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I approached her, and I planted a kiss on her cheek. She looked surprised.
“Thank you,” I said. “Everything is amazing. I love it.”
She dragged me into a hug and squeezed me hard, but didn’t say a thing.
I started to feel anxious about the whole Dylan invitation thing I did. Elizabeth made everything perfect, and all I thought about up until now was to get back at Lucas for parading his numerous flings in front of me. If he followed on his threat and beat Dylan up, that would ruin everything.
But it was already too late to cancel. The doorbell rang. Garret never did that. I knew Hannah and Dylan were coming together. So, if my father hadn’t decided to make a surprise appearance, which I doubted, my friends were at the door.
I froze partly because I realized I didn’t want to be in a room with both Dylan and Lucas. Then the doorbell rang again, and Lucas showed up in the kitchen, looking straight at me.
“Birthday girl, go greet your guests,” he smiled wolfishly. The bastard knew I was deliberately delaying the inevitable and took pleasure in my agony. His eyes were daring me to finish what I started. To follow through.
My palms were sweating when I walked out of the kitchen. Lucas followed me in the short corridor, leading to the living room. He placed his hand on my lower back, mynakedlower back, and whispered in my ear.
“I like that dress,” he slid his fingers up my spine and then slowly down again.
“What are you doing?” I hissed. I wasn’t protesting against his touch. I was worried there were too many people around, and someone might see us. Not to mention the person who was waiting at the doorstep.
“I just like this kind of provocation more than inviting your boyfriend in my house,” his fingers twitched before he removed his hand from me as we were entering the living room.
I felt my face turning red and warm while I was walking to the front door. The first thing I heard when I opened it was Hannah’s gasp.
“You’re gorgeous,” she wrapped her hands around me. “You’ll drive him crazy with that dress,” she whispered in my ear.
I had no idea if she was talking about Dylan or Lucas and that made my heart race. I had to point my attention to something else, and I did.
“So are you,” I cocked my head suggestively. She was wearing a very tight black V-neck dress and her blond hair was gathered in a messy bun. She looked older. No doubt she wanted to break the image of the little girl my brother associated her with.
That was the reason she refused to date high school students now. In July, I paid my dad my annual visit in Seattle, and Hannah’s parents let her come with me for a week. Tyler also came for about a day and a half. It was more than enough for him to make her cry. Hannah overheard him explaining himself on the phone to someone and jealousy made her eavesdrop.
“What girls? It’s only my dad’s girlfriend and I’m not into that kink. The other one is my sister’s best friend. She’s a fucking child.”
“How do I look?” Dylan chimed in, not at all aware Hannah and I were having a silent conversation about her trying to impress my brother. I finally dared to turn my focus to him. Hannah answered for me.
“You’re a man. No one cares what you’re wearing.”
We laughed. Dylan grabbed and squeezed me in a bear hug. It wasn’t so intimate as Lucas’s touch a minute ago, but it felt too much. He usually wasn’t physical with me. We shared an awkward hug every now and again. He brushed me with a shoulder or patted my hand when he wanted me to pay attention. But it was my birthday, he had a reason to hug and kiss me, and no one would think it was too much. No one but me apparently. I suspected Lucas would share the sentiment.
“Happy birthday,” Dylan said cheerfully.
“Thank you,” I patted his back as a sign to let me go. I wanted to prevent his spine being broken before he even had the chance to step inside the house. He loosened his grip, and I moved away from him. I tried to make it look like I was ushering them in, but I needed some space between us.
Tyler was standing next to me, looking at Hannah with wide eyes. It was like witnessing a crash. It’s horrifying when you realize what you’re looking at, but you just can’t stop.
“Little Spencer…,” he said in a husky voice. The look he gave her made me uncomfortable, so I averted my gaze towards Lucas. He was staring at me, but he looked surprisingly calm. The silence between my brother and my best friend was deafening. Then Tyler cleared his throat and broke it. “How’s school?”
“Good,” Hannah sounded disappointed. To be honest I was also expecting a compliment by the way he was eyeing her. “You know. Graduation. Colleges. Kid’s stuff.”
Of course, he didn’t catch the provocation behind her words. He had no idea she was into him and that she knew he considered her a child. In fact, I was certain he had forgotten about that statement coming out of his mouth the moment he said it.
“Where do you want to go?” he asked and sounded interested. He was good in feigning feelings. That’s what our childhood thought us. To deceit, we were functioning properly when we were, in fact, empty shells.
“New York,” Hannah answered. I used the just mentioned ability and pretended to be invested in their exchange just to avoid talking to Dylan in front of Lucas. “Or Boston.”
Wait. What now?
Dylan passed us by and went inside. I had to point my attention to him, even though this new information made me worried about Hannah’s mental health. Would she go to Boston because of my brother? Was she really that obsessed?
