by Alison Ryan
McKenna nuzzled his nose (eye roll from me) and followed me up to the house.
“Sorry,” I said. “You know I wouldn’t want to interrupt your dry hump session on the beach.”
“Ugh, gross. You’re such a freak,” she said which made me laugh.
“I’m the furthest thing,” I replied, throwing my arm around her shoulders.
“I wonder what’s going on with Rhiannon,” McKenna said as we sat on stools at the counter where the phone was. I looked at the numbers on my phone card and shrugged.
“Probably something with Jackson. Didn’t they have a date this week?”
“Oh that’s right!” McKenna said. “He was taking her to some fancy French place.”
“Maybe she had the escargot and accidentally hit someone with it like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman.” I giggled.
“What’s escargot?” McKenna asked, looking at me quizzically.
“Snails! You didn’t know? You’ve been in the Rut too long.”
“Oh sorry, Miss-Las-Vegas, we can’t all be as worldly as you!” She smacked me with the phone. “Now give me that damn phone card so we can call our girl. I miss her.”
“Me too,” I admitted leaning on my elbows as she dialed.
It rang a few times and McKenna was about to hang up when a breathless Rhiannon answered.
“Hey, girl! It’s me and Addie!” McKenna said into the phone. “Hold on I think our fancy house phone has speaker. That way Addie can hear you too.” McKenna pushed a button and suddenly Rhiannon’s voice echoed through the kitchen.
“Hey, y’all. Sorry it took so long for me to answer. My brothers ran outside and I had to chase them down the street. They are serious assholes sometimes.” I could hear her drinking something.
“No prob,” I answered. “My mom said you’ve been calling. Everything okay? How’s Jackson?”
Rhiannon paused for a moment, “He’s great. We went out last night, it was very grown up and romantic. Food was just okay though.”
“Nice. We miss you, Rhi!” said McKenna.
“I miss y’all too. Addie, I need to tell you something,” Rhiannon’s voice took a serious tone and my stomach dropped.
“What? Is it Grandma?” Had my mother lied? Was Grandma actually much sicker than she let on?
“No, it’s nothing like that,” Rhiannon assured me. “I wasn’t going to tell you until you got back but I didn’t want you to be completely blindsided in case you heard it from some other source first. Though now thinking on it, I don’t know who that would be besides me, but you never-“
“Rhiannon!” we both said. “Get to the point.”
“Okay, okay,” she said. “We ran into Jennifer Ronaldson and Kyle Joel last night. They were at the same restaurant as us so we were forced to talk to them since Jackson likes stupid Kyle for whatever reason. Anyway, that meant I was forced to make small talk with Jennifer and she told me that Rachel and Courtney were getting ready for a big trip.”
“Ugh, please don’t tell me they’re coming down here,” McKenna said. “Thank God it would only be for two more days.”
“No, it’s not that, dork,” Rhiannon said. “Addie, Rachel’s dad is flying their whole family and one of her friends to Las Vegas next week.”
“What?” It made no sense. “Rachel Lawson is going to Las Vegas? With her family?”
“Yeah. I guess her dad goes sometimes for business. Conventions or whatever. And this year Rachel asked if she could come too, and bring a friend,” Rhiannon paused. “But I think we all know why she really wants to go.”
Ryan. His tournament in Las Vegas next week. What a crazy girl to follow a boy clear across the country. Part of me knew Ryan wouldn’t fall for it. He needed to be focused on the tournament and doing his best. Her showing up was so selfish.
But on the other hand, Rachel knew Ryan pretty well. Maybe this was a play by her to get him back in a place she knew he couldn’t be distracted by me. And with Courtney there, who knows what they were capable of.
Rachel Lawson always wins.
I didn’t want to give Rachel Lawson the power to upset me on what was supposed to be a celebratory day. All I wanted was to keep my head and heart in the remainder of this trip with the new friends we had made. But it was hard for it not to be on my mind that night.
Brandon could sense something was wrong.
“You seem out of sorts,” he said as we threw streamers across the ceiling fan of their living room. McKenna had lured Brent out to the beach, without much convincing at all. As soon as she had asked if they could be alone for a little bit the boy was up on his feet and out the door in five seconds flat.
“Is it that obvious? I’m trying not to be a Josh,” I said.
“Wait? Did you break up with your boyfriend?” He looked at me with a mix of hope and concern for me.
“No, nothing like that,” I said, smiling. “It’s just, this other girl is after him. God, it sounds so silly even talking about it but it’s his ex-girlfriend and she’s kind of a big deal and he’s about to be in a huge city with her across the country and it makes me nervous.”
Brandon looked confused so I explained the whole saga of Rachel and Ryan (what I knew) and the Bitch Brigade and my new part in it all.
“I mean, this girl is something out of a magazine,” I explained. “It makes me question how long he would have to be back around her to forget about me.”
Brandon looked at me for a moment while Josh sprayed silly string on the kitchen counter near the cake.
“Addie, my guess is there is no amount of time she could be around for him to forget about you,” he said. “You’re amazing. And if all it took was some soulless hot chick to make him give you up, the guy is not worth your time. He would be doing you a favor. I’ve been trying my best all this week not to be closer to you. I want to be respectful but it’s so hard. This Ryan guy is the luckiest guy in the world in my eyes and if he’s like me all this is going to do is put him off on her more. Hotness only gets you so far. I guess girls find that hard to believe because there are so many dickheads out there. But although being beautiful is a big deal, it doesn’t cancel out the other things we desire. And you’ve got beauty. You’re really funny, and you’re really wise. You’ve got layers to you. My mom always told me that the more layers a cake has, the richer it is. The longer it lasts. You’re that multilayered cake, Addie. And in the end, that’s what a good man wants. A woman with complexity.”
I was in awe of Brandon in that moment.
“Are you seriously only seventeen?” I asked. “Because talk about wise.”
He smiled, those dimples appearing again, “I feel like I’ve lived about a decade in the last year. But don’t worry, I still have a pretty immature sense of humor. Lots of toilet jokes.”
Josh suddenly ran over to us, “They’re coming! Just looked out the window and saw them coming up the beach! Hide, you lovebirds!”
Brandon and I both opened our mouths to correct him but instead we just laughed.
We hid behind the wicker couch, shoulder to shoulder even though there was plenty of room for us not to be that close.
As soon as the door opened the three of us jumped and yelled. In his excitement, Brandon bumped his head against the ceiling fan making us all bust out into hysterics.
Brent’s eyes were huge. McKenna clutched his arm, the biggest smile I’d ever seen on her face.
“Happy Birthday, Brent!” she said, taking his face into her hands and planting the biggest, longest kiss on his mouth. When she pulled away he looked at her and pulled her in for another.
Watching them be so openly demonstrative of their feelings for one another didn’t make me want to kiss Brandon. I thought it would but it didn’t. It just made me miss Ryan that much more.
But as I glanced over at Brandon who was smiling at his brother, tears in his eyes, I couldn’t help but think I was already jealous of the next girl lucky enough to call him her own.
Less than forty-eigh
t hours later we were all packed up. The Miller boys had left earlier that morning, leaving a sobbing McKenna in their wake. Since the party she and Brent hadn’t spent less than a few hours apart and that was only because we were sleeping. I was watching something special and I couldn’t help but be glad that McKenna had gotten the one thing she wanted so badly. But watching it drive away from her had been no easy thing to witness. McKenna really did wear her whole soul on her sleeve and she had been crying all morning.
“Of course the universe would lead me to the most amazing guy in the world and make that guy live nowhere near the stupid Rut,” she cried as I threw my clothes into my luggage.
“McKenna, he lives in Virginia not Russia,” I said. “We will visit him and he will visit you. It’s not ideal but didn’t someone say that distance makes the heart grow fonder?”
“That someone was an idiot,” McKenna said. “Distance makes the heart seek a hot sorority girl. Ugh!”
My goodbye with Brandon had been more difficult than I thought it would be. I had never had a friend that was male, at least not one I could share much of myself with. I would miss Brandon for different reasons, but the ache was similar.
“I’m really glad you showed up, Addie,” he said as he shut the back of the Jeep. Brent and McKenna were kissing in the front seat and Josh was already escaping through some headphones and his discman.
“Me too,” I said. “Thanks for the good times.”
“Maybe one day there can be more,” he said. “I have a tournament in Richmond this season. You should come.”
I nodded, “I just might have to do that.”
“I know it’s not appropriate, and you don’t have to say anything back, but I just want you to know that if circumstances were different and you actually would have me, I would want to be more than just a friend. Or even a guy you had a fling with at the beach. Remember that you’re better than you think you are, Addie. Don’t let anyone make you feel different. This week made me remember that life can be good again. Maybe even great. And that there are women in this world just as special as my mom was.”
I teared up. Appropriate or not, I wrapped my arms around him and let him kiss my head.
“Your mom would be really proud of you,” I said, trying my best not to cry. “You’re a really fantastic human being, Brandon Miller.”
He grinned one last time, the dimples prominent, “So are you, Addie McCurtis.”
Before we left I had one last phone call to make.
McKenna was in the back seat and Mr. and Mrs. Holt were strapping down the luggage on top of the station wagon when I asked if I could run into the house real quick to make sure I hadn’t left anything.
“Sure, Addie,” Mr. Holt said. “Just make it fast. I’d love to be home before supper.”
“I will!” I called to him as I ran up the deck stairs one last time.
When I reached the kitchen I pulled out my phone card. There was a call I needed to make and I wanted to do it before I lost my nerve. Because Brandon was right. I was a powerful girl, smart, and I had something Rachel Lawson didn’t have; street smarts. And the ability to be resourceful.
Las Vegas was three hours behind us so I knew it was early but Marisol was always one to be up early. Her mother didn’t let her kids sleep in, there was always work and chores to do. Marisol had been as good a friend to me as McKenna and Rhiannon and I missed her. I hated that this would only be my third call since I moved, but the best kind of friends are the ones you don’t have to necessarily talk to every day for them to be there for you and you for them.
She answered on the second ring. After the squealing and pleasantries I let her know I didn’t have a ton of time but I needed a favor.
“Anything, amiga,” she said. “You’re my girl.”
“How would you like to go to a basketball tournament?” I asked, and phase one of the Revenge Against Rachel Lawson Project began.
THE END
Read the conclusion of THE SMALL TOWN TRILOGY in the final book, SMALL TOWN FOREVER, coming soon to Amazon. To get news on its release, sign up for the Alison Ryan newsletter. No spam, just fun.