She got up and put her arms around me, resting her chin on my shoulder. “You know that I love you, right? You’re my favorite sister.” I put my arms up and hugged her back.
“I know. You’re my favorite, too. Now what do you want?”
She laughed.
“Nothing. I just felt like I needed to say it since we didn’t when we were growing up.” She was right. Mom and Dad and our various stepparents hadn’t been big on the affection. That was probably why Renee and I had such skewed views on love. It must be so easy for those kids with two normal parents that love each other to believe in the existence of love. Not that I believed it didn’t exist. Living in a house full of couples who were crazy about each other pretty much guaranteed its existence. But was it only possible for some people?
I mean, if love was so prevalent and real, then why did so many people get divorced? My parents had stood up with several people each, claiming to love and honor and all that forever and ever, and then forever turned into yesterday. Were people just wrong about love? Or did they just pick the wrong people to love? How the hell did you choose the right one?
“It’s a good thing to say,” I said, letting her go as I went back to my homework. There were only a few people on this planet that I could really say that I loved, and one of them was gone, and I could never tell him again.
“Love you, big sister.”
I had to live the day, but I had to love it, too. Just like he’d said.
Chapter 16
This time I was allowed to do my own makeup, but I had to borrow Renee’s and Taylor’s again, since I still didn’t have my own. Taylor had decided she was wearing pants, but Darah and Renee went with dresses so I didn’t feel too left out. Hannah came over to get ready, and I watched as Taylor, Darah and Renee gave her the same treatment I’d gotten last time.
“Ouch!” she said as Taylor tried to finger-comb Hannah’s hair.
“Sorry! I thought mine was bad, but this is crazy. What do you use for conditioner?” Hannah winced again.
“Coconut oil. It’s the only thing that works.” Hannah and Taylor started swapping hair tips and tricks as I lined my eyes. I was doing a toned-down version of the smoky look they’d given me for the engagement party. For a moment, I was back in my old life, doing my makeup every day. I shook my head. I had to stop thinking about that.
Once again, the guys were left waiting downstairs, and I could hear them having a loud and violent video game battle.
“I swear, it’s like they never grow up,” Darah said as we came downstairs and the guys were so wrapped up in their game they didn’t notice at first.
“Maybe we should just go naked,” Taylor said loudly.
“But then we might get cold,” Renee said, just as loud.
Every single male head snapped around at the word naked. It was like they were trained or something.
“Hopeless,” Taylor said. “You’re all completely hopeless.”
“Hey, it’s not my fault,” Hunter said. “If you didn’t look so good naked, I wouldn’t be thinking about it. All the time.”
“What he said,” Mase said as Darah glared at him.
Dusty got up slowly, as if he didn’t want to join us. Or maybe he didn’t want to join me. I’d seen his head turn along with the others, though.
“You all can just keep it in your pants, thanks,” Hannah said, putting her coat on. “I have some revenge to get to.”
We ended up taking three cars, just in case someone needed to bail and to make sure no one got stranded. I rode with Hannah and Dusty, and this time, I made her take the front seat. It meant that I saw Dusty’s eyes sparkling in the rearview mirror frequently, but at least I didn’t have to be within touching distance of him. He’d been mostly silent, and hadn’t even commented on the dress I was wearing.
Hannah chattered away to fill the silence, and I reminded myself to thank her later. I hadn’t given her complete details on the Dusty situation, but she was smart enough to read between the lines. Plus, she was a bit distracted by her upcoming plan. Dusty was still vague on the details.
“It’s like in Legally Blonde, when these girls tell Elle the party they invite her to is a costume party, but it’s not and she shows up dressed like a Playboy bunny and then she just acts like she meant to do it,” she said. As if Dusty had ever seen that movie. I would die of shock if he had.
“Didn’t they do that in Bridget Jones, too?” I said.
“Yeah, they did. Huh.”
“So shouldn’t you be in a bunny costume?” Dusty said.
“No, you are completely missing the point,” Hannah said, frustrated. “Oh, in Pretty Woman, when she gets treated like crap by those women in the clothing store, and then she goes back after she’s cleaned up and gotten new clothes and shoves it in their faces.”
“Isn’t that the one where she’s a hooker?” Dusty said.
Hannah threw her hands up in frustration. “Can you focus for two seconds? My God, I swear all you guys have a direct line from your brain to your dicks.”
“Who says we don’t?” I saw a shade of the Dusty I’d known, pre–kitchen incident.
Hannah just grumbled the rest of the way. Of course, there was literally no place to park that was within range of the house, so we ended up parking in the lot by the old steam plant that still churned out disgusting air that you always smelled when you were on campus and within wind range.
“You sure you can walk in those?” Dusty said as we got out. The heels I’d gotten weren’t that high, but I didn’t plan on having to trek from the parking lot to the house.
“I’m fine,” I said, stepping in front of him and taking Hannah’s arm. We walked in step away from the car, seeing the rest of our gang all hanging out by their cars.
Renee pulled me and Hannah aside.
“If I catch either of you drinking, or doing anything that you wouldn’t do in front of your grandmother, I will make you regret it. I have scalpels, and I know how to use them. Understood?”
We both nodded.
“Okay, let’s get this over with,” Renee said, and Paul offered her his arm.
“Your sister is hella scary sometimes,” Hannah whispered to me as we fell in line behind the rest of the group. Dusty was last, behind us. He looked like he’d rather be eating glass while simultaneously getting a colonoscopy.
“Tell me about it. She’s gotten worse now that she knows all this medical stuff.”