Maybe it would have.
“Please smile.” Iz hands me a dress. “Between you and my brother I think I’m getting depressed.”
I smile sadly and hang the red dress back up. “I’m fine.”
“Right. And I’m the president. You’re not gonna tell me what happened are you? I bugged him all day yesterday and he’s refusing.”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Roxy.”
“Iz, please. I just…”
She looks at a dress and shakes her head. “It’s none of my business. I know that. But you two are my favorite people in the world. Kyle pisses me off something chronic sometimes, but he’s still my brother. I don’t need my major to know you care about each other. Hell, I don’t need my major to know you’ve cared about him for a lot longer than anyone realizes.”
I open my mouth and close it again.
“I also don’t need it to see something big happened. I just want you to be happy. Both of you. And all this to-ing and fro-ing is giving me a headache.”
“Okay.” I grab a pair of light skinny jeans from the rail and put them over my arm. “Can we forget about it now? It’s your birthday.”
“As long as you promise to talk to him tonight.”
Great. I grit my teeth together. “Fine. I’ll talk to him later.”
“Thank you.” She smiles. Her eyes travel to the jeans over my arm. “Jeans?”
I finger the hem of them. “I just don’t feel like dressing up too much tonight.”
“Smile, Rox. He’s an ass sometimes, but he’s a loveable ass.”
“That’s the problem,” I whisper to myself when Iz heads into the dressing room.
~
I wriggle my toes in my heeled shoe boots and put the final clip in my hair. Selena has spent the last thirty minutes curling it, and there’s about twenty slides holding it to one side. If it wasn’t for the face of make-up and fancy hair, no one would guess I was going to a party. For the first time in ages, I’m dressed like the Roxy I used to be.
“You’re the only person I know that can pull off double denim,” Selena announces when I stand.
“It’s because the pants are white,” I reply and adjust the jacket. “You have to look twice to tell they’re denim.”
“Still. I’d look like an eighties reject if I tried it.”
I look at her head of curly hair and grin.
“Already do, darling,” Iz sings from the corner of the room. She stands and smooths out the crinkled pale pink material of her strapless dress.
“Holy shit. If my cousin doesn’t drag you into a corner tonight I’m booking him for an eye test,” Selena bursts. I giggle into my hand, more so when Iz blushes.
“If your cousin tries to drag me into a corner I’ll—”
“Willingly follow him there for him to have his wicked way!” I finish with a dramatic flair.
“Shut up!” Iz throws her pillow at me, and I catch it.
“I don’t hear you denying it. Did you, Leney?”
My blonde bombshell shakes her head. “No denial heard here, Roxy.”
“We have you all worked out, Ms. Daniels.”
“You two.” Iz points her finger at us threateningly before throwing her arms in the air. “You’re incorrigible.”
I tilt my head to the side with a sassy smile on my face. “It’s why you love us.”
“Right.” She rolls her eyes, but she knows it’s true. Despite her being two years older than us, the three of us have been through thick and thin together. “At least you’ve cheered up.”
“She hasn’t seen Kyle yet.” Selena catches the lip gloss I throw at her. “Hey, thanks.”
“She’s right. Who knows what kind of mood I’ll be in then?”
I’ll probably be reminded of the sting in my chest.
“We should move and find out,” Iz replies. “The sooner you two kiss and make up, the sooner we can all be happy and get drunk.”
“I’m not getting drunk,” I reply automatically. They both look at me, Selena more shocked than Iz. “What? I don’t want my parents on my butt about my drinking. My dad will have his eye on me tonight, and I don’t feel like having yet another argument about my supposed “bad girl” behavior.”
“You’ve always been pretty badass, if I’m honest.” Selena opens the door.
“Yeah, I mean, no one expected quiet little Roxanne Hughes to be such a hot cookie before.” Iz shrugs.
I roll my eyes. “Puh-lease. I was never quiet – I just had a lot of shit I kept inside. Now I’m letting all that noise out.”
“That’s what she tells her one-nighters,” Selena stage-whispers to Iz.
Despite my annoyance at that comment, I smile and elbow her. “Bitch.”
“True though.”
“I never told them much of anything.” I link my arm through hers and we turn in the direction of the village hall. “Does anyone feel like we’re ten again? I mean, wasn’t that the last time we had a party in the village hall?”
Iz shrieks a laugh. “Wasn’t that my twelfth birthday? I seem to remember us all using those fake tattoos you put on with water. Cam walked in on us putting them on our asses and insisted on telling everyone.”
“We all had our asses viewed that night,” Selena muses.
“What – are you putting those on your bums?” Cam had laughed like a crazy child.
“Oh my God!” Iz yelled. We all scrambled to put our pants back up as he ran away. We could hear him yelling to anyone who would listen we were tattooing our bums, and all three of us went back out with red faces.
“You put a tattoo on your butt?” Kyle looked at us all. “Really?”
“They did. Furby ones.” Cam cackled.
“Go away!” I shouted. “Stop being so mean.”
“We’re not being mean,” Kyle protested. “I’m only asking, Roxy.”
“Well don’t, ratface,” Iz shoved him.
We turned to walk away. All we heard was the count to three and our pants were pulled down. Our butts were on show to everyone in the hall, and all Cam and Kyle did was laugh at us.
My lips twitch. “He was such a shit. Him and Kyle – they were the worst. And before you went to high school, Iz, they paid some kid who’d just moved from Utah to set off the fire bell.”