anyone was prepared for taking the next step, it was Rebecca. She still didn’t like it. Okay, maybe she was being an idiot and projecting, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t allowed to have an opinion.
She hopped up quickly and shoved her chair back in place, ready to excuse herself and sprint to the bathroom. She was halfway out of the party room when the doors burst open, and a dozen education majors, Ken, and his girlfriend nearly bowled right over her. Not a good sign.
Chapter Twenty-Five
The cliques had reformed. Rebecca was being showered with gifts and love from her classmates, Debbie was with Ansley, Trish, and her excessively pierced boyfriend, and the rest of the men were standing in a huddle talking to each other like they were about to break and toss a ball around.
Shayler was alone again. At a party. She shook her head. Her life was becoming a fucking disaster. She undid another origami napkin and wondered why Rebecca was so happy being surrounded by a group of people who only wanted to compare research paper scores.
“Shayler! Great food, huh?” Ken asked, taking a bite out of a meatball that was on the end of a toothpick.
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