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“Yeah. Of course.”
He wraps an arm around me and claps me in a tight hug.
“I’m happy for you,” I say, clapping his back.
“Thank you.” He pulls back but holds me there for a moment. “I want this for you too. She is the one. I can see it. Once you see it, you will be okay.”
I nod because I don’t know how else to respond. If only it were that easy. If I could just believe that we should be together, and then it would happen. But the truth is, I don’t know what she sees in me. Or what she saw in me.
The switch to past tense tightens like a coil around my stomach and when I get to my car, instead of going home, I drive past their house.
But it’s dark. Like nobody is home. For some reason, that guts me more than anything. I’ve got to figure this out before it’s too late.
49
faye
It’searly and I’m still in bed, readingThe Genius of Birdsby Jennifer Ackerman, when my bedroom door shuts with a muffled click. I wait for Edie or my mom to say something, but they stay quiet.
“I’m not hun—” I start to say as I look over my shoulder. And I freeze.
Liza is standing between my bed and the bathroom door. I push up to sitting and just stare.
“Who let you in?”
“I let myself in. You think I don’t know how to open a door?” she says with a sharpness that doesn’t reach her eyes. She looks tired. Or maybe it’s just that she’s not wearing makeup.
“Well then you can open that door and get the fuck out of here.” I turn to lie back down but she steps closer.
“You think I want to be here? Talking to you after what you did to me?”
I freeze.
“WhatIdid toyou?”
“Oh, don’t pretend you didn’t tell my brother to say what he did.”
“What did your brother say?”
She frowns and I shake my head.
“You know what, I don’t care. I really don’t. It’s not my problem. You made your bed, and now, finally, you get to lie in it.”
“Oh, that’s rich, coming from you.”
“What the hell is your problem?” I ask, feeling the heat of my anger toward her rising in my throat. “I have never done anything to you and all you’ve ever done is belittle me and make me feel like shit.”
“What are youtalkingabout?” Liza seethes. “You’ve always had everything. Your parents think you discovered the cure for cancer. Your sister thinks you hung the moon. All of our guy friends were obsessed with you, they wouldn’t even look at anyone else. You went to Stanford and you’re in fuckingmedical school. You live on your own in the coolest city on the West Coast and then you brought the hottest guy in professional hockey to your sister’s wedding, which—by the way,you’re welcomefor doing all the maid of honor shit that you didn’t want to do.”
My head spins. I don’t know where to start.
“You’re insane.”
“Nice. Real nice. Not that I should expect anything less from you.”
“I don’t know what planet you’re living on, but most of that is so far from the truth, it’s insane. All I know is that I never dated anyone in high school because they thought I was a slut due to a rumor you spread that I had chlamydia.”
She at least has the sense to flinch at that.
