Prologue
June
Four Weeks Ago
The credits roll onA Walk to Remember,and I feel like my heart has been ripped from my chest. How the heck do you end a movie without giving the main characters a happily ever after?
I sniffle. That’s just wrong.
“Are you crying again?” Stella, my best friend in the whole wide world whispers as she playfully nudges my shoulder with hers.
Smiling a watery smile, I knuckle the moisture under my eyes carefully so as not to completely ruin my mascara. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
She snorts. “Uh, huh.”
My lips twitch. Stells and I have been friends since the ninth grade. Like me, her home life was… different. Where I had a mother who was crazy and often forgot she had a kid at all,her parents died in a tragic car accident. We’d bonded over our childhood trauma and have been inseparable ever since.
“Whatever.” I stick my tongue out at her. I’m a cryer. Who can blame me, though? Mandy Moore dies for crying out loud. That’s sad! I feel the flutter in my chest again. I couldn’t even imagine finding the other half of my soul, only to lose them almost as soon as I found them. Heartbreaking.
Madison leans over from my other side, her thick silver and pink hair sliding into her face. “Sweets, you literally ugly cried through the last twenty minutes.” She giggles, digging her fingers in the thick strands and dragging them over her shoulder.
I roll my eyes. “I did not,” I protest weakly, hearing the stuffiness in my voice.
Oh, who am I trying to kid? The truth is, I’m a sad sack when it comes to movies where the couple’s happily ever after didn’t end with them getting a long life of love and happiness. Actually, now that I think about it, I cry even when the main characters DO get their happily ever after.
“I heard you sniffling from here, babes,” Brooklyn, another part of our Girl Gang, says as she stretches her arms over her violet head and yawns.
“Okay, okay. So I’m a crybaby.” I wave a hand out. “Sue me.”
Brooklyn laughs as she climbs to her feet. “We love you,” she says absentmindedly as she pulls her phone out of the pocket of her Pretty Kitties hoodie, checks the time, then shoves it back. “Tears, snot, and all,” she finishes, smiling.
Snot? I wrinkle my nose. Eww. That’s just yuck.
“Right?” Leslie laughs, agreeing with Brookie.
Twisting in my seat, I scoff, smiling. She doesn’t have any room to talk. “I heard you sniffling too, ma’am!”
Eyes twinkling, she shrugs her shoulders like she doesn’t have a clue what I’m talking about.
Giggling, I gather my knockoff Louisy bag that I got for a steal in Destin and the half-empty buttered popcorn tub, and file out behind the Girl Gang.
“Alright, ladies.” I smile. “Who’s ready to go live?” I unzip my bag, pull out my iPhone, and open the Tokker app.
“Wait! Let me fix my hair.” Madison runs her hands through her hair that always looks like she’s ready to audition for a shampoo commercial. “Okay.”
I hit the green button to go live and within seconds people are joining the stream. The little counter in the corner climbs rapidly. Fifty, a hundred, two hundred.
“Hey, loves!” I say into the camera, giving my biggest and brightest smile. “I’m just leaving Midnight Movie Madness with the Girl Gang!” My followers are used to getting an update about Movie Madness. “Tonight we sawA Walk to Rememberand13 Going on 30.They were so freaking good!”
My girls appear over my shoulder, all smiling faces and fingers up in peace signs as they squeeze into the frame.
“That was A-Maze-A-Zing!” Stella chirps, making me laugh when she uses my favoriteBenchwarmersquote.
“So dang good,” Madison agrees.
“Top fifty, for sure,” Leslie adds, sleepily.
Brooklyn gives two thumbs up before yawning and covering her mouth with her hand.
