“No idea,” I said, chancing a look. The girl didn’t look familiar and actually looked older. Maybe early twenties.
Emmie slowly turned and looked. “Older sister?”
I shook my head. “I don’t think he has one.”
“She’s not a student,” Chelly said. “She’s older. And I’ve never seen her before. I know everyone on campus.”
Celia gave her a look.
“What?” Chelly said in protest. “Okay, so I don’t know every freshman’s name, but I do know every face enough to know she’s not a current student.”
“Chelly is orientation coordinator,” Emmie reminded us. “If anyone knows, it’s her.”
We had to give her that. But it didn’t answer the question of who she was.
“Bastard,” Chelly said. “How could he?”
“We don’t know he’s on a date,” Kaylee said. It was the truth, but why did it still hurt so much to see him here with another woman?
“Do you want to leave?” Emmie asked.
Yes, more than anything. But no, I didn’t want to ruin everyone else’s time. “No, it’s fine.”
“You should go say hi,” Chelly suggested. “Find out who she is.”
Ha ha. Right. Not in a million years. “Uh, no, I’m good,” I said, trying to sound cool about it (and failing miserably). “And don’t you dare get it in your head to go over there. I’m serious, Chelly.”
She frowned but nodded and I knew she wouldn’t go against me.
“We should leave,” Emmie said, looking at me. “I’m not going to make you sit through brunch when he’s here with someone else.”
Hearing her say ‘he’s here with someone else’ out loud made me wither inside, but I was determined not to ruin everyone’s day. It had been so good so far and the last thing I wanted to do was be the downer who tainted the whole day with her own stupid drama.
“No,” I said. “We’re here and we’re going to have a nice brunch. That he’s here with someone doesn’t matter.” Which was a huge lie, but they knew it as much as I did, so it didn’t feel like as much of one.
“You sure?” Kaylee asked, giving me a sideways glance.
While I loved that my friends were willing to bail just to spare my feelings, I didn’t want to be a drama queen about this. And being a grown up meant I was going to have to get over the idea of Brady dating someone else when I’d messed up so royally.
Did it have to be so soon, though?
I nodded at Kaylee. “Yes. Very sure. Mid-terms start soon which means buckling down and studying and no time for days like this for a while. Even more reason to have fun today.” Plus, if we left now, he was sure to see me. I chanced a quick glance over in time to see a waiter put down the telltale leather folio that meant they were going to be leaving soon. Thank God.
My friends were staring at me and I knew they were assessing whether it would be better to drag me out of there or take my words at face value and power through.
“Seriously,” I assured them. “It’s fine. Go fill your plates. I’m just going to chill here for a few minutes until the drinks come, so I’ll watch the purses.”
And try to get back my appetite.
~ ♥ ~
The food was great, the company was even better, but I couldn’t seem to get rid of the rock in my gut. The one that was made of sadness and disappointment over seeing Brady with another woman. Actually, that’s not true: it started out as sadness and disappointment and as I tried to bury it under a mountain of rich brunch foods, it morphed into bitterness and anger. How dare he blow me off and then go out on a date just days later? If he’d ever loved me, he was definitely over it now and that really made me mad. Or maybe he’d been lying to me about the love thing and that made me even madder.
I guess rationally, it made no sense to be angry about a situation I’d created, but feelings are feelings and I couldn’t get rid of that churning mass of fury in my gut. In fact, it was getting bigger, enveloping my food and growing like a giant cancer cell.
By the time we got back to campus I was in a terrifically foul mood that was getting harder and harder to hide from my friends.
“You okay?” Kaylee asked as we got out of the limo.
I nodded at her but avoided her eyes because we both knew I was full of it.
“You need to blow off steam,” Emmie said, intuitive as usual. “Want to hit the gym?”
I made a face and pressed a hand to my belly. “In theory, it sounds like a good idea, but I think I’d barf.”
“Me, too,” Chelly said, and then burped.
We all laughed, even me. “I feel like...” I blew out a breath. “I want to...” the rage bubbled up in me then as I looked over toward the stables. What I really felt like doing was getting on a horse and galloping until I couldn’t breathe or feel my butt, but not only was I way too full for that, but I couldn’t even fathom what running into Brady right now in this mood would make me do. Nope, not doing that.
“Shoot something?” Celia asked.
We all looked at her.
She rolled her eyes, though her cheeks got a little pink. “I don’t mean shoot something like with a gun. Archery. We’re doing it in PE; didn’t you say you liked archery?”
I could have hugged her. “Yes. Perfect.”
“Let’s all get changed and meet back here in fifteen,” Emmie suggested.
My day was suddenly on its way back to awesome.
~ ♥ ~
After I rejoined my friends, we headed across campus together, chatting and trash-talking each other. It was exactly what I needed after seeing Brady; a distraction with my girls that included some fresh air and something physical to take my mind off him.
Finding the archery cabinet unlocked (though we’d come equipped with bobby pins) we got out some equipment: bows and a quiver full of arrows along with some wrist guards.
We went behind the sports center where the archery gallery was set up with six targets. The air was a bit brisk and there was a touch of snow still on the ground, making Emmie grumble a bit about the cold, but I knew we’d warm up quickly.
We had only been taking turns shooting for ten minutes before Chelly started. “This is lame. How did Katniss practice enough to get good at this without stabbing herself in the eye out of sheer boredom?”
Emmie rolled her eyes as she lined up her arrow. “She needed to be good to eat. It wasn’t just a PE requirement for her.” She focused and pulled back, letting the arrow go. She hit the blue ring. Not bad. Or maybe she was lucky.
“Right. Well we ate already and I suck at this. And I don’t care enough to want to get better, especially since I’ve just completely ruined my nails.” said Chelly, who had yet to even hit a target.
“So make it interesting,” Celia said, picking up her arrow to take Emmie’s place at the shooting line.
“Hmmm,” Chelly hummed in contemplation as Kaylee and I exchanged curious glances.
Celia spread her feet out and took aim. She let go, nailing the red ring. Not quite a bullseye, but still pretty good.
She turned and looked at Chelly. “No shooting each other,” she said in a warning voice. “Flesh wounds and trips to the hospital are not interesting.”
Chelly rolled her eyes. “Please. If I was going to shoot someone, I’d go find that horse coach first.”
My smile dissolved.
“Aw, I’m sorry,” Chelly said, pulling me into a hug. “We’re supposed to be taking your mind off it.”
I shrugged within the circle of her arms. “It’s okay. I need to deal with it sooner or later.”
“He’s still a bastard, though,” Chelly said, giving me a last squeeze before she let me go. “Since we’re talking about him.”
“I still don’t think he’s done with you,” Celia said, giving me a pointed look. “You don’t know who that was he was with.”
“You’ve read too many romance books, Celia. Not everything ends happily ever after,” Kaylee said and then turned to me
, wincing. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay. I knew what you meant.”
“Okay, here’s what we’re going to do,” Chelly said, grabbing the notebook we’d been using to keep score. She pulled a Sharpie out of her pocket and shoved it between her teeth, pulling off the cap. She wrote on several pages and then pulled them out.
Emmie craned her neck toward her. “What are you doing?”
“We’re going to play Date, Dump, Marry,” Chelly said, holding up the papers.
“What?” Kaylee said, laughing.
“Date, Dump, Marry,” she repeated. “I’ll go put them up. No one shoot me in the back.”
“She’s nuts,” Celia said.
“I heard that!” Chelly yelled over her shoulder.
“You were meant to!” Celia yelled back then grabbed the notebook. “If she’s going to make it interesting, let’s make it really interesting. We need more than just Date, Dump and Marry,” She scribbled on some pages and then ripped them from the book before she jogged after Chelly. They got to the target and seemed to argue for a few minutes about placement of the pages but in the end arranged them scattered around the target.
“Bigger!” Emmie hollered. “We can’t read them.”
Like that even mattered? But the girls went over the words with the Sharpie, darkening them until we could just make them out.
“This is crazy,” Kaylee said, but she had a twinkle in her eye.
“You go first then,” I suggested as Celia and Chelly returned.
Without a word, Kaylee took up the bow and strung an arrow on it. She widened her stance and took a breath before lining up.
“Wait!” Chelly said, as Kaylee pulled the string back.
Startled, Kaylee let go, the arrow falling limply to the ground as she turned to glare at Chelly. “What?”
“You have to say who you’re doing it for.”
“Seriously?” Emmie said.
Kaylee grabbed her dropped arrow and strung it back on her bow, muttering something we couldn’t make out before she loudly announced, “Declan. Edmund. My hot future duke. That good enough?” she asked, her eyes still forward on the target.
“Perfect,” Chelly said, obviously placated.
Kaylee let the arrow fly as we all watched and then half a second later, we all whooped it up, caught up in the game.
“Marry!” Chelly clapped her hands and gave Kaylee a big hug as though she really believed the arrow prophecy.
“I’m next,” Emmie said, taking the arrow from Kaylee’s outstretched arm. “Danny, of course.”
We all circled around as she took her shot, the arrow landing in the bushes as she completely missed the target. She frowned, staring at the target like she couldn’t believe her arrow would dare go wide.
“Go again,” I said.
She did, this time hitting the target but not one of the papers.
“It just means the universe hasn’t decided yet,” Chelly said, waving it off. “It’ll figure it out soon enough. I mean come on, you and that hot felon of yours were made to be together.”
Emmie smiled and handed Chelly the bow. “You go.”
Chelly looked uncertain all of a sudden. I knew it couldn’t be because she and Jared were having troubles but maybe she was feeling a bit superstitious.
“It’s just a stupid game,” I said.
She nodded and then smiled, pulling an arrow from the quiver on the ground beside her.
“My hot child actor, Jared Abramovich,” she announced to the gods of archery divination.
We watched as she took aim and let the string go. The arrow landed on Date.
Chelly humphed.
“What?” Celia asked. “That’s good.”
“We already are dating,” Chelly said. “I was hoping for something...more.”
“What?” I said, pointing toward the target, my eyebrows high on my forehead. “Like the one that says ‘have 10 babies with?’”
“Not exactly,” she said, wearing that coy look she did so well.
“The ‘lose your virginity to’ one?”
She grinned. Bingo.
“Unless you already have,” Kaylee said quietly, giving her a sideways glance.
“No,” Chelly said with a sigh. “Like I would have been able to keep that to myself?”
We all knew that had to be true.
“So landing on the Date spot is confirming that you should be dating,” Emmie said. “Also, it’s just a stupid game. And I don’t care how lame and old-school it makes me sound, you should not let a game determine when you should lose it.”
“I guess.” Chelly smirked and then held out the bow as she looked at me and Celia, her smile quickly disappearing as she probably realized the single girls wouldn’t want to play.
Celia sighed. “Fine,” she said, taking the arrow and getting herself set up.
“Shane Peacock,” she said when she let the arrow go.
“Date!” we all yelled and clapped.
Celia turned and looked at us silently before she grabbed another arrow and faced the target again. “Evan Jenkins.”
Hmmm. Hadn’t seen that coming.
“Date again!” Chelly yelled, clapping her hands. “I am liking this game for you, Celia.”
Celia smirked and took out another arrow. The rest of us looked at each other, eyebrows raised as we waited for a third name.
She pulled the string back and said, “Some random guy I don’t even know yet.”
I was sure we all held our breath as she took aim.
“Date a third time! You are going to be one busy girl!” Emmie said, pulling Celia into a hug as they all laughed.
“Give me that,” I said, taking the bow.
The girls stopped laughing and stared at me. “It’s just a game,” I said with a shrug.
But the silence that fell over my friends told me that maybe they thought it was more than just a stupid game. And my racing heart told me maybe I did, too.
I pretended it was just another shot and it didn’t mean anything as I took the last arrow from the quiver and notched it into the string. I raised the bow and stiffened my left arm and shoulder to anchor it. I pulled the string back tight, closing my left eye as I took aim. “Brady Fleming,” I said, as though there was any doubt.
I released the string, the familiar whir and the kunk of the arrow hitting the target ratcheting up my already rapid pulse.
“I knew it!” Celia yelled in triumph, pumping her arms in the air.
Chelly hugged me again as I rolled my eyes over her shoulder at Emmie. “It’s just a game,” I said.
“We’ll see about that,” Kaylee said.
I shook my head but put down the bow, leaving my friends behind to go collect the arrows. “It’s just a game,” I whispered to myself as I stepped up to the target and pulled out the arrow I’d shot. The one that had landed right in the center of the target. The one where Celia had scribbled: Live Happily Ever After.
“It’s just a game,” I told myself again, really hoping it wasn’t.
Epilogue
“Stop it,” I said when I saw Celia’s head move slightly in my peripheral vision.
“What?” She said, feigning innocence. “I haven’t done anything.”
I looked up at her and cocked my head. “You’re looking at that book on your desk. Longingly.”
She sighed, knowing she was busted. We were sitting in her room, studying for mid-terms. Well, I was sitting at her desk studying and she was lying on her stomach on her bed trying to study but kept getting distracted. If it wasn’t the new novel that she was dying to read calling out to her, it was her phone, that she was thirsty or that she had to use the bathroom because she’d drank so much water. I was starting to understand why she and Kaylee got into so many fights about studying.
“Sorry,” she said. “I know. You’re right, it’s just so hard to focus. Maybe just a half hour of reading to help me get in the zone.”
I gave her a withering look.
> She grinned at me knowingly. “Okay fine. No reading until I’m done with this set of practice questions.” Seven seconds later when I had just returned to my notes, she spoke again. “It’s just...”
I looked up again. “It’s just what?”
“Why can’t I find a guy?”
I looked at her sideways. “We’re talking about this now? We’re supposed to be studying.”
“I know, but...” she shrugged and looked at the novel again.
“What is it with you?” I asked as I picked up the paperback and dropped it into her bottom desk drawer on top of a bunch of unused notebooks. On second thought... I pulled up the notebooks and put the novel underneath them.
“I know,” she said. “Just... I guess I’m desperate. All the other girls have guys and I’m like a disease.”
“You’re not,” I said, meaning it.
“Guys in romance novels are perfect.”
“Yes,” I said. “Because they are fiction.”
She shook her head. “No. I mean, yeah, they are. But guys like that have to exist. I want my happily ever after. That’s why I read them, you know? No matter what happens, there’s love at the end. In my own life? Meh, not so much.”
I got that. Especially as I thought about Brady and how I hadn’t seen him since that day at the restaurant. It was kind of eating me up inside to think of him being on a date with someone. Between that and how I knew he felt about me right now, I definitely didn’t see us having a happily ever after. Still, maybe it was too early to declare the game over.
“You’re only seventeen,” I said.
“I know. But I still want a guy. A perfect guy with abs and just the right amount of facial hair. And he’s got to be athletic and sweet. Maybe with a bit of an edge, though.”
“Not that you’ve thought about this at all,” I said, laughing.
She smiled. “Well, yeah, but he sounds good, right?”
I nodded. He sounded a lot like Brady, but I wasn’t about to say that out loud. “He sounds perfect,” I said.
“Too bad he doesn’t exist.”
“Not yet.” I said, trying to change the subject to something more motivating.
“What do you mean?”
“You can’t tell me you’ve forgotten our plan?”
Hitting the Target Page 16