by K. A. Linde
She knocked and waited for two seconds for someone to answer the door. When no one did, she let herself inside. “Ian!” she called.
Feet pounded the floor upstairs and then came down the giant winding staircase at the front of the house. Ian appeared a second later with a huge grin on his face. “Trihn! You guys made it!”
He jumped the last three steps and pulled her into a giant hug. She wrapped her arms around his neck and squeezed him a little bit tighter. It had been forever since she saw him. Normally, their parents would vacation in Aspen during the winter or some kind of Caribbean vacation destination during the spring, but Trihn had been occupied with modeling during the Aspen trip and his parents had been too busy for an island vacation last spring.
“It’s so good to see you,” she told him honestly before pulling back.
Ian was like a brother to her. They had known each other practically their whole lives. Having someone always around who was her age had probably been one of the reasons she hadn’t cared about bringing a friend along on vacation with her. She always had one. The thought made her feel equal parts sad that Preston couldn’t be here and happy that at least she wouldn’t be bored.
“It’s great to see you, too. Tell me everything I’ve missed.”
He ushered her through the foyer, past the enormous kitchen, and out the back door to a massive deck that looked out across the Olympic-size pool and to the ocean beyond. Papers were laid out on a table, and Ian’s MacBook Pro along with an assortment of odds and ends held them down from blowing away in the breeze.
“What are you working on, genius?” she joked, peering down at the screen.
He laughed. “Things your tiny brain could never comprehend.”
“Just because my brain doesn’t think in zeros and ones does not make it tiny!” she said, swatting at his arm.
“My brain doesn’t think in terms of fashion though.”
“Clearly.”
“Hey, hey!”
“You’ve been wearing the same outfits since you were knee-high. I mean, did you walk out of Martha’s Vineyard or something?”
Ian’s ears turned bright pink at her comment, and she couldn’t help but laugh. As soon as he sat down, she fell into the seat next to his and kicked her feet up onto his lap. Teasing Ian was practically an art form as far as she was concerned.
“I’m just surprised you’re not wearing anything studded today,” he observed.
“Are you sure?” she asked with a wink.
Now, his entire face was beet-red.
She cackled at his reaction. “I’m just kidding!”
“I know.”
She shook her head. After all this time, he still got so embarrassed around her.
“Are you excited for Columbia?”
“Very. In two weeks, I’ll be in the city for good.”
Ian’s parents had relegated themselves to a suburb when he entered middle school. As much as they’d wanted to send him to a private school in the city, they’d also wanted him to have a real childhood, whatever that meant.
To them, it meant, not in the city.
To Trihn, that sounded ridiculous.
Trihn and Ian eased into a conversation like no time had passed at all, and after an hour, she had let her worries from the city slide away. Preston would be there when she got back, and until then, she needed to enjoy her last summer before college started.
“Hello, Trihn, dear,” Ian’s mother, Betty, said, stepping out onto the deck. She wore a sleek white dress and heels. Her hair was a perfect slicked-back bun, and her makeup was flawless.
“Hello, Mrs. Peterson,” Trihn said with a smile.
“Your mother called and asked for you to return home.”
Trihn nodded and stood. “I’ll check you later, Ian. Want to come over for dinner? Mom actually got Lydia to go to the store, so who knows what it will be? But you know my mom is a fantastic cook.”
“Sounds good. I’ll see you then.”
“Bye, Mrs. Peterson!” she called before traipsing back through the house and out the door.
Trihn jogged across the lawn with a giant smile on her face. Her hair blew out behind her in the breeze, and she took a deep breath. This felt good and right.
When Trihn rounded the corner, she saw Lydia’s car parked in the garage. That must be why her mom had wanted Trihn to come home—time to meet the new boyfriend, the new flavor of the week. Trihn really wasn’t looking forward to pretending for a person who wouldn’t be around long past this vacation, but she would put on a good face for her sister.
As she started toward the house, she noticed a figure walking out of the garage with a plastic bag dangling from his arm.
Trihn froze. She was seeing things, daydreaming all over again.
Then, he took another step forward.
She would recognize that gait anywhere.
Preston.
“Oh my God!” Trihn cried.
Then, she was running. Her feet carried her faster than she had ever known they could, heading straight toward him.
He’s here after all! It must have just been an act, one big front, so he could surprise me like this so completely.
She never would have guessed in a million years that he would be able to pull this off, but it had worked. Now, he was here, and they could be together.
“You’re here!” she said as she approached him.
“Preston!” Lydia called from the door. “Don’t forget to grab the champagne out of the side door. You know how I like my bubbly!”
Trihn skidded to a halt right in front of Preston, her heart hammering in her chest. She looked in disbelief between the open door and Preston’s face. How did Lydia know Preston? And how could he know what kind of drinks she liked? He had just gotten here to surprise her.
Then, Trihn really looked into those blue eyes, and her stomach dropped out of her body.
“No,” she whispered.
Her world disintegrated before her eyes.
He wasn’t here for Trihn.
He was here for her.
“Coming, babe,” Preston called back to Lydia, his face stretching into a slow painful smile.
“DID YOU HEAR ME?” LYDIA ASKED.
She leaned her body out the door. Her eyes caught on Preston, and she had the biggest smile Trihn had ever seen on her sister’s face. Then, she seemed to notice Trihn standing there.
“Trihn! There you are!” Lydia burst out of the house and rushed to her. “Mom said you were visiting Ian. Sorry, I had her call you back, but I was so excited for you to meet my boyfriend! This is Preston. Preston, this is my little sister, Trihn.”
Trihn swallowed the horror on her face. It was hard to reel in, but somehow, she locked away the parts of her that had shattered into a million pieces, so she could face her sister. This wasn’t the way that Lydia needed to find out about Preston. Trihn wasn’t even sure she would be able to form words to explain what had happened anyway. In fact, she was a little worried about the use of words in general.
“Nice to meet you,” Preston said. He extended his hand out to her, as if this were really the first fucking time they were meeting, as if he honestly expected her to fucking touch him after this.
“Is it?” she growled out.
“I’ve heard so much about you,” he retorted, dropping his hand. “It’s nice to finally put a face to the name.”
“Funny. Lydia hasn’t said a word about you.”
“Trihn! Geez, calm down.”
Trihn was the furthest thing from calm. She was ready to rip his fucking head off. There was no explanation for this. None. Zero. Zip. Zilch. There was only anger and fury and pain. Great lancing pain was slicing through every limb in her body and piercing her with a fiery hot poker.
Lydia reached for Preston and drew him closer to her. “So sorry,” Lydia whispered so soft that Trihn almost didn’t hear her.
“It’s all right,” Preston said. He squeezed her hand.
Trihn tightly
clenched her jaw and tried to hold back the rage boiling under the surface.
Half of her wanted to lay into him about the bullshit in front of her, and the other half wanted to run as fast and as far as she could to get away from the nightmare before her eyes.
“You’re right,” Trihn said. “No reason for me to be irritated that you’re bringing random guys on vacation with your family. You always bring total strangers with you.”
Preston arched his eyebrow in question. But she didn’t know what he was asking.
“God! What’s with you?” Lydia asked. “She’s not normally like this, Preston.”
“Yeah, I’m not. This behavior is completely out of character. Normally, I’m all rainbows and sunshine,” she said dramatically. She crossed her arms over her chest to close herself off from them.
“I can see that,” Preston said with that goddamn chuckle.
He was actually fucking amused by her behavior. She was going to rip him apart.
“Just go inside with that,” Lydia told Preston. “I need a minute alone with my sister.”
“All right, babe,” he said, as if whatever was about to happen between Lydia and Trihn meant nothing to him. As if…he hadn’t called Trihn babe before.
Trihn glared at his back as he departed. How dare he call Lydia babe! How dare he be dating my sister! How dare he stand there as if he didn’t give a shit that this was killing me! How dare that motherfucking asshole!
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Lydia exploded. She grabbed Trihn’s arm and yanked her sister farther away from the door, so she could spout venom without being heard by her precious flavor of the week.
“What’s wrong with me?” Trihn cried. She wrenched out of her sister’s grip. She didn’t give a shit who heard them. “What’s wrong with you, bringing a guy you just met on our fucking family vacation?”
“You have no idea what you’re talking about! Preston and I have been dating all summer!”
“What?” Trihn sputtered, stumbling backward, as if she had been slapped.
“Yeah! We’re in the same program at NYU to receive credit for our summer internships. We met months ago at the orientation meeting.”
All the air whooshed out of Trihn’s lungs as realization hit her. This wasn’t some fling. This wasn’t someone who Lydia had been fooling around with and invited on vacation on a whim. She was actually seriously dating Preston. They had been dating for several months. Fucking hell! They had been dating even longer than Trihn had known Preston—a month longer, if memory served, since that was when Lydia had started her photography internship.
“All summer?” Trihn asked, her voice sounding small and distant due to the ringing in her ears.
“Yes,” Lydia snapped. “And if you get off your high horse and give him a chance, you might even like him instead of judging me and the guys I bring home!” She shook her head and then started to head back inside.
Trihn didn’t like Preston. She was madly in love with him. And all of this was so, so wrong.
“Lydia, wait!” Trihn called before Lydia opened the door.
“What?” Lydia asked. Her anger dissipated as quickly as it had come. It always did with Lydia. She always won, and her life was perfect. What reason would she have for holding on to anger?
“I don’t think this is such a good idea,” Trihn said. She tried to find the words to warn her sister without coming right out and saying it. “What do you even know about this guy?”
Lydia sighed heavily, pushing forward into the house again without an answer.
Trihn anxiously followed behind her. “Lydia, I’m serious!”
“Look, just because your boyfriend couldn’t come with you doesn’t mean you can question mine. You guys have only been dating for a short while, too, right?” Lydia asked.
Lydia’s words carried down the hall, and their mother stuck her head through the doorway. “Is everything all right, girls?”
Trihn looked up to see her mother, her father, and Preston staring at them. She gritted her teeth but didn’t look away. She was ready to explode at any second.
“Yes, we’re fine,” Lydia said. She bounced from one foot to the other with a giant grin. “I was just asking about Trihn’s boyfriend.”
Preston’s eyes burned into her, and when she met that look, she could see the challenge within. He was wondering if she was going to rat him out. She should. She wanted to. She wanted to tell everyone what a dirty fucking liar he was, but she also didn’t want to ruin everyone’s vacation and have all the questions flying at her about what the fuck had happened.
Because she didn’t even know what had happened. How could any of this have happened to me? She was used to being around players like that. She was used to model assholes. God, hadn’t I given my virginity to one of those assholes? Another fucking asshole to add to the list.
Her face burned red at the thought. Everything seemed to fall into place at once—the phone calls when she had been over at Preston’s place, him not responding to her late at night, him always having to work. She hadn’t been looking for the signs because she felt safe with him, right with him. But she hadn’t been safe at all, and here was the proof right before her eyes.
She didn’t even know which way was up or down. She loved Preston. She wasn’t ready for this to be over, but at the same time…she hated him, so viciously. She loved him as much as she hated him.
“So, tell us about him. Where is your boyfriend, Trihn?” Lydia asked.
“Yeah,” Trihn murmured, ignoring her question. “Past tense.”
“Past tense?” Lydia asked, confused.
“Yes. Past tense boyfriend.”
As Lydia seemed to realize what Trihn had said, her face fell. “You guys aren’t together anymore?”
“We broke up,” she choked out. Her vision blurred as she stared at Preston. “He wasn’t the guy that I thought he was.”
“Oh, Trihn,” Lydia said.
She placed her hand on Trihn’s shoulders, and Trihn collapsed at her sympathy.
“I don’t want to talk about it.” She shrugged Lydia’s arm away from her. “I’m going to call Renée. Just…give me some privacy.”
Then, she barreled down the hallway, leaving the nightmare awaiting her behind. She needed to talk this out with someone. She needed to figure out what the hell to do about all of this.
Her feet carried her past the back deck, out to the trail to the beach, and all the way until her feet sank into the sand. She pulled her phone out and pressed the number for Renée as she hurried down the beach to the small cove where she and Ian had hidden away to escape the world when they were kids.
“You made it!” Renée said when she answered.
As soon as Trihn heard her best friend’s voice, she burst into tears. Everything that she had been holding in rushed out of her. She was hiccuping over the sobs.
“Trihn! What’s wrong? Are you okay? What happened? Oh my God, stop crying. Tell me what’s going on!”
“Preston,” she muttered through the tears.
“What about him?”
“He’s here.”
“What? Why?”
“He’s…dating…Lydia.”
There was silence on the other end.
“That motherfucker.”
Trihn laughed hoarsely through the tears. “I know.”
“How did this happen? Trihn, calm down. Breathe for me, hooker. You can’t fall apart. You need to just breathe.”
Trihn listened to her words and tried to follow her advice. In through my nose, out through my mouth. She closed her eyes and shut out everything, except for the sound of Renée’s voice and the crash of the waves in the distance.
“Okay. Now, tell me everything.”
So, Trihn spilled the whole sordid story of walking onto the property to find out that Lydia and Preston were together. She still couldn’t quite believe that this was happening.
“So…have you talked to either of them about this?” Renée ask
ed.
“No. It just happened. I was going to say something to Lydia, and then the words got stuck in my mouth. I was so shocked.”
“I think you need to talk to Lydia,” Renée said.
“What? Are you crazy? That is the last thing I need to do.”
“I’m not crazy, Trihn. You’re dating your sister’s boyfriend! You need to talk to her.”
Trihn covered her face with her free hand. “I don’t know what to say. They started dating at the beginning of the summer. I can’t even remember if I mentioned Lydia or anything to him. I seriously can’t remember anything, except that I love him and I invited him here and he couldn’t come because of work. Now, he’s here with her!”
“What a douche bag!” Renée sighed. “Do you need me to come get you? I can borrow Matthews’s car and drive out there.”
Trihn swiped the tears off her face. Black mascara came off, and she didn’t even want to know what she looked like. “I’m not going to make you drive all the way out here. And what would I even tell my parents? And Lydia…”
“Okay, I see your point,” Renée conceded. “Lydia goes through men like most people go through socks. The likelihood that she’s going to ditch him in a couple of weeks is really, really high.”
“That doesn’t make me feel any better!” Trihn cried into the phone.
“I know! But you’re moving in with Lydia in three weeks. Three weeks,” she repeated. “Just imagine that living situation if she finds out.”
“Imagine the living situation if they stay together!”
“But what’s the chance of that?” Renée asked.
“I don’t know. All I know is that I cannot go back in there and look at them together. I know that he cheated on me and that he’s cheating on her and that I hate him. But…I also thought I loved him. And if I tell Lydia what happened, then it will really be over with Preston.”
Renée groaned. Trihn could practically hear her thoughts through the line.
Trihn didn’t want to hear that it was over. She knew it was. How could it ever be fixed after this? But she wasn’t ready for that.