“We would like to ask her to be a bridesmaid, as well.” Adrian took Rebecca’s hand in his, which stopped her from pacing. She smiled gratefully, and he continued, “We know that things are still shaky between the four of you girls, and that it’s going to take time for you to get to know each other. But the Lockharts are already on the guest list. Madison feels separate from our family as it is, and her grandparents are having a rough time with the news, so we think this would show her that she has a place in our family. That she’s going to be a part of our future.”
“Seriously?” Peyton rolled her eyes. “That sounds so corny.”
“Does Madison know about this?” Savannah asked.
“Not yet,” Rebecca said. “We wanted to run it by the three of you first.”
“Are you really giving us a choice?” Peyton asked. “Or just pretending like you are so that when you ask Madison to be a bridesmaid, we don’t get pissed because you didn’t include us in making the decision?”
“Neither of us phrased it as a choice,” Adrian said, unmoved by Peyton’s outburst. She clenched her jaw—the things she said that would have pissed off her mom or grandma slid right past Adrian. It was so frustrating. “But we are giving you a heads-up, so you’re aware of what’s going on before we ask her.”
“What if we don’t want Madison to be a bridesmaid?”
Adrian paused, looking at Peyton as if he was truly shocked that she’d said it. Finally—a reaction from him. “Does that also mean you don’t want Madison to be your sister?” he asked.
“As if I have a choice,” Peyton scoffed. “But now that you’re asking, if I did have a choice, then no, I wouldn’t want her to be our sister. These are my sisters.” She motioned to Courtney and Savannah. “Right here. Madison might technically be related to us, but that doesn’t make her family.”
Courtney and Savannah said nothing—Courtney played with her hands and Savannah looked down at her bedspread—which was as good as them agreeing with her.
“I’m sorry you feel that way,” Adrian said. “But I can’t help but feel that you’re being unfair to Madison.”
“No, we’re not,” Peyton said. “Because trust me—we’re the last people Madison would want as sisters.”
“We don’t need to ask her today,” Rebecca chimed in, grabbing Adrian’s hand and pulling him back. “We can give you girls time to take it in and talk it over privately first. We can even wait until after Aspen, if you’d like. That way you’ll have had more time to get to know her.”
“Good plan.” Adrian paused and took a deep breath, watching Peyton as if he thought she might change her mind. But she crossed her arms over her chest, standing firm. He must have realized that she wasn’t going to budge, because he made a mention about wanting to take the three of them shopping for ski gear that week, and then he and Rebecca left the condo.
“Maybe it won’t be such a bad thing for Madison to be a bridesmaid,” Savannah said once Adrian and Rebecca were gone.
“Yes, it would be,” Peyton said, pushing her fingers through her hair. She didn’t want to talk about Madison, and she didn’t want to talk about UNLV. What she wanted was to see Jackson. She wanted to ask for his advice, to cry and have him hold her and kiss her and tell her that everything would be all right. But that was impossible.
So she stomped to her room, locked the door and listened to music until she was finally able to fall asleep.
chapter 16:
Since it was the end of February, it was chilly outside, so almost everyone was eating lunch inside. But Courtney had mentioned yesterday that Oliver had been eating outside, so Madison had put on warm clothing that morning to brave the weather. She was joining Oliver for lunch—whether he was happy about it or not.
He was sitting at a table by himself, near the lake, as far away from the other tables as possible. He had his Ray-Ban sunglasses on, his hood pulled over his head, and he was playing on his phone while eating. Clearly he didn’t want company. But determination surged through Madison’s veins, and she marched over to the table, plopping down next to him.
He looked up from his phone. What she could see of his expression around his sunglasses was blank. “You never eat this far away from the dining hall,” he said.
“I heard you’ve been eating out here and wanted to join you.” She opened her Diet Coke and took a sip.
“Without your entourage?” he asked. “Won’t they wonder where you are?”
“I told them I had an emergency student-tutoring session that I was getting extra credit for.”
“That sounds like you,” he said, placing his phone on the table. “But how did you know I was out here?”
“Courtney told me.” She motioned a few tables away, where Courtney sat with Brett under a tree. They had note cards out and were quizzing each other, their heads bent close together, looking at each other in complete adoration. They were totally together. Madison would have to be oblivious not to see it.
“I thought you and Courtney weren’t close,” Oliver said.
“We’re not,” Madison said. “But I had to ride home with her after school yesterday, and she told me she saw you sitting out here alone during lunch.”
“I’m surprised she bothered to say anything.” He laughed. “She hates me.”
“After what happened this summer, can you blame her? You made a bet about her and her sisters and tried to play her. Of course she doesn’t like you.”
Oliver pulled away, took a sip of water and gazed out at the lake.
“Sorry,” she said, wishing she could take it back. It had come out so much more harshly than she’d intended. Probably because she still wasn’t over how Oliver had tried to play her, too. “I shouldn’t have brought that up.”
“Whatever.” He shrugged. “You’re right. And I don’t know why you came out here, but if you want to get me to eat with everyone in the cafeteria like I used to, it’s not going to work. They’re going to expect me to be like I was before. I don’t have the energy for that.”
“I didn’t come out here to try to convince you to come back to our table.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Then why are you here?”
“I’m here because I care about you,” she said. How could he be so blind to this?
“Or you just feel bad for me since I told you about my problem.”
“I’m not here out of pity.” She leveled her gaze with his. “No matter what diagnosis the doctors gave you, you’re still the same person I’ve known for years. I won’t let you sulk out here alone. And truthfully...” She bit her lip and looked down at her sandwich. “I need you.”
“Need me?” He leaned forward, pushing his hood off so it fell around his shoulders. “Why?”
“Because you’re the only person who really sees me,” she said. “These past few days have been terrible. I told you about how it went when my parents, Adrian and I sat down to tell the Diamond girls the truth.”
“Not good,” he said. “But you also said you knew to expect that, since you weren’t the nicest to them when they got here.”
“I know,” she said. “But I don’t want them to hate me.”
“Just act the same around them that you do around me. Then they’ll have no choice but to love you.”
“Thanks.” She swallowed and sipped her soda. He didn’t mean that he loved her, did he? The thought made her smile...but she had to push it away. Because that couldn’t be what he meant. They said stuff like that to each other all the time. They loved each other as friends. That was all.
But he was watching her so closely that her cheeks heated, and she searched for a way to change the subject. “Anyway,” she said, hoping she sounded casual. “Adrian’s letting us spend spring break at his house in Aspen.”
“That should be fun,” he said. “You love s
kiing.”
“Yeah.” She took a deep breath and fiddled with her sandwich, although her stomach was doing too many somersaults for her to eat another bite. “He’s letting us invite friends. I was hoping you might come.”
“No way.” His features hardened, and he shook his head. “My knee’s messed up from the accident—you know I only started walking on it again a few weeks ago. There’s no way I’ll be able to ski in two weeks.”
“There’s more to Aspen than skiing,” she said, determined to make him change his mind. “If you don’t come, it’s going to be me, the Diamond girls, Brett, those two guys from One Connection who are probably douchebags, a random girl Savannah knows from YouTube and Damien. The Diamonds hate that I’m their sister. The only reason I’m invited to Aspen is because of Adrian, and I have to go—if I don’t, it’ll seem like I don’t care about getting to know them. But they’re going to be one big group, and I’ll be all alone.” She leaned forward, begging him now. “I promise to take off days from skiing to hang with you in the house and around town. I would even skip skiing entirely if it meant you would be there with me. Please come?”
“I wouldn’t want to keep you from the slopes,” he said. “And Damien’s your friend. He’ll be there for you.”
“Damien’s been pouting over Savannah since Perry Myles flirted with her at her party,” she said. “He’s got it bad for her. He’ll probably be fighting Perry for her attention the entire time. And I have nothing against Damien and Savannah together—weirdly enough, I actually like them together—but Damien’s going because Savannah invited him. I need a friend on this trip. Someone there just for me.”
“You have a lot of friends,” he said. “And with the mood I’ve been in these past few weeks, I’ll just bring you down. Why not invite Larissa, or Kaitlin, or Tiffany? You’ll have more fun with one of them.”
“Because you’re the one I want there,” she said. “After the accident, you have no idea how worried I was about you...” Her voice wavered, and she stopped herself, not wanting to think about what could have happened if one small thing had gone differently that night. If Oliver hadn’t made it, the last time she’d have seen him would have been that fight they’d had at the party.
Ever since then, something between them had been broken. And she needed to fix it.
“I want you to come because I’ve missed you these past few weeks, and I want to spend time with you. Is that so hard for you to believe?”
Oliver took a deep breath, but still said nothing. He was watching her in that way of his again—the way that made her forget to breathe.
“Please?” Madison asked, softer now.
“I’ll tell you what.” He sounded confident, as if he’d made his decision. “I promised Brianna I would spend time with her over spring break. So if Brianna can also come to Aspen, then I’m in, too.”
“Yes!” Madison smiled, feeling lighter than she had for days. For weeks. “There’s definitely space for your sister.”
“Don’t get too excited yet,” he said. “Brianna’s been really excited about coming to Vegas over spring break. It’s all she’s talked about since getting back to school.”
“Tell her that the guys from One Connection will be in Aspen with us,” Madison said. “There’s no way she’ll be able to say no.”
“She does love them,” Oliver agreed.
They shared a smile, and she knew this was happening. He was coming with her to Aspen.
“Thank you, Oliver.” She reached for his hand, but pulled back, still not sure where everything stood between them. “It’ll be so much easier to get through the week with you there.”
“You have more confidence in me than you should,” he said. “But since I haven’t been away from Vegas since the accident, going to Aspen might not be such a bad idea.”
“I’ll look up everything there is to do besides skiing.” She took out her phone to set a reminder to do that when she got home. “We’ll have fun—I promise.”
“Hold on.” He reached out to stop her, his hand sending waves of heat up her arm. “You can’t skip skiing because of me.”
“I already told you I don’t mind...”
“I never agreed to that part.” He crossed his arms, and she slid her hands inside the pockets of her jacket, her skin still buzzing where he’d touched her. “I want to make a compromise. You can only skip skiing to hang out with me for half of the days. Brianna will take the other half. Deal?”
She smiled, because while she would have skipped skiing for the entire trip if it meant Oliver would come to Aspen, she was glad she wouldn’t have to. “Deal.”
www.campusbuzz.com
High Schools > Nevada > Las Vegas > The Goodman School
finally spring break!!!!
Posted on Wednesday 3/5 at 7:31 PM
Two days to go, and then we’ll FINALLY be free for spring break! I’m so sick of homework, school, papers, and tests, that I can’t wait to get away from it all. I’ll be skiing with my family (not saying where, of course, cause then it would be too obvious to figure out who I am), but I can tell you that it’s NOT Aspen, and I’m wishing it were! Because Adrian Diamond is letting Peyton, Courtney, Savannah, Brett, and Madison go to his house there and bring friends, and Savannah is bringing Perry and Noel from One Connection. So jealous!
1: Posted on Wednesday 3/5 at 7:59 PM
whats so great about aspen? (besides that crew partying there over break?)
2: Posted on Wednesday 3/5 at 8:15 PM
ummmm aspen’s only the most exclusive place to go skiing in the entire country. It takes forever to get to unless you have a private plane. Tons of celebs hang out there (leo dicaprio, kate hudson, paris hilton, blake lively, and more), and its where Christian took Ana in the 50 shades books (they went to cardinal club!!)
3: Posted on Wednesday 3/5 at 8:29 PM
Isn’t Adrian’s house on Red Mountain, AKA billionaire mountain? I would love to see that!
4: Posted on Wednesday 3/5 at 8:45 PM
yeah and they’re going without parents, too. I’m so jealous! My parents would never let me go away like that, unless it was an official teen program. lucky bitches.
chapter 17:
Savannah had fallen seriously behind on her homework because of all the time she’d been spending on YouTube and her other social media accounts, so she’d been spending every lunch period the week before spring break in the library. At least the library was pretty and peaceful—two stories tall, with warm golden carpeting, wooden walls and natural light flooding in from the large windows overhead. It was also nearly empty, so she had one of the second-floor study rooms to herself.
She’d finished her homework and was heading out when she spotted Nick by himself in a corner study room, typing away at his laptop. He was so focused on his work, and she didn’t want to interrupt him...but it had been forever since she’d talked to Nick. And although whatever had been between them had fizzled out, she missed his friendship. When she’d been crying last summer over Damien and ran into Nick on her way out of the club, he’d brightened her night. That was a kindness she would never forget.
She knocked on the door and he jumped, his hands flying off the keyboard. His eyes met hers, and she gave him a small wave. He smiled and motioned for her to come inside.
“Hey,” she said, closing the door behind her.
“Hey.” He leaned back in his chair, and she noticed that he had more scruff on his face than usual. He must be really busy trying to get everything done before break. “Were you looking for someone, or is the library a new hangout for you? Because I don’t think I’ve seen you here...ever.”
“I was getting homework done.” She shifted her tote on her shoulder, and feeling awkward standing, took the seat next to him. “Is this where you’ve been during lunch this semester?
I barely see you in the dining hall anymore.”
“Between school, sports practice and my job, my grades fell last semester,” he said. “I was tired at night when I was trying to get my homework done. So since we have such a long lunch block, I’ve been using the time to work. It sucks to miss out on the time with my friends, but my grades have been getting better.”
“That’s good.” Savannah paused, not knowing if she should bring up what she wanted to ask him. But if she didn’t, she would always wonder. Best to live with no regrets, right? “I know I already texted you about it and you said no, but since you’re here in person now, I wanted to make sure you didn’t want to come to Aspen for break,” she said. “I know you love skiing, and the flight and house and everything is all covered.”
“I wish I could.” He glanced at his laptop and ran his hands through his hair. “But I can’t take off work. I’m actually taking on more hours over break. And I know how you and everyone else in that group vacations—after all, I used to be one of you. I wouldn’t be able to keep up with the expensive dinners and nights out.”
“I could take care of all of that.” Savannah glanced down at her hands, her face heating. She didn’t want him to think she was giving him charity. She understood what it was like to barely be able to afford anything, and she wanted to help him out.
“I can’t go.” His voice was firm. “But thanks for the offer. Really. I wish I could go—I miss skiing—but I can’t give up the chance to get in some more hours of work.”
“Anytime.” Savannah glanced at his laptop. “Anyway, how’s everything been with you? We haven’t had a chance to talk in a while, and I know things have been rough for you and your family.”
Nick sighed and ran his hand through his hair. “Well, my dad won’t be going to jail, so it’s a start in the right direction,” he said. “And my parents moved back in together.”
“That’s amazing news!” Savannah sat up straighter and smiled, but he only gave her a half smile in return. “Why don’t you seem happier about it?”
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