Brendon spent a week away with his dad, but was back in time for my birthday. He wanted to take me to the country club to have lunch and play tennis. When I walked out to his car, I found a tennis racket sitting in the passenger seat. However, Jayson and Brooke were also in the car.

“Hey, my mom just bought herself a new racket and wondered if you’d like her old one.”

“Oh, wow. So thoughtful,” I said. It had to be expensive.

“Her tennis coach said it will take your game to the next level. Promise,” he said.

“You sure you can handle it, bro?” Jayson asked.

“At least this won’t be a repeat of my humiliation on the miniature golf course last week,” Brendon said as we walked onto the court.

“Hey, I told you not to swing like a maniac. At least they didn’t make you pay for chipping the elephant’s trunk,” Jayson said.

“If I hadn’t been losing by like, a billion strokes, then maybe I wouldn’t have hit it so hard,” Brendon replied. “And then you had to win a free game so the stupid billboard flashed our scores for the whole world to see.”

“Were you embarrassed that I beat you?” Jayson asked.

“No, I was embarrassed I got a thirty-two at a par eighteen course that includes a bear wearing a tutu.”

“I still have the tickets for my free game. When would you like to have our rematch?” Jayson asked as I served. The new racket was way better than my old one. It was like there was a new power behind my serve.

“What happened to just playing for fun?” Brooke asked, scowling. I hadn’t even broken a sweat, but Brooke acted like she was exhausted. She seemed overwhelmed, and I thought maybe this was an opportunity to get to know her without all the weirdness. As we sat down for lunch, I told her about how worried I had been the first time I played tennis here at the club.

“Well, I, unlike some people, was honest about my game. I didn’t say I played only once in a while and then turned into Venus Williams on the court,” she said as she took a bite of her chicken salad.

I wasn’t sure if she was joking or annoyed with me.

“I think it’s great Emme’s gotten into it. Usually I’d play with Sam, who kicks my butt, or Jayson, who you can clearly see isn’t as good as me, but now I can play tennis with Emme. My equal…finally.”

Jayson punched him in the arm, and Brooke laughed like Brendon was a stand-up comic. Lauren had been co-captain of the tennis team last year, and I wondered if they had played together a lot when they were dating. She seemed like the kind of person who would let him win, but then totally annihilate the next person who came onto the court.

“Okay, I will concede you are the better tennis player, but if only I could find someone who was my equal in miniature golf,” Jayson said. “And might I add, both our parents golf regularly.”

“I’m rebelling against the establishment,” Brendon said.

“Yeah, you just keep telling yourself that,” Jayson said.

“So Emme, do you want to do the movie in the park thing this weekend?” Brendon asked. “Or just hang out at my house.”

“Whatever you want to do. I can’t believe this is our last weekend,” I said.

“There’s still Labor Day,” he said.

“They just give us that to keep us from killing ourselves the first week back,” I said.

Brendon cleared his throat and looked away, and I wondered if I said the wrong thing, but then he came back to his usual self.

“Should I take your shoelaces away? You know, I better keep you away from miniature golf courses—you could do some damage with those putters,” he said. “Anyway, I have one other present for you.”

“What is it? A Faberge egg?” I asked.

“The mall was all out of those,” he said, handing me a box.

Brooke was giving me the side eye as I opened it. It was a beautiful, stainless steel Riley Turner watch with a lavender face. I had seen the same one in a magazine, and I knew it cost a lot. I loved it and said a silent thank you my birthday had come before his because I wouldn’t have had a clue what I would have bought him.

“Oh, cute,” Brooke said with an expression that appeared like she smelled a skunk. “But, Brendon, are you implying she is always late?”

“No, I just noticed Emme always checks her phone for the time, and I thought maybe she’d like a watch.”

“Yeah, you can wear it along with those hundreds of bracelets you have on,” Brooke said. “Why do you have so many on?”

“They’re crystal bracelets, and each one is for something specific,” I said. “The jasper is for grounding, and the onyx absorbs negativity—”

“You seriously think your bracelets have magic powers?” Brooke asked, sneering.

I glanced over at Brendon, who seemed uncomfortable.

“No, of course not. Just trying to have my bases covered, you know?”

“Hey, we should get Dad an onyx one,” Jayson said. “Do they make onyx underpants? Those could win him re-election the next time around.”

I gave a little smile as they all laughed, but I wondered if Brendon’s weird expression was because he was embarrassed over my bracelet thing. Looking around the room, I realized I was the only female there with an armful of bracelets. All the rest had on understated jewelry, if any. Even Brooke was wearing just a pair of diamond stud earrings and nothing else. I suddenly felt overdone—like some weird boho hippie chick. Brooke’s whole look was simple, with her blue golf shirt and khaki skirt. Meanwhile I was wearing a dark pink T-shirt and matching gingham capris, and suddenly my outfit seemed loud. Everyone else had a classic or preppy look. I would have felt boring and unfeminine in Brooke’s outfit, but somehow she managed to make a golf shirt sexy without being over the top.

“Okay, so I hate to bring this up on your birthday, but we need to go over our schedules for school and see when we’ll be in the same halls and stuff,” Brendon said.

I was hoping to have a least a week until I had to think about school starting. I didn’t expect to have any classes together, but after we compared schedules, we found we didn’t even have the same lunch period. Plus, they had assigned him a seventh hour and given him a study hour during the regular school day.

“It stinks we don’t even get out of class at the same time. You’ll have to wait a whole hour while I’m in my last class if you want to ride home with me,” he said, frowning.

“I’m so disappointed,” I said. “I thought we’d at least have lunch together.”

“Do they make a bracelet to help with that?” Brooke asked with a fake smile.

“We’ll find a way to meet up during the day,” Brendon said.

He dropped me off first and walked me to the door—the first time all day we had without Brooke and Jayson around.

“I hope you had a great birthday,” he said.

“It was great. Thank you so much for the presents—they’re amazing.”

“Just wanted to do something special for you.”

“I didn’t know Jayson and Brooke were coming,” I said.

“Yeah, I was getting ready to leave, and Brooke insisted. She kept saying we all have to hang out more. She likes you a lot.”

There was no possible way she liked me. Either she was looking for a way to spend more time with him or sabotage our dates.

“Thanks again for everything.” I went to kiss him when someone honked the horn and we sprang apart.

“Brooke’s such a kidder,” he said. “I better get going. See ya tomorrow.”

* * *

I put out my outfit for the first day of school and checked my e-mail before I went to bed. Brendon had sent me a reminder he’d pick me up at seven and said it was supposed to be cool tomorrow. He was obsessed with this new weather app and always had to know the exact temperature. He’d freak if he planned on wearing long sleeves and then it was hot, or if he wanted to do something outdoors and then it rained. I thought his weather obsession was weird, but he said it was no weirder than how I was always paying attention to which sign the moon was in. He’d tell me I was crazy when I’d say that I had no energy because it was an Aquarius moon day. Although once, on a Cancer moon day, he did admit he had a little more energy than usual, but he said it was probably the sugar rush from the three cans of soda he drank.

Brendon walked me to all my classes on the first day. Darren Ritts was sitting by the window in my creative writing class. We had been in the same history class last year, and he had been the only thing that had kept the class from sucking. I was happy to see someone I knew, since I knew I’d have to read my work out loud in class. Other than Rory, I didn’t know anyone else in the room. Mr. Horowitz walked in and made us go around the room and tell the class our names and our favorite books. I brought my bloodstone crystal along for self-confidence and held it in my hand as he talked. I figured I’d just repeat the title of a book somebody else mentioned, but my brilliant plan failed when he called on me first.

“My name is Emme Trybus, and I’m a sophomore. My favorite book is The Bell Jar.”

“Good, and why did you choose it?” he asked.

Crap, I was hoping he wouldn’t ask. My hand was so sweaty the bloodstone almost shot out of my grip. I hadn’t finished the book yet, and I only chose it because I thought it would make me look smart in front of all these brains.

“I recently read a Sylvia Plath biography and got into her work,” I said.

He seemed satisfied with my answer and moved on to the next person. The rest of the students named serious books they probably understood all the themes of, whereas I just read for enjoyment. Then I found out there was only one other sophomore in the class besides me. Everyone else was a junior or a senior. I wondered if it was too late to drop the class. Darren and I were catching up on what we had done over the summer when Brendon walked up. I told Darren to have a good weekend, but he didn’t say anything.

* * *

I went to Brendon’s grandparents’ house on Saturday. Each year his whole family got together for a big barbeque Labor Day weekend. Everybody decided to play volleyball, but I stunk at sports so I sat on the porch and talked to his grandparents. I could tell Brendon wanted me to play, but he didn’t say anything. Since I was used to my own grandma being sleepy and not able to follow a conversation, I made sure to include his grandpa.

“Are you from Michigan?” his grandpa asked.

“Yup, my grandparents voted for you,” I said smiling.

He and his wife laughed. His grandfather had some issues speaking and searched for words a lot, so I tried to follow him as best I could. He pointed a lot to the kids while smiling, and he’d clap his hands when someone did well during the game.

His family had a tradition where they took a big group photo, and Brendon made me sit in the front row with him. I wondered if they’d cut me out of the picture if we broke up someday. Brooke was there again with Jayson, and she sat on his lap for the photo. I bet Mrs. Agretti would cut her out of the picture, even if she and Jayson stayed together.

We were all standing by the table with the food, and Brendon picked up a bowl of chips.

“Hey, Brooke left some for the rest of us,” he said.

She winked at him, put her finger out, and tapped his nose while making this annoying, “boop” sound.

“He’s always teasing me,” she said to me like I was a complete outsider. “No one picks on me more than Brendon.”

He shrugged as he took a bite of his hot dog.

“Did you tell her about the buffalo thing?” she asked while grabbing his arm.

“I don’t think so.”

“It was sooo funny,” she said, rolling her eyes. “We were all at this fundraiser, and Jayson and Brendon had just been to South Dakota with their dad, and Brendon couldn’t shut up about the buffalo burgers they had there. So he’s going on and on about it, having no clue the guy he’s talking to is like the number one guy for beef in the nation. So Brendon basically was talking up this guy’s competition. How embarrassing! Major faux pas,” she said with another wink at him. She was giving him flirtier looks than I did, and I was supposed to be his girlfriend. Yet Jayson didn’t seem to be around whenever she did it.

Brendon and Jayson got called over to meet someone, and the second they were gone, it was like I was invisible to Brooke. She walked away, leaving me standing alone, and I felt stupid, so I went back over to sit with his grandparents. I tried not to enjoy it when Brooke fell while trying to play volleyball in flip-flops, but I couldn’t help laughing when Brendon’s grandma made a comment about not realizing they “made shorts quite as short as Brooke’s.”

Brooke tripped again, and I wondered if it was on purpose as she managed to fall right in front of Brendon. Unfortunately he caught her, and I thought she overdid it grabbing onto him.

“You saved me,” she said to him. “Always the boy scout, always the hero, huh?”

Rolling my eyes, I glanced over to where Jayson had been standing, but once again he was gone.

“I’m going to get something to drink,” I said to Mrs. Agretti. “Would either of you like anything while I’m up?”

“Oh no, but thank you.”

I ran into Jayson in the house when I went to get some water.

“Hey, there’s only one piece of chocolate cake left,” he said. “You wanna split it with me?”

I thought he’d cut it in half, but instead he handed me a fork so we could eat off the same plate. Obviously no one in the Agretti family cared about germs. Their immune systems must have been made of steel. We were almost done eating when Brooke came in to see where he was.

“Oh, hey Emma,” she said as she wrapped herself around his arm. “Love your contacts. They almost look real.”

Jayson’s mouth dropped open, but I just said, “You’re outfit is so cute, Brooke. I love it.” Then I walked away. I love throwing people off when they insult me. I wish I had the nerve to tell her off, but I wasn’t on my own turf, and I didn’t want to look stupid. Margaux would have put her in her place though. In fact, Margaux once told off a girl who had been acting way too friendly with her boyfriend. I remember her going up to the girl, saying, “Oh, I’m sorry, did you just go blind? Because this is my boyfriend you’ve been flirting with, and you obviously lost your eyesight and confused my boyfriend with yours. Or else you’re just completely pathetic. So did you go blind or are you just pathetic? Which is it?”

“Em, I wondered where you went,” Brendon said, coming in. He put his arm around me. “Hey, everything okay?”

I nodded. No point in sharing my humiliation. I wondered if Jayson would tell him later that Brooke had insulted me.

* * *

Brendon didn’t mention Brooke being passive-aggressive when he called me the next day. Part of me wanted to say something about how Brooke had been flirting with him, but I didn’t want to give him any ideas and make him start looking in her direction. Sure, he hadn’t encouraged her, but he hadn’t sprayed mace in her face either.

“I have to run out to the pharmacy and get a prescription for my granddad. Want to come along? I haven’t seen you in sixteen hours, and I’m starting to go through withdrawal,” he said, laughing.

“Sure.” I didn’t look my best, but I would have gone to Antarctica if it meant getting out of the house.

Once we were out, neither one of us wanted to go home. Brendon hated seeing his grandfather get worse, especially when he’d start drooling without even realizing it, and I couldn’t stand freaking out every time the phone rang, thinking this was another call saying Grandma had fallen out of bed again. Her falls were getting more frequent, and I couldn’t understand why or how she kept falling out of her bed. They had gates on the side and a pad on the floor, and yet somehow she’d slip out and wind up on the floor. Then my mom would have to go down to the hospital while they did yet another scan to see if Grandma had broken anything.

Since my mom was consumed with Grandma, I was staying with Grandpa as much as I could. She felt she couldn’t take him to the nursing home or leave him alone, so she’d leave in the evenings to see Grandma. However, it was getting harder for me to deal with Grandpa asking where she was all the time. It was one thing to know Grandma was now living in a nursing home full-time. It was another to be reminded Grandpa didn’t know where he was half the time. Plus, it physically hurt having to show him where the bathroom was—every day. My gut felt like it was twisting when he’d ask, “Now where’s the restroom?” like he had never been in my house before, when my parents had lived in the same house for over seventeen years. And hearing, “Where do I sleep?” every single night wasn’t much better. At least he knew we were his family. And he called my parents by their names most of the time. Sometimes he’d call my dad by my uncle’s name, but even that was better than nothing. Although he did call my Aunt Caroline, “Rudy,” a couple of times, which was weird since it was his brother’s name, and Uncle Rudy had died when I was nine. All I remembered about him was he was a bald guy who always gave me candy and he smelled like peppermint and foot spray. Sometimes when I smelled foot spray, it was actually sort of comforting because I always took it as a sign Uncle Rudy was watching me…in a protective way, not in a creepy from-beyond-the-grave way.

“So what do you want to do now?” Brendon asked.

“Don’t you have to get the medicine back soon?”

He shook his head and said it was just a refill. “Do you want to hang out at your house?” he asked.

Yeah, great idea. It would be real fun when Grandpa thought Brendon was his dead cousin and then asked him where his wife was when even Brendon knew.

“I don’t feel like going to my house.”

“Wanna just drive around?”

Brendon wasn’t the kind of guy who opened up and told you everything he was feeling, but sometimes he’d talk about how hard it was seeing his grandfather get worse. Today he didn’t want to talk, and neither did I. I think we both just needed to be with somebody.

* * *

Kylie called me later to find out how things went at the Agretti party.

“Okay, but his brother’s girlfriend was way too flirty with Brendon. She did this thing where she literally fell at his feet, and he had to save her—so pathetic,” I said.

“That Brooke chick?”

“Yup.”

“Did he encourage her?” Kylie asked.

“No, but he didn’t walk away either. She made me feel like such an outsider, and I was already irritated she crashed my birthday lunch.”

“You know, you need to say something to Brendon about this.”

“I can’t because I’ll sound like some jealous, paranoid girlfriend—everything John accused me of being.”

“And you weren’t paranoid or jealous then either. You were right on target.”

“Yeah, but back then I had a gut feeling something was up,” I said.

“Do you have one now?”

“Like he’s cheating on me? No, it’s more I feel like I’m being excluded, and she’s pawing my boyfriend.”

“You need to talk to him because I know you, and if you don’t, it’s going to come out in other ways. There’s no way you can hold all those feelings in.”

“Maybe, whatever. So how was your weekend?”

“Emme, seriously. Think about it. If you don’t, you’re going to be getting an attitude with him on the little things. He’s not a mind reader, and I doubt he’d think you were being jealous. Just share what you feel.”