I lifted a brow. “That’s going to be gone when I get back, right?”
Another salute and a giggle. Her lips pulled another small bite off the end of her spoon.
I turned, cut back through the kitchen and high-tailed it for her room. As soon as I was inside, I locked the door, flipped on a lamp, and dialed Brooklyn, praying she was a night owl.
“What up, Déjà Blue?” She answered in her apathetic, flat tone.
“Ha. Ha. Amnesia is long gone. You can quit with the memory jokes.”
She clicked her tongue. “Nope. When you embarrassed Anna at that press conference I came up with a long list of nicknames to get under your skin. You think I’m wasting all that brain power? It’s going to take me years to use them all.”
I rolled my eyes and flopped onto the end of Anna’s bed. “What’s wrong with Anna?”
“Oh. You mean the whole holocaust victim look she’s got going on?”
“Yes. Is she stressed about school? Because she says she’s stressed about school but I don’t buy it. She’s always been an excellent student and she’s wicked smart. Did something happen that she’s not telling me about?” Something dropped onto my knee, making me jump. For a second I thought Anna had popped the lock and caught me. But it was just her basset hound, Huckleberry, laying his chin on my leg. He must’ve been asleep on her pillow and I hadn’t noticed. I scruffed him on the head and he snuggled in, getting comfy.
“You know, Blue’s No Clues, it’s funny how you think this has everything to do with school or food and nothing to do with you.”
I ignored the nickname. I had bigger problems than Brooklyn’s need to poke at my pride. “Lay it on me, Brook. Tell me all the waysI’m making Anna miserable.”
I swear I heard her shrug. “It’s just one really. And it’s the fact that you actually bought her little ‘I’m so excited to downgrade my entire life’s plan and give up my lifelong dream so that my famous football player boyfriend can have the life he’s always dreamed of’ charade.”
I threw my hand out, my face hot. “But she texted me and swore that she was excited about it. She used like ten exclamation points.”
“Yes. Shetextedyou. Purposely. So you couldn’t see her face or hear her voice,” she said flatly, with a yawn at the tail end. “In actuality, she sobbed the entire time you were having that conversation. And of course she used exclamation points. She had to sell it.”
Brooklyn could’ve kneed me in my manhood and it would’ve been less of a blow. Because Ihadfallen for it. Completely. Or maybe I’d wanted to fall for it? Either way, I hadn’t suspected a thing.
Huckleberry’s nose nudged my hand when I stopped rubbing his head. “So you’re saying she, in fact, does not want to be a vet tech?”
“Correct. She in fact, has absolutely no desire to give up all her hopes and dreams to have an actual vet boss her around, make her clean up all the cat pee, riskherhand every time a psycho dog needs to be muzzled, and hand him all the scalpels during surgery, all while he takes home a fat paycheck and she gets paid little more than minimum wage. Especially while you run around in your tight little football pants for all the women of America to fawn over and grown men make you the center of their every conversation, as you make enough money to feed a small third-world country for a year.”
Another kick to the ego nuts. I squeezed my eyes shut. “I’m an idiot.”
“You really are.” She sighed. “But you’re the idiot that my best friend loves. So I’m gonna help you out. Are you ready for what I’m about to say?”
I wasn’t. Because whatever it was, it was going to hurt. Just like the rest of this conversation. “Yes. Let me have it.”
“You gotta let her go, Scarecrow.” It took a second for me to getThe Wizard of Oz“If I only had a brain” reference. And two more to swallow what she was saying. “She will die on this hill trying to hold onto you. Give up everything she’s ever wanted, stay a virgin to make her family happy, and get married at the redneck age of nineteen to make you happy. She will follow you here, there, and everywhere having your babies and never getting the title of Dr. in front of her name.” She took a beat, for which I was grateful. Her words were the metaphorical equivalent to being beaten up by a street gang. Knee to the groin, kick to the gut, and a baseball bat to the head, all at the same time, repeatedly until you vomit and pass out. Or die. “Comprende, Groundhog Day?”
“But I love her?” I croaked.
“Do you?” She huffed. “Because that sounds like the opposite of love to me.”
I sat there, stunned, unable to speak. I loved Anna…
Didn’t I?
Her tongue clicked. “‘Love is patient. Love is kind. It does not boast. It isn’t proud.’ Let me jump ahead. ‘It does not dishonor others. It is notself-seeking?—’”
“Okay. I get it.” I scrubbed a hand over my face, sick to my very soul. “I didn’t know you were religious. Isn’t that a scripture?”
“I went with Anna to bible school every summer. What are you gonna do, Blue?”
Just like that. Not even a pause between sentences.
I sat there for a second, Huckleberry’s drool seeping through my jeans, trying to figure out the answer Brooklyn expected from me.
