As it should have been.
In fact, there had been moments when it didn’t feel weird at all.
“Hailee, can you come down here please?” Mom’s voice cut through my thoughts and I let out a heavy sigh.
“I’m busy,” I yelled, adding more shading around Cameron’s helmet
“It’s important.”
Relenting, I closed the sketch pad and went downstairs. “Yes?” I dragged myself into the kitchen.
“Attitude, young lady.” Mom gave me a playful smile.
“Sorry, I was working.” I pulled out a stool and plopped down on it. “The art thing Mr. Jalin and Coach Hasson asked me to do.”
“Oh yes,” Kent said. “How is that going?”
“Okay, I guess. It’s not exactly my thing.”
“It’s football, Hailee, it isn’t the devil’s work.”
“Kent,” Mom said quietly.
He shook out his newspaper, offering me an apologetic smile.
“You wanted something?” I tried to change the subject, not wanting to get into all the reasons I loathed football.
“Me and Kent have been talking, and since you came to the game with us and Coach Hasson’s dinner afterward,”—she grabbed a white envelope off the table—“Kent pulled a few strings and well, happy early birthday, baby.”
I plucked the envelope from her, excitement dancing in my stomach as I tore into it and pulled out the contents. “You got me the tickets,” I shrieked.
“We did.”
“Thank you,” I beamed, leaping down off the stool and throwing my arms around her. “Thank you so much.”
“You’re welcome.” Mom hugged me back, laughing softly. “But—”
“No buts, Mom.” Untangling myself from her, I pouted. “I’m eighteen.”
“You’re still seventeen for another two-and-a-half weeks, Hailee. And New York is a three-and-a-half-hour journey which is…” her voice trailed off as she glanced over at Kent.
“What your mom is trying to say is that we’d feel much better about you going all the way to New York… if Jason goes with you.”
My stomach dropped. “No.”
“Hailee, be reasonable,” Mom chided. “We got four tickets for the exhibition. We thought you could take Flick, and Jason could ask Asher or Cameron.”
“You honestly think they’ll want to hang out at an arts exhibition with me for my birthday?”
This day couldn’t get any worse. First, Cameron ruined what had been one of the best moments of my life, and now my mom and step-dad wanted me to play happy families with Jason—on my eighteenth birthday no less.
“I’d rather not go,” I said, folding my arms over my chest.
“Go where?” Jason breezed into the room and I silently groaned.
“We got Hailee tickets for an exhibition she wants to see at The Met Museum in New York,” Mom said, and he did a double-take.
“You’re letting her go to New York? Alone?”
I bristled, my teeth grinding together.
“Well, no. Felicity would be going with her, and we hoped…” Mom looked to Kent again and he finally put his newspaper down. “We’d like you and one of the guys to accompany them.”
“When is it?”
I don’t know who was more surprised: me, Mom, or Kent. “What?” Jason added as we all stared at him. “I can’t miss a game, but if it’s a bye week, it should be okay.”
“It’s October nineteenth,” Mom said.
“It’s a bye.”
“That settles it then,” she said. “Isn’t that great news, Hailee?”
“Great,” I grumbled, shooting daggers at Jason. His eyes narrowed, but I found no malice there.
What the hell was happening right now?
“I think Asher’s dad has a place we can stay, I’ll ask him.”
“You want to stay over?” I blurted out. This just got better and better.
“Well, yeah, unless you planned on sleeping in the car?”
Kent rose from the table, going to Jason’s side. “That’s a great idea, Son. I’m sure we’d both feel better knowing you were staying somewhere Neil vouched for.” His eyes flicked to my mom’s and she nodded around a smile.
“Just the one night, though.”
One night in New York… with my step-brother and his friends.
Kill me now.
“And no partying,” she added, her expression tight. Jason nodded, agreeing to her terms, but I saw the glint in his eyes.
“We should probably get going if we want to catch happy hour at The Royal,” Kent said, checking his watch.
“The two of you will be okay?” Mom glanced between us dubiously. “There’s money on the counter to order in and I left some snacks out.”
“I think we’ve got it, Denise.” Jason’s lip twitched earning him a stiff glare from his father. He ushered Mom from the kitchen, leaving the two of us alone.
“Why?” I wasted no time asking.
“Why what?” Jason went to the refrigerator and got a beer for himself.
“Why did you agree to come to New York?”
“Do I need a reason?” He unscrewed the bottle, leaned back on the counter, and took a long pull on it.
“The Met is—”
“You think I actually plan on going to some stupid art exhibition?”
“But Mom said—”
“Let your mom and my dad think whatever they need to think to breathe easier. We can ride together and when we get there, we can do our own thing.”
Of course, that was his plan.
Asshole.
“And here I thought you might actually have a decent bone in your body.”
He stepped forward, his lip curved in an arrogant smirk. “Just because I’ve had to tolerate you over this shit with Thatcher doesn’t mean we’re friends. That’s never going to happen, Hailee.”
“Fuck you, Jason,” I ground out, feeling my jaw tense.
His eyes sparked with something, but I didn’t stick around to find out what because I was over his shit.
So over it.
When Sunday morning rolled around, my mood wasn’t much better. Thanks to Mom and Kent, I was stuck with tickets to an exhibition I desperately wanted to see. But now they came hand-in-hand with Jason. God, he’d looked so smug last night when he revealed his grand plan. He had basically hijacked my birthday so he and his friends could go live it up in New York for the night because while Mom had gotten four tickets, I was under no illusion there wouldn’t be five of us making the journey.
I was toweling off my hair, when a notification pinged on my cell phone. I ignored it since it was probably Flick. But when it pinged again… and again, I finally reached over the desk and grabbed it. Unlocking the screen, I frowned when I saw the number of texts I had from my best friend. Opening the most recent, I felt the blood drain from my face.
Flick: Call me. Now!
My stomach sank, but before I could reply, Flick’s name flashed up on the screen, her ringtone cutting through the silence. “What the hell?” I murmured as I hit receive.