Chapter 24
“Brett asked about you,” I said to Hannah on Friday as we had lunch after our class. Pam was ramping up the intensity in preparation for our first test, and everyone was on edge. If any class had driven me to drink, it was that one.
Hannah choked a little on her frozen caramel Starbucks thing, and I banged her on the back.
“You okay there?”
“What do you mean, he asked about me?”
Wednesday night had been my first production night, and I’d finally had to fess up to everyone at Yellowfield and tell them what I was doing. The reaction had been stunned at first, but then ecstatic when someone—named Dusty—had given them my blog address. Renee was mad at me for the second time that week for not telling her. Apparently, she’d thought I was doing something nefarious and had been trying to figure it out for a while.
It had been fun to hang out with the other people who made the paper happen, and Brett had casually asked, while we were struggling to get the layout right for our section, if I knew if Hannah was seeing anyone. Well, it was more like he asked if Hannah and I hung out with a lot of guys, and I sort of got the gist reading between the lines.
“And?” Hannah said, grabbing my hand and gripping it so hard it cut off my circulation.
“Ouch, let go, crazy girl. I told him that you weren’t seeing anyone, but that we hung out with a lot of guys.”
“Great, now I sound like a slut.”
I shook my head.
“No, it makes it sound like you have a lot of interest. I played it that you were hanging out with, but not dating, these guys. Which is true. You hang out with Hunter and Mase and Paul and Dusty all the time.”
“Yeah, except every single one of them is taken.”
I grinned.
“Brett doesn’t know that.”
“Yeah, well, just...” she sputtered.
“Easy there. He’s really cute, by the way.” Brett was even more adorable than Hannah had let on. I mean, he had a bow tie on and glasses and everything. Plus, he’d made a Star Wars joke, a Breakfast Club reference, and he loved Muse. So he was good in my book. He’d also been so nice to me and had gone out of his way to help me figure out what the hell I was doing when it came to the paper.
“I think he’s coming to battle of the bands, just to watch. Dusty’s coming with me, but if you wanted to happen to show up, that would probably be a good idea.” I wasn’t going to tell Hannah that Brett had asked if she was going. That would just make her nervous and not want to go.
“I guess I can go. I’ll have to check my schedule.” She pretended to open an imaginary date book and flip through some pages while muttering to herself.
“Uh-huh, if I move that to Sunday and that to next Tuesday, but then I’d have to—”
I smacked my hand down on the table.
“Hannah.”
“I’m looking!” She closed the pretend book. “Okay, I can do it.”
“Good, because I was about ready to smack you.”
* * *
Saturday night turned out to be fabulous. The bands were much better than I’d anticipated, and with my shiny press pass around my neck, I got to chat with them before and after and rushed home to write my article in the wee hours of the morning while Dusty tried to distract me with his tongue.
It was also a good night for Hannah, who rocked the red dress from the frat party, and Brett definitely noticed. Poor guy. He got so nervous around her that he dropped the can of soda he’d been holding, narrowly missing the dress. I thought she was going to blow up, but she just laughed it off. No, more like she giggled it off. It was a giggle I hadn’t heard her emit before, and I knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that she liked him, too.
“Congrats on your matchmaking success. Maybe you should write a column about that,” Dusty said while we were making breakfast at Yellowfield on Sunday morning so everyone else could sleep in.
“Yeah, since I’ve had so much relationship experience to draw from,” I said, dumping a panful of bacon onto a plate covered in paper towels.
“You can do anything you set your mind to, Red.” I looked at him suspiciously.
“You’re not buttering me up for more oral sex, are you?”
“I should hope we aren’t at the point in our relationship where I have to give you empty compliments to get something out of you.”
“Do you smell that?” I said, sniffing. “That is your pants burning, you liar.” I smacked him with the spatula and he dived at me and we slid to the floor and rolled until he was on top of me.
Someone cleared their throat and we both looked up to find Renee’s grumpy face staring down at us.
“No sex in the kitchen. I’m adding that to the rules.”
Dusty climbed off me and helped me up.
“Bacon?” He held the plate out to her like a peace offering. She snatched a few pieces and started munching them.
“I’m watching you,” she said, going to the coffeepot.
“So,” I said, grabbing a piece of bacon for myself, splitting it in half and giving one piece to Dusty, “I hear they have this thing now, where on the day you were born people have celebrations and they give you presents and stuff. I’ve also heard rumors of cake, but those are still unconfirmed as of this time.”
My birthday was the following Friday and I was getting antsy, because I knew they were planning things behind my back.
Renee looked at me with an almost-believable innocent face.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” I definitely didn’t miss the look she shared with Dusty, so I went for him next.
“What?” he said, his face a similar mask of innocence. “I, too, have no idea what you’re talking about.”
I glared at both of them and grabbed the plate of bacon and ran away with it, and they both chased me until Dusty caught me and got it away from me.
“No fair,” I said as Renee held the plate out to Darah and Mase as they came down the stairs.
“No bacon hoarding. That’s another rule,” Renee said.
“We should really write these down,” Darah said. “Yellowfield House Rules.”
We spent the next hour writing down the rules, some of which were good, like putting down the toilet seat, and some of which were ridiculous, like no bacon hoarding.
I looked around at all of them and I realized that, like it or not, this was my family now. I couldn’t even imagine living alone anymore. When I’d been with my parents, I’d been surrounded by siblings and noise and chaos, but I’d always felt completely alone.
But here, in this house, I’d found people who had taken me in, no questions asked. They liked me and wanted me around, and I wanted the same thing. And it was in those moments that I heard Nathan’s voice the loudest.