They pass me, and I keep climbing, back to our rock.Back to where I don’t have to see.I can hear Livvy screaming.I put on my headphones and hide beneath my towel.
Chapter Forty-One
Jonas was meant to graduatefrom Wetherford this year.
Livvy was supposed to attend Wetherford too.But she couldn’t bring herself to attend the school where she was meant to start with her twin brother.Not after he drowned nearly five years ago when he fell off the cliff.
Instead, she spent the past four years at Hollis High while living three houses down from me.For three of those years, she didn’t talk to me.Never even looked at me.
Not until this year, when her best friend started dating Danika.She chose to poke and prod me every chance she could.To remind me that I was not a good person.And that she hasn’t forgiven me for abandoning her.So, I had to forgive myself.
“You’re a terrible person,” Livvy’s reflection says to me while I’m reapplying lip gloss in the bathroom mirror.
“Sometimes,” I admit, facing her.“And so are you.”I take in her two-piece coral prom dress, showing a sliver of stomach and a lot of leg with the dramatic slit.“You look pretty.”
She scoffs and rolls her eyes.“You are the strangest person ever.You don’t deserve any of your friends.”
Livvy pushes past the girls entering the restroom.
Darcy washes her hands beside me.“I’m stranger than you.Guess that’s why we ottersdeserve each other.”
I laugh.“Forever misfits.”
“Aren’t they a band?”She tries to recall, drying her hands.
“I don’t know.But they should be.”I offer her my elbow, and she wraps her arm around mine.“Ready to go?”Darcy nods.
We walk out of the bathroom and through the lobby of the hotel to the rented Yukon idling outside.Jonathan leans out the driver’s window.“Just waiting on you.”He winks, and I smile back.
Darcy climbs into the back, where the rest of our friends have piled in, ready to head up to Lake George and spend Memorial weekend at our family’s lake house.Where, unfortunately, Gavin has been all day, supposedly getting it ready for summer.Still, three nights without parents is worth having to put up with him.
Graduation’s in three weeks.Just have to get through finals before it’ll feel real.We’ve promised to spend the rest of the time we have together taking way too many pictures and videos.Laughing until we have to pee.And being as absolutely weird as we choose.
The three-hour drive is loudwith laughter, stories and music.And goes by so fast; it’s hard to believe it’s nearly midnight by the time we arrive.No one’s been here with us before.After gawking at the size of it, there’s a mad rush to the nearest bathroom.
Gavin nearly gets run over when he opens the door.I shout directions to find each bathroom, laughing.
“I have a bathroom in my room,” I tell Jonathan, leading him up the stairs as he carries our bags.He’s still wearing his tux, minus the jacket and bow tie.Jonathan dressed up is a sight I will never get over.
I lift the silky skirt of my purple-and-teal holographic dress.It drew my eye the second I saw it on the stylist’s rack at the boutique.Mom took the girls and me to New York.They all squealed when I stepped out of the dressing room.Even my mother, which was something I never thought I’d witness in my life.
“Is this bigger than your actual house?”Jonathan asks as we climb the curved staircase to the second floor.
“I… don’t know,” I admit.“Maybe?”
We always have a house full of guests whenever we stay here.Sometimes, it doesn’t feel big enough to escape everyone.
“This is my room,” I announce, flipping on the light and kicking off my flip-flops.My heels are still in the truck.Jonathan sets the bags down and closes the door.
“I don’t think so,” Gavin hollers, pushing it open before Jonathan can shut it completely.“You can stay in one of the guest rooms, Reeves.”
“Gavin, knock it off,” I say with a roll of my eyes.“He’s staying in here.Now leave.”
“If you get my sister pregnant,” Gavin warns Jonathan.
“Omigod, stop.I’m on birth control!”I huff and push my brother out of the doorway.“Mom put me on it, like, two months ago!”I shut the door in his face and lock it.
Jonathan’s stunned.
