“I know, I just…I don’t know if I could handle it,” Calum muttered, his wide shoulders heaving a sigh. “I didn’t like hearing her talk about you—I know that much.”
“Same here,” I told him. “But that was when we were competing for her.”
He shot me a look. “I was never competing.”
I had to stop myself from rolling my eyes. “You know what I meant though. If we did this, it would be different. We’d both see her, both date her. We’d both be there for her when she needed us.” I pictured her expression, how sad she’d looked, and it hurt just to imagine her so sorrowful. “I really think she does need us. She feels alone, even though she has a loving family. Bree needs us.”
Calum studied me, his stare taking in every bit of my appearance, my stature, my expression. “You don’t seem so bad,” he finally said.
I was not sure if I should take that as a compliment or not, but I decided to anyway. “You don’t seem too bad yourself—although I did hear about how horrible your first date was, so honestly, you started off pretty low.”
He flashed a small grin as he shook his head. “She told you about that, did she? I, uh…I’m not proud of that. My little brother’s been dating her sister for over a year now, and I had just gotten out of a relationship, so going on a blind date was the last thing I wanted to do.” He bit the inside of his cheek as he thought. “I hope, by now, I’ve made it up to her.”
Silence overtook us for a while, and we sat there for a few minutes, lost in our own heads. At least, I was. All the possibilities, everything Bree could say in response to what I was proposing…I had no idea if she’d like it, or if she’d just look at me like I was crazy.
“You think she’d go for it?” I asked, shooting him a quick look. “Date both of us?”
He breathed out a long breath before saying, “I think we’d need to show her that we’re serious, that we mean it. She’s going to think it’s not going to last, and she’s the type who’d rather just give up from the beginning than let things build.”
“There will be bad times,” I said, knowing it in my soul, “but that doesn’t mean I’m going to give up.”
“I’m not, either.”
“Good. So…it’s settled, then?”
Calum pursed his lips, looking pensive. “I guess so. I guess that means I’ll be seeing a lot more of you, then.”
“Yeah,” I spoke with a grin, “get used to seeing my face.”
He chuckled, but I could tell he was still struggling with the whole idea about dating her at the same time. Technically, wasn’t that sort of what we’d been doing until now, anyway? It was just official. Or, it would be, once we got Bree to agree to it.
The only question was…how to prove it to her? How to show her that we were not just playing around when it came to her? She would take some convincing, I knew, but I also knew that I wasn’t going to give up on her, and neither was Calum.
Bree had no idea what the future held in store for her.
Chapter Eighteen – Bree
I slept through class. Well, I didn’t really sleep as I did purposefully stay in bed and wonder what the point of my existence was, but you knew what I meant. I didn’t want to see Mason so soon, not after last night. And Calum…I’d probably never see him again, and knowing that hurt.
Me. He wanted me, not his ex. I still couldn’t wrap my head around it.
Mom and Dad left to go to work early, so they didn’t know I was skipping class. Michelle didn’t have any morning classes; she’d been smart enough to schedule hers mostly in the middle of the day, so she could sleep in after hard nights of hanging out with Kyle and doing whatever it was they did all the time.
It was early afternoon by the time I finally dragged my ass out of bed. I headed across the hall to the bathroom, not even glancing at the mess in the mirror. After showering and not brushing my hair last night, I was certain I looked like a pigsty. An ugly, pink-haired pigsty.
“Girl,” my sister’s voice broke through the door as she pushed in, nearly causing me to fall off the toilet. Michelle didn’t even seem to care that she’d barged in while I was peeing, nor did she seem to notice the fact that I was glaring at her. “When you’re done, hop in that shower. I have work to do.”
I blinked, holding my knees together so my sister wouldn’t see anything. “What are you talking about? Why aren’t you in class?”
“For you, dear sister,” she spoke with a melodic tone, grinning ear to ear like she knew some secret I didn’t. She walked out, shutting the door behind her. “Now shower! And make sure to scrub all those nooks and crannies!”
I could not roll my eyes enough. What the hell was she going on about? Why would I shower? It wasn’t like I had any hot plans tonight. No more dates for…well, ever, for me. No more dates. No more handsome men. No more dimples or cute smiles or warm, strong chests—
I should really stop my mind from wandering before it went too far.
My plan was to sneak back into my room after flushing the toilet and washing my hands, but I found Michelle standing just outside the door, her arms crossed. She did not look too thrilled, seeing me trying to weasel my way out of whatever the hell this was.
“Shower,” she repeated herself, “now. Don’t make me say it again.”
A sigh left me, and I knew it would be easier to just go along with it for now. The last time she’d taken such interest in my looks had been before the blind date with Calum.
Calum…
No, I wasn’t going to let myself think about him.
I shut my mind off as I showered, undoing the rat’s nest that was my hair and, like she’d said, scrubbing every part of my body until I was squeaky clean. When I got out, Michelle was still waiting for me, only now she had something else in her hands.
A tube of pink dye? Why did she suddenly care about my faded hair?
My roots were about an inch long, but she paid no attention to them, instead making a few bowls of pink dye. Three of them—one held straight dye, the other held some dye and some condition, and the last was full of mostly conditioner with a bit of dye.
“What are you doing?” I asked, eyebrows together. She’d made me sit on the toilet, facing the tub to give her the back of my head. A towel was draped around my shoulders to protect my clothes from the dye. She had gloves on, and she was busy drying my hair before parting it and sectioning it off.
I had no idea why my sister was giving me an ombre of pink hair, but I said nothing as she did it. Michelle dyed the top few inches the darkest, purest pink, the middle of each strand with the half and half mixture, and the tips with the lightest.
Apparently my faded mop of hair bothered her? That was a first.
While the dye sat on my head and stained my hair, Michelle plucked my eyebrows. I tried to push her off, because forcing me to do my hair was bad enough, but it didn’t work. She would not leave me alone.
“Just let me pluck your eyebrows, Bree,” she hissed, giving me a frown. “I’m not going to overpluck, so you don’t have to worry about having pencils for eyebrows. You’re in good hands.”