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I grab the phone off my bed and take it off speaker. “Hyla, take me off speaker. I want to talk to you.”
I hear the click and the background noise fades. “What’s up?”
“Don’t lead her on, Hyla. Don’t do this with her if you don’t mean it. I know she’s falling for you.”
“Well, that’s mutual. And I… I’m taking it seriously, I promise.”
“I’m not saying it because of what’s going on with Aaron and me. I’m saying it because Mackie’s never been like this with anyone. Wouldn’t want to have to kick your ass.”
She laughs. “Noted. She means a lot to me.”
“I know. All right, I’ll stop being so serious and let you guys get back to having fun. Apparently, I’m off to do the same. Well, probably not thesamefun you two are having.” A smirk crosses my lips.
Hyla shrieks out a giggle. Then she adds, “Yeah, maybe. Have some fun. Kick Aaron in the nuts for me! Love ya!”
“You too, Hyla.”
“Bye. Here’s Mackie.”
“Hey, what did you say to her?” Mackenzie asks.
“None of your business, missy. Are you having a good time?”
“I am.” I can hear the giddiness in her voice. Even if my love life is totally fucked—and not in the good way—I’m happy for Mackie. She deserves it. “Rae, don’t let this stuff with Aaron hurt you too much. We both know that wasn’t his intent. I’m upset because it hurts you, but I’m more upset because I know it’s hurting him.”
My face drops. “Yeah, I do too. And it kills me,” I say quietly.
“I know it’s a big thing to ask, but try to let some of that go. You deserve happiness, too. You won’t have it if you’re always worrying about him.”
I can’t disagree. It’s occurred to me a lot recently. Today’s a good opportunity to do that. “I know. And that’s why Sarah and the Wilkinson boys are taking me out for a good time.”
“Damn straight we are.” I turn to see Jesse and Joel walking into the bedroom.
“I gotta go, Macks. Love you. Have an amazing rest of your weekend.”
“Oh, I plan on it,” she says devilishly. “Bye, buddy.”
“Bye.” I hang up and push myself off the bed.
“You ready?” Jesse asks.
I smile at him. “Yeah. I am. Let’s do this.”
Jesse, Joel, Sarah, and I drove the forty-five minutes to Syracuse and spent the afternoon at the huge mall there. We played mini-golf and laser tag and climbed a ropes course. We also gorged on all sorts of mall food. I shamelessly ate three soft pretzels, the third one was purely because Jesse bet me I couldn’t do it. Let me tell you, Ialwayshave room for pretzels.
We had a late dinner of pizza and garlic knots while watching a movie. Sarah passed out on the couch an hour ago and Joel sweetly put her to bed. Sometimes I wonder if anything more will ever happen between those two. There’s always beensomethingthere. But after what she went through with Trevor and what I’m going through with Aaron, I’m not going to push that.
Joel’s now snoring on the other couch while Jesse and I munch on carrots and ranch dressing. We’re trying to add some semblance of health to today’s binge of food, but I think we’re both eating more ranch than carrots.
“Whatcha thinking right now?” Jesse asks.
I shake my head. “What I’m always thinking about.”
He rubs his hand down my arm. “Tell me about it. Let it out. I’m more than just a pretty face.” He gives me his charming asshole grin.
I smack his chest and laugh before nodding. “Yeah. Okay. It hurts. But we’re not Ross and Rachel. We’re broken up. We can sleep with other people if we want.” A shudder rolls through me. Right now, sleeping with someone else makes my skin crawl. I wonder if it always will. I wonder if I’ll always think of myself as Aaron’s.
“But you still want to be with him. You want to stand by him?”
