Unlike her, I don’t carefully unwrap the package. I slide a finger under the seam and rip, pulling the whole of the wrapping paper off in two seconds flat.
“No fucking way,” I say, seeing a familiar gold embossing on the front of the box.
We both take the lids off at the same time, Kennedy’s excitement palpable next to me. Inside I find a gold chain, chunkier than the one I got Kennedy, with a small gold K charm nestled in black velvet.
She pulls hers out and holds it in the air, examining it. It's dainty, a much daintier gold chain than the one she got me. But instead of a letter charm, hers has a small flat gold heart that dangles with K+W hand stamped into the back of it.
She hands me the chain before standing up, facing away, lifting her hair up with both hands. “Put it on me!” She glances back, smirking, “Please?”
It takes me a few tries to get the tiny clasp open, but I eventually latch it around her neck, kissing the sliver of exposed skin there. “How’s it look?” She asks, lifting her chin and turning her head from side to side.
“Beautiful.”
She takes the chain she got me from the box and turns me around with hands on my shoulders. She latches it much faster than I was able to, smiling huge when I spin around to face her. “It looks so good on you!” She tucks it into the collar of my shirts, “Wait, this is so sexy on you. You definitely have a muscular enough neck to pull a chain off.” She throws that out there like it's the most obvious thing in the world. But it makes my stomach clench with butterflies. “I love it. Do you love it?”
I almost say I loveyou,but stop myself, feeling like I’m going to overwhelm her after the morning we had.
While she puts on her winter coat, boots, helmet and goggles, I make us two ham and cheese sandwiches and put them in my backpack.
We spend the next several hours driving around the property, zipping in and out of trails my dad and I have made over the years. We stop at a mini frozen waterfall, leaning against the machine to eat our sandwiches. “Did you happen to pack any drinks?”
“Unfortunately, no.”
She shakes her head. “I can’t believe you’re getting dementia too.” She takes a few steps, “Just remember, you made me do this, old man, I'm about to die of dehydration becuaseof your dementia.” Then she dives face first into a giant pile of powdery snow, shocking the hell out of me. When she stands back up, snow is embedded into her eyebrows and eyelashes, her nose and cheeks are red and blotchy. Snow is packed into her mouth, but she’s belly laughing. “That was so much funnier and more successful in my head.”
I stare at her, thinking about how I’d be happy if this is what the rest of my life looks like.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Kennedy
Istomp off the snow from my boots before ridding myself of the one million layers I’m currently wearing. I’m starving, the sun is already getting ready to set despite it only being 4:45 and Miranda and I have some things we need to discuss. Namely the fact that she and Liam are together, and based on what Will and I have been piecing together today, for at least as long as us, if not longer.
I don’t knock before I enter her room and I find her on facetime with none other than Liam himself. Miranda starts as I barge in, letting out a comical yelp. I lean over her shoulder, flashing a saccharine grin into the camera. “Hi, Liam, I need to talk to my best friend now. You understand, right?” He looks scared. Good, the more I think about it, the more upset I am about this whole thing. Miranda and Liam exchange goodbyes before she closes her phone.
I hop onto her bed and level her with a glare. “Spill,” I say, arms crossed over my chest, waiting for her to explain. “How could you not tellmeabout him? Everyone else, I can understand. But how could you not tell me?”
“Hang on, why are you mad? You did the same thing.”
“It's not the same and you know it.”
“Yes it is, Kennedy.”
“No, it's not! Theonlyreason I didn’t tell you was because I didn’t want to destroy my most important friendship over something casual. I’ve spent the last four months completely bent out of shape with guilt and anxiety that I was going to have to choose between you or Will. Or that it’d all blow up in my face and I would lose both of you as friends forever. And Istilltold you. I might not have told you the first time we kissed, but you don’t know the agony I was in, beating myself up about the fact that by dating your brother I was going to lose you as my best friend and it turns out you knew the whole time!” I’m standing up now, chest heaving with indignation.
She looks at me, eyes wide as I keep going. “And you let me carry on, sick with anxiety over losing you. Dating Liam is not at all the same thing. You were never going to have to choose between your boyfriend and best friend. Or even your boyfriend and your brother. Even if Will was mad at you, you knew he’d eventually come around. Come on, Miranda, you know it's not the same.”
She plucks at the comforter in front of her, pulling at the pilling of the fabric. “Okay you’re right.” I sit back down on the bed, feeling much better now that I’ve got everything off my chest. “I should have told you. At first I didn’t say anything because I was a little embarrassed. You know how Liam is.” I hate to admit that does make a little sense to me. Liam is sweet, and super good looking, but he’s also extremely nerdy. He’s into anime and Pokemon and video games, all things I’d never ina million years associate with Miranda. She continues, “I was going to tell you around the time you and Will became a thing. But then I felt like if I told you, you’d tell Will, and I don’t know…I just didn’t.”
I soften significantly. It's hard to stay mad at her when I completely understand where she’s coming from. “I get not wanting Will to know until it was serious. But I would have kept your secret, Miranda. When have I ever not kept a secret?”
“I know, I know,” she says, tossing an arm over her eyes. After a few seconds she drops her arm, turning her head in my direction with a small grin, it's really weird you’re Will’s girlfriend.”
I lay down on the pillows facing her like we’re 13 and I’m sleeping over. “I know, it’s so weird.” I swallow, “You’re not mad?”
She takes a second to compose her thoughts, lips twisting to one side of her face before she speaks. “I was a little at first. More disturbed than mad honestly. But I got over it pretty quickly. My dad’s right, ya know, everyone’s seen this coming for a long time. I’m talking, like, years, Ken.”
I don’t know why but that causes my cheeks to heat. I snuggle into the bed a little deeper, “Okay, tell me about you and Liam please. How did this happen? I need the details because I never saw this coming.Liam?”
