“Oh, my God!” I say, frustrated. “Lighten up.” I crank the car just as Val climbs inside and slams her door in a huff, then pushes herself back against the seat.
As soon as she’s inside the car, the overwhelming amount of perfume she has on begins to suffocate me. I crack the window, but just enough that she won’t think I’m insulting her. She knows how much perfume bothers me, especially when chicks smell like they bathe in it, but she never seems to care what I think, because she continues to douse it on by the gallon.
“You’re so immature, Daniel,” she mutters. She flips the visor down and pulls her lipstick from her purse, then begins to reapply it. “I’m beginning to wonder if you’ll ever change.”
Change?
What the hell is that supposed to mean?
“Why would I change?” I ask, cocking my head out of curiosity.
She sighs and drops her lipstick back into her purse, smacks her lips together, then turns toward me. “So you’re telling me you’re happy with the way you act?”
What?
With the way I act? Is she really commenting on the way I act? The same girl I’ve seen curse at waitresses for something as simple as too much ice in her glass is seriously commenting on the way I act?
I’ve been seeing her off and on for months now and I haven’t had a
single clue that she was hoping I would eventually change. Hoping I’d become someone I’m not.
Come to think of it . . . I keep getting back together with her, thinking she’ll be the one to change. To be nice for once. In reality, people are who they are and they’ll never really change. So why the hell are Val and I even wasting our time on this exhausting relationship if we don’t even really like who each other is?
“I didn’t think so,” she says smugly, incorrectly assuming my silence was admission that I’m not happy with how I act. In actuality, my silence was the moment of clarity I’ve needed since the day I met her.
I remain silent until we pull into her driveway. I leave the car running, indicating that I have no plans on going inside with her tonight.
“You’re leaving?” she asks.
I nod and stare out the driver’s side window. I don’t want to look at her, because I’m a guy and she’s hot and I know if I look at her, then my moment of clarity regarding our relationship will become foggy and I’ll end up inside her house, making up with her on her bed like I always do.
“You aren’t the one who gets to be mad, Daniel. You acted ridiculous tonight. And in front of my parents, no less! How do you expect them to ever approve of you if you act the way you do?”
I have to exhale a slow, calming breath so that I don’t raise my voice like she’s doing right now. “How do I act, Val? Because I was myself at dinner tonight, just like I’m myself every other minute of the day.”
“Exactly!” she exclaims. “There’s a time and a place for your silly nicknames and immature antics, and dinner with my parents isn’t it!”
I rub my hands over my face in frustration, then turn and look at her. “This is who I am,” I say, gesturing toward myself. “If you can’t accept all of me, then we have a real problem, Val. I’m not changing, and honestly, it wouldn’t be fair of me to ask you to change, either. I would never ask you to pretend to be someone you’re not, which is exactly what you’re asking of me right now. I’m not changing, and I’ll never change. I think it’s best if you leave the car now.”
Her eyes narrow as she grabs her purse off the console. “Oh, that’s nice, Daniel. Insult my perfume to get back at me. See what I mean? You’re so immature.” She opens the car door and unbuckles her seatbelt.
“Well, at least I’m not asking you to change your perfume,” I say, mocking her.
She shakes her head. “I can’t do this anymore,” she says, getting out of the car. “We’re done, Daniel. For good this time.”
“Thank goodness,” I say loud enough for her to hear me. She slams the door and walks toward her house. I roll down the window to air out the scent and back out of the driveway.
Where is Holder? If I don’t get to vent to someone, I’ll scream.
• • •
I climb into Sky’s window, and she’s sitting on the floor, looking through pictures. She looks up and smiles as I enter her room. “Hey, Daniel,” she says.
“Hey, Sky,” I say as I drop down onto her bed. “Where’s your boyfriend?”
She nods toward the bedroom door. “They’re in the kitchen making ice cream. You want some?”
“No, thanks,” I say. “I’m too heartbroken to eat right now.”
She laughs. “Val having a bad day?”
“Val’s having a bad time,” I say. “And after tonight, I’ve finally realized I don’t want to be a part of it.”
She raises her eyebrows. “Oh yeah? Sounds serious this time.”
I shrug. “We broke up an hour ago. And who’s ‘they’?”
She gives me a confused look, so I clarify. “You said they were in the kitchen making ice cream. Who’s ‘they’?”
Sky opens her mouth to answer when the bedroom door swings open. Holder walks in with two bowls of ice cream, followed by a girl with her own bowl and a spoon in her mouth. She pulls the spoon out and closes the door with her foot, then turns toward the bed and stops when she sees me.
She looks familiar, but I can’t place her. Which is odd because she’s cute, and I feel like I should know her.
She walks to the bed and sits down on the opposite end, eyeing me. She dips her spoon into her ice cream and puts it back in her mouth.
I can’t stop staring at that spoon.
“What are you doing here?” Holder asks. I reluctantly take my eyes off the girl and watch as he sits on the floor next to Sky and looks at the pictures.
“I’m done with her, Holder,” I say, stretching out on the bed. “For good. She’s driving me crazy.”
“But I thought that’s why you loved her,” he says teasingly.
I roll my eyes. “Thanks for the insight, Dr. Love.”
Sky takes one of the pictures out of Holder’s hands. “I think he’s serious this time,” she says. “No more Val.” Sky tries to look sad for my sake, but I know she’s relieved. Val never really fit in with the two of them. Now that I think about it, she never really fit in with me, either.
Holder looks up at me curiously. “Done for good? Really?” He sounds impressed.
“Yeah, really.”
“Who’s Val?” the girl asks. “Or better yet, who are you?”
“Oh, my bad,” Sky says. She points between the girl and me. “This is Dean’s best friend, Daniel. Daniel, this is my best friend, Six.”
I’ll never get used to hearing Sky call him Dean, but her introduction gives me an excuse to look over at the spoon again. Six pulls it out of her mouth and points it at me. “Nice to meet you, Daniel,” she says.
“How do I know your name?” I ask her.
She shrugs. “I don’t know. Maybe because six is a fairly common number? Or you’ve heard of my reputation.”
I laugh. It wasn’t funny, but her comment was a little surprising. “No, that’s not it,” I say, still trying to figure out why her name sounds familiar. I don’t think Sky has ever mentioned her before.
“The party last year,” Holder says, making me look at him again. I might have rolled my eyes when I looked away from her, but I didn’t mean to. I’d rather stare at her than Holder. “Remember?” he says. “It was the week I got back from Austin, a few days before I met Sky. The night Grayson got mad at you for something you said.”
“Oh, you mean the night you stopped me from confronting him?” It still annoys me. I could have stood up to him if Holder hadn’t stepped in.
“Yeah,” Holder confirms. “Jaxon mentioned Sky and Six that night, but I didn’t know who they were. I think that’s when you heard her name.”
“Wait, wait, wait,” Sky says, looking at me like I’m crazy. “What do you mean Grayson got mad at you because of something you said about me?”
Holder puts a reassuring hand on Sky’s back. “It’s okay, babe. He was just trying to annoy Grayson because I was upset with him for how he was talking about you.”
Sky is still confused. “But you didn’t even know me. Why would you be upset about what Grayson was saying about me?”
I stare at Holder, waiting for his answer. I never thought about it before, but it is odd that he was upset about Grayson’s comments when he didn’t know Sky.
“I didn’t like how he was talking about you,” he says, leaning in to kiss Sky. “It made me think he probably talked about Les the same way, and it upset me.”
Of course, he would think that. Now I wish he had let me confront Grayson that night.
“That’s sweet, Holder,” Six says. “You were protective of her even before you knew her.”
Holder laughs. “Oh, you don’t know the half of it, Six.”
Sky looks up at him, and they smile at each other like they have a secret, then they turn back to the pictures on the floor.
“What are those?” I ask about the pictures.
“For the yearbook,” Six says. She sets the bowl of ice cream on the bed, then sits cross-legged. “We’re supposed to submit pictures of ourselves as kids for the senior page, so Sky is going through the pics her mom gave her.”
“You go to the same school as us?” I ask, since she mentioned the assignment. I know we go to a big school, but I feel like I would remember her, especially if she’s Sky’s best friend.
“I haven’t been there since junior year,” she says. “But I’ll be back once Monday comes around.” She doesn’t sound too excited about it.
I can’t help but smile at her reply. I wouldn’t mind seeing her regularly. “So, does that mean you’ll join our lunchroom group?” I lean forward and take a bite of the ice cream she left.
She watches me as I eat. “I could have a cold, you know,” she says.
I grin at her and wink. “You somehow make that sound charming.”
She laughs, but Holder suddenly takes the bowl from me and pulls me off the bed. “Go home, Daniel,” he says, letting go of my shirt as he sits back down.
“What’s your problem?” I ask, surprised.
“She’s Sky’s best friend,” he says, gesturing to Six. “You’re not allowed to flirt with her. If you two mess around, it’ll cause tension and make things awkward. I don’t want that. Come back when you can be around her without any thoughts like that.”
For the first time, I think I’m speechless. Maybe I should agree with him, but he just made the biggest mistake.
“Holder,” I groan. “Why did you have to do that? You just made her off-limits.” I start to leave. Once I’m outside, I look back in. “You should have encouraged me. Then I wouldn’t have been interested. But you had to make her forbidden.”
“Gee, Daniel,” Six says. “Glad to know you see me as more than a challenge.” She looks at Holder as she stands up. “I didn’t know I had another protective brother.” She walks toward the window. “I’ll see you later. I should go through my own pictures before Monday.”
Holder glances at me as I let Six out. He doesn’t say anything, but his look is a warning that Six is off-limits. I raise my hands, then close the window. She walks a few feet to the house next door and climbs through that window.
“Do you always take shortcuts through windows, or do you live there?” I ask, walking toward her. Once inside, she turns around. “This is
