“Then promise now,” she commanded. “Promise you’ll be here.”
I rolled my eyes. “Why do you want me back here so bad? So you can sic Cory Wheeler on me again? You don’t need me. You have Davis.”
“I do so need you, even if you are a terrible best friend. Boyfriends aren’t the same as best friends and you know it. Pretty soon we’ll be in college, you know. What if we go to different schools? What then?” Taylor glared at me, her eyes accusing.
“Okay, okay. I promise.” Taylor still had her heart set on us going to the same school, the way we’d always said we would.
She held out her hand to me and we hooked pinkies.
“Is that what you’re wearing?” Taylor asked me suddenly.
Looking down at my gray camisole, I said, “Well, yeah.”
She shook her head so fast her blond hair swished all around. “Is that what you’re wearing to see Conradfor the first time?”
“This isn’t a date I’m going on, Taylor.”
“When you see an ex, you have to look better than you’ve ever looked. It’s, like, the first rule of breakups. You have to make him think, ‘Damn, I missed out onthat?’ It’s the only way.”
I hadn’t thought of that. “I don’t care what he thinks,” I told her.
She was already rifling through my overnight bag. “All you have in here is underwear and a T-shirt. And this old tanktop. Ugh. I hate this tank top. It needs to be officially retired.”
“Quit it,” I said. “Don’t go through my stuff.”
Taylor leaped up, her face all glowy and excited. “Oh, please let me pack for you, Belly! Please, it would make me so happy.”
“No,” I said, as firmly as I could. With Taylor, you had to be firm. “I’ll probably be back tomorrow. I don’t need anything else.”
Taylor ignored me and disappeared into her walk-in closet.
My phone rang then, and it was Jeremiah. Before I answered it, I said, “I’m serious, Tay.”
“Don’t worry, I’ve got it all covered. Just think of me as your fairy godmother,” she said from inside the closet.
I popped open my phone. “Hey,” I said. “Where are you?”
“I’m pretty close. About an hour away. Are you at Taylor’s?”
“Yeah,” I said. “Do you need me to give you the directions again?”
“No, I’ve got it.” He paused, and for a second I thought he’d already hung up. Then he said, “Thanks for doing this.”
“Come on,” I said.
I thought about saying something else, like how he was one of my best friends and how part of me was almost glad to have a reason to see him again. It just wouldn’t be summer without Beck’s boys.
But I couldn’t get the words to sound right in my head, and before I could figure them out, he hung up.
When Taylor finally emerged from the closet, she was zipping up my bag. “All set,” she said, dimpling.
“Taylor—” I tried to grab the bag from her.
“No, just wait until you get wherever you’re going. You’ll thank me,” she said. “I wasverygenerous, even though you’re totally deserting me.”
I ignored the last bit and said, “Thanks, Tay.”
“You’re welcome,” she said, checking out her hair in her bureau mirror. “See how much you need me?” Taylor faced me, her hands on her hips. “How are you guys even planning on finding Conrad, anyway? For all you know, he’s under a bridge somewhere.”
