“I thought you liked me being all romantic and shit.”
“I like you,” I told him, plain and simple. “So…how about we head back home and I show you just how much?”
“Now that,” he said, kissing me once more, “sounds like something I can’t pass up.”
* * *
• • •
The next day, I wasn’t working until the dinner shift. Noah had promised Amanda he’d meet her for breakfast, but he lingered in bed a little longer than he should’ve to cuddle and make out with me. I’d fallen back to sleep after he left, the stress of the past few days catching up to me all of a sudden. Judging by the glaring sunlight that poured into the room even though the blinds were shut, it had to be almost lunchtime by the time I finally woke up again and dragged myself out of bed.
I didn’t even bother to wash my face or clean my teeth before stumbling out to the lounge. Lee was lying on the couch, playing a game.
“Look who decided to join the land of the living,” he said. “Nice hair.”
I patted it, feeling how tangled and messy it was, lifting a good couple of inches away from my scalp. Wow, I must’ve been a great sight for Noah to wake up to this morning.
Ignoring Lee’s comment, I fixed myself a coffee and looked around. It felt as though I’d hardly been here the last few days—I wasn’t sure when the beach house had turned into such a junkyard. Pizza boxes were stacked up by the window. Empty mugs and cups were dotted around. Clothes I could only assume were dirty littered the floor.
It surprised me. Rachel was pretty uptight about us keeping things clean. Had she not been around much the last few days, too? Had she decided to give up?
Or, more likely, had Lee managed to turn this place into such a mess just this morning alone?
“You wanna maybe tidy up in here?” I asked him.
“Okay, Mom. I’m kinda busy right now.”
“I’m serious, Lee. I thought your parents said they have buyers coming this afternoon? And that guy’s meant to be coming to measure for new flooring…”
“He can measure around some mess.”
“Lee!”
“Fine,” he grumbled, pausing the game and tossing aside the controller. He surveyed the room for a second before starting to gather up trash. “And the buyers canceled just this morning. For the record.”
“What? But that’s…that’s, like, the eighth time people have canceled viewing this place.”
“Guess they keep changing their minds.”
“Lee, are you…Have you…”
“Careful, Shelly. You know if you finish that question, you’re gonna get an honest answer.”
I sighed, throwing up my hands and going back to pouring my coffee. “You know what, you’re right. I’d rather stick to plausible deniability, thanks.”
“Good choice.” He threw me a smile. “So what time do you want to leave tomorrow?”
“What?”
“Tomorrow,” he said again, pausing to look at me. The enthusiasm froze on his face, his features stiffening. The hopeful lilt in his voice faltered only slightly as he chuckled and said, “You know. Tomorrow. Our trip to Berkeley?”
Oh, fuck.
“Elle?”
I was the biggest asshole in the world. I couldn’t believe I’d forgotten all about the trip this weekend. We’d had it planned for ages now, and here I’d been thinking I had a Saturday clear of bucket-list plans. I hadn’t even questioned it. I’d just sort of assumed Lee had plans with Rachel or something.
Wrong.
He had plans with me. Big plans. Huge plans.
The absolute most monumental plans of the entire summer.
“Seriously?” he cried, reading me way too easily.
“I’m sorry! I don’t know how I forgot about it. I really don’t, Lee. And I’ve made plans with Noah….We have reservations at some fancy restaurant your mom recommended, and we were gonna head out to that chocolate shop he took me to last year for my birthday.”
“Of course you have plans with Noah,” he said dryly. He dropped his pile in the garbage and unearthed a laundry basket from under a bunch of throw pillows and started gathering up the clothes instead, snatching them up one at a time.
I gulped, seeing Lee’s face all scrunched up. He was angry, sure, but it was worse than that—he was plain old upset. I really couldn’t cope if he started to cry.
I’d thought forgetting about eighties mini golf had been shitty of me, but this…this really took the biscuit.
“Noah,” he snapped, “who you’re gonna see, like, literally all the time next year. Noah, who you can hang out with any other day aside from tomorrow. It’s just really…It’s real fucking rich, you know, Elle? You gave me shit for applying to Brown because of Rachel and then you went and did the exact same thing, only worse, because you kept your Harvard application secret from me.”
“Lee—”
“I honestly thought we were done with all that after I found out about you dating Noah behind my back. But, nope, you did it again. And you’re doing it again now.”
Here it is, I thought. The anger that had been simmering away since I’d told him about Harvard, that he’d been working so hard to crush down and ignore in favor of an epic, fun summer.
“I’m sorry,” I told him again. “Lee, I am, but I’ve…It’s not like that. I’m not sneaking around or anything. I just made a mistake this weekend…and with mini golf. I messed up, okay? But we talked about college. You said—”
“I know what I said!” Lee erupted, tossing the laundry basket down now. It spilled onto its side. “I’m super proud of you, Elle, but I’m allowed to be pissed off, too, okay? Excuse me for being upset that our plans for college have gone to shit so you can live it up in Boston with your boyfriend.”
He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. My hands were trembling now, but all I could do was wait, let him say his piece.
“I know you’re trying to make up for it with the bucket list, Shelly, and I appreciate that, but…it’s not…I hate that it feels like a last-ditch effort to rescue our friendship, okay?”
“Whoa, hold on. Since when did our friendship need rescuing?”
“Since you went on this manic one-woman mission to give us the best last summer ever before we start college!”