The chirping bird outside the window went from annoying to maddening in the span of an hour. All I wanted to do was sleep my vacation away, but the damn thing had other plans. Three days in a row I woke up to the noise. It didn’t bother me too much at first. Summer song and all. But it was Tuesday. The day Parker came home from the lake. And I was a bundle of nerves.
I tried to persuade my mom to let me stay over at Madison’s, but she gave some lame excuse about me already being gone and wanting me home. I had half a mind to sneak out. But we only had one car, and she took it to work.
Uber was still an option though…
The bed creaked under me as I rolled over. I expected Parker to have at least sent me a text in the past few days, but nothing. Radio silence. He hadn’t even posted any photos on social media, which was strange for him. Not that I was checking or anything…
Hunter did however, and I was pretty sure I saw enough pictures of Tracy to last me a lifetime. Apparently, her fling with Parker was short-lived. Hours short. By the end of the night, judging by the postings, she ended up in the hot tub with Hunter.
Good thing I was never going back to the lake house because I would never be able to look at the hot tub the same let alone get into it. Not without copious amounts of bleach.
My phone chirped from my nightstand. I had half a mind to ignore it, just in case it was Parker. Seeing as he hadn’t tried yet, I reached for it, noticing a notification from Madison.
Madison: A guy that I’m pretty sure is a swimsuit model just came into the store
Me: Hot.
Madison: Would it be weird if I told him I could help him try on clothes?
Me: Considering u work in a shoe store….ya
Madison sent me a photo of her making a weird cringe slash excited face. In the background was a guy who could pass for a blurry model, bent over grabbing a pair of shoes.
I rolled my eyes and tossed my phone on the bed. If I responded it would just encourage her creepy behavior.
At ten in the morning, it was far too early to be up and about especially during the summer. But considering the bird and my best friend refused to let me sleep away my life like Sleeping Beauty, I got up.
I wasn’t going to be happy about it, however.
My mom was long gone—she had an early meeting out of town that would keep her well past dinner. Thus the reason she took the car and didn’t carpool like normal. She kept weird hours, but I guess that’s what happens when you’re a real estate agent. Got to work around client schedules.
I went straight for the kitchen, planning on pouring myself a bowl of sugary cereal when a noise from outside caught my attention. Before I even reached the window, I knew what I would find.
Parker’s Eclipse sat in the driveway. Next to it was Parker, his tight gray shirt stretched to its max over his back muscles as he unloaded a bunch of stuff from his trunk.
I don’t remember bringing that much to the lake.
As if sensing me, his gaze flicked to my window. I ducked out of the way even though I was pretty sure he couldn’t see me with the glare from the sun. But just in case, I pressed into the wall and peeked through the window from the edge of the curtain.
Parker pulled out his phone and typed something in. I heard my phone chime upstairs. I scowled in his direction and let the curtain fall into place. He could go straight to hell. If he thought rolling into town equaled instant forgiveness, he had to be out of his mind.
With a whole day of daytime TV in mind, I threw my hair up in a messy bun and grabbed my bowl of cereal. Madison would be at work until almost five and by then her parents would want her home for dinner. My mom wouldn’t be home at all, not until late, so I figured, why not add another lazy day to the ones I had already compiled.
That was the plan. However, whatever Parker was doing outside was making a hell of a lot of noise. I had to turn up the TV three times before it drowned it out. But by that time I couldn’t get him out of my head.
He didn’t deserve another second of my time.
Stupid jerk. I already spent all of Sunday moping and when that didn’t help my busted heart, I switched my emotions to anger. An easier emotion to cope with under normal circumstances. With him back, it flared brighter making me want to go over there and kick him square in the balls.
Alas, doing so would let him know how much he hurt me, how much he burrowed under my skin in the days we spent together. So, I decided instead I would just revert to old Lily. Main objective: pretending he didn’t exist. Him and his stupid tight shirts, vibrant hazel eyes, and perfectly floppy hair could go to hell.
I wandered upstairs, needing space from him. Walls and a driveway weren’t enough. My phone chirped again, and I picked it up without thinking. Two notifications filled my screen. One from Madison and one from Parker.
My hand shook as my thumb hovered over his name. I knew he texted me from outside. So full of himself.
With apprehension and curiosity crowding my belly, I tapped on his message.
Parker: Stop staring at me like a creep & come outside.
Like hell. I quickly deleted all of his messages then his number, ridding my phone of him so I wouldn’t be tempted to respond and egg him on. After a brief moment where I stuck my tongue out in the general direction of his bedroom like a five-year-old, I clicked on Madison’s text.
Madison: Wanna do lunch?
Me: Too broke. No car.
Her reply came a few minutes later as I was making my bed. At this point it was a surprise she hadn’t gotten fired for always being on her phone.
Madison: What if I told u there were a couple of hotties here willing to take us to lunch?
Me: I would still be left with no car.
She sent me the middle finger emoji followed quickly by another message.
Madison: Movie night at least? The ‘rents are driving me nuts
Me: Sure. Mom left money for pizza anyway.
A GIF popped up on my screen of a person dancing in a full-blown flower costume. I rolled my eyes. She was such a weirdo.
Something banged from Parker’s driveway, but instead of looking like I wanted to, I walked out of my bedroom toward the shower. I congratulated myself on two things as the water warmed up. One, I held on to my plan to pretend Parker no longer existed. And two, I was finally taking the shower my mom had begged me to for days.
* * *
“So.” Madison held up two movies the second her bag hit the floor by the front door. “Funny love or sappy love?”
“And why couldn’t we pick something on Netflix?” I reached for the red holders containing DVDs from Redbox. I didn’t even know that thing still existed.
“We’ve seen all the good stuff.”
I squinted at the titles. “I haven’t even heard of these movies.”
“Yeah, well, it was slim pickings.” Madison snatched the disks from my hand. “We could always go out.”
I gave a pointed look at my very flattering sweatpants and tattered tank top. She grinned and nudged her bag with her toe.
“I came prepared.”
“Nope.” I made my way to the kitchen where a pint of Ben & Jerry’s Half Baked awaited me. No way in hell was I playing dress up again. Last time that happened I ended up on the receiving end of a broken heart. Something I would prefer to avoid in the future.
“Okay, so I might not have been one hundred percent honest. Billy McDermott is throwing a party tonight and I think we should go.”
Didn’t everyone get sick of parties? “How have you not learned from the last two? Parties and me don’t end well.”
“Except I know for a fact Parker won’t be there. It’s perfect. You get all hot and find yourself a new man to drool over.”
“Or get dared into dating another one?”
Madison cringed from the anger in my statement as she sat down at the kitchen table.
At least she looked remorseful.
“I said I was sorry like a million times. I promised never to butt in again. What more do you want?”
“Dragging me to a party is butting in.” I slammed the silverware drawer shut with my hip. “Parties suck and so do boys. I just want to get through this summer without another round of humiliation.” I dug my spoon into the ice cream a little too aggressively. “Do you know what people are saying about me online?”
Okay, so I might have stalked a few classmates the night after the party. Twitter was the worst with several very unflattering pictures of me trying not to cry and Madison screaming at Parker. Most of them were titled with #troubleinparadise and #caughtintheact. The latter was referring to Parker, but still painted me in a bad light. Blind idiot wasn’t the look I was going for.
“I saw.” Madison ran a finger over the worn wood of the kitchen table. “But screw them. They’ve already moved on to new things.”
“So glad,” I mumbled in the most sarcastic tone I could muster then shoved another heaping spoonful of ice cream in my mouth.
“So…no party?”
I gave Madison a look that said I would kill her if she brought it up again.
She threw her palms up in defeat. “Okay fine. But we’re getting cheesy sticks with the pizza.” She typed something into her phone, most likely telling Billy we couldn’t make it. “If I’m staying in, I’m doing it right. And you’re letting me borrow a pair of those ugly sweatpants.” She looked up at me, eyebrow arched.
I grinned and tossed my spoon in the sink with a loud clatter. It was about time that Madison got a Lily make-under. “Sweatpants in the top drawer. I’ll order pizza.”
Madison did a little shimmy with a lot of boob jiggle as she stood up. “Five minutes. You better have ordered the pizza and picked a movie.” She set her phone down on the kitchen counter where I left mine charging earlier. Knowing her, she would steal my charger the second she got back.
As her feet pounded up the stairs, I reached for my phone to call in the pizza. As it was ringing, I disconnected the charger and reached for Madison’s phone. In the process of plugging it in, my finger hit the home button lighting up the screed and revealing a text… from Parker.
“Thank you for calling MOD Pizza, can I place you on a quick hold?” The person on the other line spoke.
“S-sure.” My ear filled with an audio recording of current offers and thanks for being patient. But I barely heard any of it. My hand shook as I stared down at his name. On my best friend’s phone. A girl who three days prior had torn his head off for hurting me.
Several scenarios ran through my head. The most absurd being them hooking up behind my back. The most obvious explanation was Madison telling him off again via text. That still wasn’t enough to quell the churning in my stomach. Telling him off or not, she shouldn’t have texted him at all.
I heard a door open and shut followed by a few footsteps and another door. Knowing Madison was in the bathroom leaving me with only a few minutes to find out what the hell she was up to, I pressed the home button again and typed in her password when the phone prompted me.
Total best friend no-no, but so was texting an asshole who broke my heart.
With a lump in my throat, I clicked on their text exchange.
Parker: Thanks for trying.
It was the latest message, the one that displayed on the home screen. I scrolled up checking to see what prompted it.
Madison: Sorry I tried. If u want to make it up to her u better figure out something else.
I scrolled through their message exchange, most of which included Madison telling him off for hurting me like a good best friend and then Parker begging her to bring me to this party. None of it made any sense. Why would Madison go from angry to agreeing to bring me to a place she knew he would be at when I made it clear I never wanted to see him again?
Madison walked into the room right as I had opened her call log and saw Parker’s name plastered all over it. She gave me a confused look, matching my own until she noticed the phone tucked against my shoulder and the other in my hand.
“Lily…” Her eyes went wide at the same time a person answered the line at the pizza joint.
I hung up on the pizza guy as fast as I could and tossed her phone at her. “You should go.”
“I can explain.” Madison fumbled with her phone, catching it before it fell to the tile floor.
“Explain why my best friend is chatting up the guy who tore out my heart and stomped on it?”
“Yes. I ripped his damn head off, you saw for yourself! I would never do anything that would hurt you.”
“And the party?”
Madison’s cheeks flushed red. “He begged me. He called and told me how sorry he was and that it was a misunderstanding. Tracy threw herself at him and he was trying to pry her off when we walked in. He wanted to make it up to you, but knew you would avoid him.”
“Yeah, sounds like a great excuse. Parker will say anything he can to get what he wants. And for whatever reason he wants you to think he’s a good guy so he can make my life miserable.”
“Why do you think that is, huh?” Madison propped a hand on her hip changing from defensive to offensive.
“Because he’s a dick?”
“Or maybe it’s because he’s crushing so hard he doesn’t know how to handle it. He’s a guy—we both know they aren’t too smart especially when it comes to their emotions.”
“Wow.” I palmed my forehead and made a move toward the door. “You can’t be that stupid. He’s playing with you and you’re eating it up.”
Madison blocked my path. She knew me well, and I was five seconds away from putting a locked bedroom door between us.
“Maybe you’re the stupid one. Maybe he’s been trying all week to tell you how he feels and every time he got close you shut off like you always do! Just because your dad left doesn’t mean every guy does.”
The second the words were out, Madison’s mouth popped open as if she couldn’t believe what she said. I know I couldn’t.
“You should go,” I said between clenched teeth.
“Look, I’m sorry. You’re right—it was over the line. But you should talk to him. You know I wouldn’t push this if I thought for one second he was out to hurt you.”
“Go.”
“Lily, come on. You can’t be pissed at a guy who you strung along all week. You played just as many games as he did, you’re just too upset to realize it.”
My heart fluttered at her words because as much as I hated to admit it, she was right. I was so back and forth every time my feelings surfaced that I probably gave both of us emotional whiplash. That aside, it still didn’t excuse her from butting in.
“Please, just go.”
Madison shoved her phone in her pocket and made her way to the living room. “Fine. Call me when you realize that I’m right.” She slammed the door, shaking the painting that my mother did at one of those painting parties that was hanging beside the door.
I glared at the door, hoping Madison could feel it through the cherrywood. The second I heard her car pull out of the driveway, I collapsed onto the sofa, four years of repressed tears streaming down my face. Not only had she betrayed me, she poured salt in my wound by bringing up my dad.
What a great best friend.