I nod, trying not to show my shock. “That’s great. You should bring her to dinner on Saturday. Take a little heat off me.”
Brody barks a laugh. “No way. Saturday is all about you. And it’s too bad I won’t be there to see it. LA trip.” He lifts his hands and shrugs quickly.
I groan, rolling my neck in a circle and rubbing the back of it with one hand.
“Now it’s your turn. Talk,” Brody orders in his superior, I’m-the-older-brother voice.
Given what he said at dinner, I figure it best to start by explaining what happened with Kelsey. “It was some guy she met in Cancun on spring break. Unoriginal, I know,” I add when Brody raises his eyebrows. “She could’ve done better than that, right?”
Brody chuckles, and I can’t believe I can even make a joke of it now.
“Mom doesn’t know Kelsey cheated, and I want to keep it that way.”
“You don’t owe Kelsey that.”
“I know, but I don’t need to smear her name.”
Brody eyes me suspiciously. “You’re being really zen about your girlfriend of six months cheating on you.”
“Ex-girlfriend,” I clarify.
Brody waves his hand dismissively. “Enough with Kelsey. Let’s get to the good stuff. Who is your new girl?”
I halt. The words were flowing a minute ago, and now they’re jumbled in my head again.
“Stop thinking. Just say it. I can tell it’s serious.”
Running a thumb over my lip, I think of this afternoon with Ember, before I had to be home for dinner. She’d stayed at the library and read articles on the internet while I was at soccer practice. When I finished, she met me at my car and I drove her home. That was all the time we had.
In the car she confessed to having applied to six different colleges, just to see if she’d get in. She got in to five so far, all out of state. The last one is the same place I’m still waiting on.Stanford.
“You’re going to see a sixth letter of acceptance,” I’d stated confidently. Inside, I wanted to cry. How had I not thought that far ahead? Mere months separate us from fall. The possibility of us going to different colleges just doesn’t seem real.
Thinking about our conversation upsets me, so I open my mouth and tell Brody everything. Even about the lake and how I met her. He laughs hysterically when I tell him how annoyed she looked when I pulled her out.
“Here I was, thinking I was some knight in shining armor on a white horse, and she gave me this look that screamedbeat it.” I laugh too, and shake my head, remembering Ember in that soaking wet blue dress and the irritation in her eyes.
“Where is she going to college?” Brody asks.
“Well…” I pause, thinking of what Ember told me in my car this afternoon. “She’s been accepted at five places, but they’re out of state and a little out of her price range.” Technically, she said she’d never be able to afford anything but community college, and even then she’ll need financial assistance.
He gives me a bewildered look. “So why doesn’t she go somewhere in-state?”
Oh.This is how Ember must feel when I thoughtlessly assume she can do something without considering the money it takes to do it.
“Her family isn’t well-off.”
“Gotcha. Sorry.” He claps my back. “What are you doing about college?”
“Still waiting on Stanford. I’ll try-out for a walk-on if they don’t recruit me.” I shrug. I hate that idea. I know it’s my ego talking, but I can’t stand the idea of not being sought out. I don’t mind working hard, but being chosen is the best feeling in the world.
“Would Ember be able to go to Stanford? Scholarships, financial aid, all that?”
“Maybe. I’m not sure. It’s an awkward subject.”
He nods and falls quiet. I wish I could snap my fingers and make everything work out for us. Until talking to her this afternoon I hadn’t even thought about us going to different colleges… Or her not going at all. I’ve been too busy falling in love with her to dip my toe in the pool of reality. The idea of not being with her makes me sick inside.
“Ember’s better than the rest, Brody.” My voice sobers when I admit this.
