My Sweetest Escape (15 page)

her pizza mostly untouched.

“Actually, I did,” Hunter said, earning a

look of approval from Renee.

“You did?” Taylor said. “When?”

“Christmas. Planned it all out and

everything.” Taylor had recently

reconnected with her father, and had even

gone down to see him in Connecticut during

the break and taken Hunter with her.

“Brilliant,” Mase said, giving him

another fist bump. “I thought you were

crazy, man, but best of luck. I’m happy I can

officially call Taylor a member of the family.

Oh, my God, have you told Harper yet?

She’s going to be over the effing moon.”

“Let’s call her right now.” I knew a little

bit about Mase’s sister Harper, who had

cerebral palsy and was wheelchair bound.

There were more than a few pictures of her

in the house, and he’d said she was coming

to visit with his parents at some point.

Hunter got out his phone and put it on

speaker.

“Who are they calling?” Hannah

whispered as the phone rang.

“Mase’s little sister. She and Hunter are

really close,” I said.

“Hello?” A little girl’s voice answered.

Seriously, the kid had her own phone?

Typical rich people.

“Hey, Seven! What’s shaking?” Hunter

said, a huge smile on his face. It was clear

from the way he talked about her that he

was completely in love with her. It was

really sweet.

“Hunter! I got an A on my story. Wanna

hear it?”

“Sure, Seven, but I called because I want

to tell you something. Taylor’s here, too.”

“Hi, Harper!” Taylor said.

“When are you coming to see me?”

“Soon, princess. I swear. But guess

what?”

“What?” Harper said.

“Hunter and I are going to get married.”

“You are?”

Taylor looked at Hunter and smiled.

“Yes, we are.”

A little-girl scream exploded from the

phone, and Hunter picked it up and took it

off speakerphone.

“She has never made that sound

before,” Mase said, shaking his head. “I

think she’s more excited about that than

she was about the Taylor Swift tickets she

got for Christmas.”

Hunter continued to talk to the excited

Harper.

“So you guys going to get hitched right

away?” Hannah asked Taylor as she stole

the uneaten pizza crust off my plate and

munched on it. I guess our friendship had

progressed to the food-stealing stage.

Taylor snorted. “Yeah, I don’t think so.

We both want to finish school first, and it

seems…I don’t know, weird to get married

while we’re still in college. I mean, I don’t

want people to think I’m knocked up or

anything.”

“Are you?” Hannah said. I almost died.

“Not that I know of,” Taylor said. “I just

really don’t want to deal with that now. We

have too much to do. But someday.”

Hannah nodded, and Renee went back

to grilling Taylor about her perfect wedding.

“You okay?” I was in the kitchen having

a cup of tea that night. Everyone else had

gone to bed, but I couldn’t sleep.

Renee’s voice made me jump.

“Yeah, fine. What are you doing up?”

“I guess I was just excited about

everything. I can’t believe he actually did

it.” She grabbed a glass from the dish

drainer and filled it with water. “When he

first got her the ring I thought he’d

proposed, but then the ring was on her

right hand. It was only a matter of time,

though. Those two are destined for each

other.”

“You jealous?” She gave me a look like

I’d said something completely outlandish.

She snorted some of the water and

choked. “Of them getting married? Hell, no.

I am
not
ready to get married.”

“But you’re living with Paul. I mean, it’s

not exactly the same thing, but it’s close.”

She laughed.

“Oh, my dear sweet little sister. There is

a world of difference between living with

someone and marrying them.”

“But you would marry Paul. Eventually, I

mean.”

“Yeah, years down the road when we

both are out of debt and have more than

two nickels to rub together. I don’t want to

spend a shit ton of money on a wedding if

we can’t even afford to pay for our health

insurance or a place to live. Besides, I want

a huge-ass wedding, and I’m only going to

do it once. Why not do it right?” She had

valid points, rational points. I wondered

how Paul felt about it. Not that it mattered.

Renee wore the pants, the shirts and

everything else in their relationship. She

had him by the balls, but he never seemed

to mind.

“So what was with you and Dusty?”

“What do you mean?” Shit, I did not

want her to get on my case about him.

“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe I’m reading

too much into it.”

“I’m not interested in him,” I said for the

millionth time.

“I didn’t think you would be. I mean, he

is
so
not your type at all.” Wasn’t. I didn’t

have a type anymore.

“I can say this now that you’re not with

him, but I never liked Matt. He was always

so… I don’t know.” She waved her hand,

trying to come up with the right word.

“Uptight?” I supplied. Yeah, so was I.

“No, it was something more than that. I

always felt like he was judging me and

found me wanting. But he treated you right,

and I saw that he loved you, so I kept that

to myself.” Not really. I could tell the whole

time I’d dated Matt from high school to

college that Renee hadn’t liked him.

She was pretty bad at hiding when she

didn’t like someone, but I would never tell

her that.

She drained the glass of water. “Okay,

well, I’m going back to bed. Night, little

sister.” She held her arms out for a hug and

I held mine out too and we hugged like we

used to.

“Night, big sister.”

I took the rest of my tea and went back

down to my cave and turned my music on.

Ingrid Michaelson’s voice filled

my ears, feeling weirdly appropriate for

late-night listening.

“Here, listen to this one,” he said,

handing me one of his ear-buds. I fitted it to

my ear as an unfamiliar voice sang about

loving
someone, but feeling like a freak in

comparison. When I’d told him
I didn’t really

listen to music, he’d taken it as a challenge.

Each
day, he would bring me a new song.

Pop, rock, country, rap, old-ies, whatever.

He’d listen to pretty much anything. “As

long as it’s
good,” he said.

“Music says what words can’t. Add

words to music and you say
two things at

once.”

I missed him, but I still couldn’t talk

about him, out loud.

Not to Renee, not to anyone. I couldn’t

explain it. He’d been the first real friend I’d

ever had. He’d been the friend that made

me realize that all the other people I

thought were my friends really weren’t.

I hadn’t been in love with him, not that

way, but I’d loved him all the same. I’d

heard something somewhere that said guys

and girls couldn’t be friends without at least

one falling in love with the other, but it

wasn’t true. There were just different kinds

of love, that’s all. He’d been like the brother

I never had, and he’d treated me like a

sister. A part of me was gone, taken with

him when he…

I turned off the music. It made me think

of him, and I knew what he would have said

if he knew I was moping about him.

Just smile, Jossy. The world isn’t that

bad. Besides, you have to
have the bad

parts so you recognize the good ones when

they come
along.

“Wow, this show is ridiculous.” I was

sitting with Hannah on the futon under her

lofted bed, watching my second episode

ever of
Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
“It’s so

weird. Those computers are, like, gigantic,”

I said.

“I know, right? Like, in the best way. Just

wait until the third season.” Hannah had

her trusty bag of Skittles and I’d brought

some M&M’s from the vending machine in

the basement of her dorm and I was mixing

them in an empty Solo cup. “You know, a

lot of the problems on this show could have

been resolved by cell phones. But then you

wouldn’t have such an entertaining show,

so I guess it’s fine the way it is.”

I held my cup out and she poured some

more Skittles into it.

“Heard from Dusty?” she said, eyes on

the screen.

“Uh, no. He doesn’t have my number, so

that’s a negative.”

“Bummer.”

“Do you want me to have heard from

him? Because you were acting really weird

yesterday.”

“Oh, that? I was just being the

protective friend. I wanted to see how he’d

respond. A lot of guys get intimidated by a

protective friend, and then there’s always

the ones you need to watch out for, the

guys that are threatened by a girl having

friends.”

“Have you known a lot of guys like

that?”

“A few. Here and there.” Yeah, there

was much more to that story. An asterisk

and a lot of footnotes in tiny print. I didn’t

think we had passed the friendship

milestone where I could interrogate her

until she told me about it, so I let it go.

“And the verdict on Dusty?”

“He seems like a nice guy. Cocky, and he

might have a dark past he’s trying to hide,

or maybe he’s a closet fan of
Lord of the

Rings,
or a hoarder, or obsessed with

something weird, but I don’t think he’s a

bad guy. Didn’t get that bad-guy vibe.

Bad-boy vibe, yes.”

“What’s the difference?”

She paused the show and sighed,

brushing her hair away from her face.

“Okay, a bad boy is one that makes you

all, like, tingly.

He’s dangerous in a good way. A way

that makes your heart race and want to ride

a motorcycle or go skinny-dipping. A bad

guy is one who hurts you, or makes you feel

worthless, or isolates you from your friends.

He’s just dangerous. Those are the guys to

stay away from.”

“Oh.” She seemed to have it all figured

out, and I could tell she’d spent a lot of time

thinking about bad guys as opposed to bad

boys.

“So Dusty is a bad boy.”

“Definitely. Unless you see any red flags.

Then you run in the opposite direction.”

“I’m pretty sure if there were any red

flags, my sister and the rest of the people I

live with wouldn’t let him near me. Hunter

wouldn’t be friends with a bad guy.”

“Still. You never know. People aren’t

always what they seem. You spend years

thinking they’re one way and then

something happens and they reveal who

they really are.”

“But you can’t go through life thinking

that everyone is bad.”

“I don’t. I told you—I trust my instincts.”

We weren’t going to agree, so I dropped

it and we went back to watching the show,

but I thought a lot about what she’d said

about people being bad or good, and trying

to tell the difference.

I didn’t think I’d ever met a really bad

person. Even my ex and my ex-friends

weren’t bad people.

I’d been just like them, and I didn’t think

I was a bad person. That guy, Travis, the

one who had hurt Taylor, he was a bad guy.

I didn’t need to meet him or know anything

else about him to know that. But did that

mean he would always be bad? Could

people change?

I’d changed.

I had so many thoughts running through

my head I almost forgot about the

engagement dinner and found the house in

chaos when I got back from Hannah’s.

Mase was on his hands and knees in the

living room, along with Hunter and Darah.