Page 126 of Daydream

He looks like I just asked him for a kidney. “Ror will kill me, Henry. I don’t think I was even allowed to tell you.”

“Please, Russ. I’ll never ask for anything from you again. I need to make it up to Halle and I know how.”

“Fine,” he says, closing his book. “But you need to teach me how to be good at hiding out when Aurora inevitably tracks me down.”

“You got it.”

Pulling out my phone, I send Halle one more text. I tell her I’m working on fixing everything, and that I miss her.

Chapter Thirty-NineHALLE

“WHAT ABOUT FOR TEN MILLIONdollars?”

I frown at Aurora over my forkful of ravioli. “No.”

“What about eleven million?” she continues.

Cami puts her glass back on the table and picks up her cutlery. “I’ll cancel my plans and come with you for eleven million dollars.”

“I only have the funds to bribe one friend today! You have a week with Briar and Summer,” Aurora argues, absentmindedly moving plates around. She’s separated the strawberries from her salad and is pushing them onto my empty side plate. “Halle has a week with the Antichrist.”

The waiter is trying not to laugh as he refills the glasses of water on the table, and I can’t blame him. Every time he’s visited our table, Aurora has been calling Will something new in a bid to make me change my plans.

Aurora is upset I’m still going on vacation with my family instead of with her, Poppy, and Emilia. Considering how I don’t want me to go on this trip, either, it’s kind of nice to have someone be the dramatic one on your behalf. While she’s definitely more creative than me, her outrage is enough for the both of us. “He’s a jackass, but I wouldn’t call him the Antichrist, Ror.”

“He’sblond!” she splutters.

Poppy looks up from her phone, visibly confused. “You’re blond. Russ is blond.”

“Russ islightbrown,” she argues, looking offended. “Will isblondblond. Sneaky blond. Untrustworthy blond.”

“I know you’ve made looking like a Barbie doll one of your core identities, but normal people don’t have personalities defined by their hair color,” Emilia says, being the voice of reason. “Will is a jerk because he’s a jerk, not because he’s blond.”

“Of course you’d say that. Your hair is brown,” Aurora counters.

I finish the last of Aurora’s strawberries and take the napkin from my lap, placing it next to my empty plate. “How about… I still go on my vacation because he won’t be there the whole time because he needs to leave early for a game.But, if his head starts spinning or he starts speaking in tongues, I’ll let you put me on a flight.”

“Fine,” she says, throwing her napkin onto her empty plate. “But your sister followed me, and she promised to keep me up to date because I don’t trust you not to tell me what I want to hear. So just know, I’ll be watching.”

I think if I were a little stronger I’d have bowed out of this trip a month ago. Mom and I had a great chat after I arrived home from Henry’s place. If I stank of sex and sadness, she didn’t mention it as she cuddled me on the couch. I didn’t tell her what Will had said, but I let her know that it was horrible enough that I was never speaking to him ever again.

She apologized for not realizing how much she put on me. She told me I was her rock, the one who kept her sane through all the stressful times, but that her dependence on me had robbed me of so much. She cried when she told me she worried that I’d matured too quickly and that’s why I struggled to make friends. And that she thought maybe my reward for being so selfless was one of those once-in-a-lifetime kinds of love.

I told her I was never in love with Will, but maybe it could still be true.

She said she didn’t expect me to come on the vacation anymore if I didn’t want to, but I do really miss Gianna and Maisie. I already missed the holidays with them; I can cope with ignoring Will for a few days.

I know that Mom no longer feels any kind of allegiance to Will. In fact, I’d say she probably hates him now, knowing what she knows. She doesn’t bring him up when she calls, and she only ever asks me how I’m doing and what I’m up to. Well, she tries, and I don’t mind helping out with some things. Maybe next year she can plan the trip and I can go away with my friends.

When the five of us were desperately trying to edit my book, Mom sent a care package with snacks and candles, which showed me she heard what I said and is trying to be better.

“You’re the only person worrying!” I lie, telling Aurora what she wants to hear. “I’m excited to hang out with my siblings. It’s going to be great. And be careful, Gigi will extort you for race tickets. She’s just gotten into Formula 1.”

“You’re going to have to get better at lying,” Emilia says, waving her piece of pizza around as she talks. “I can’t be surrounded by bad liars. I want to work in PR and it might rub off on me.”

Romano’s isn’t as busy as I expected it to be on a Friday afternoon given I’ve never been able to get a reservation here. My spring break officially started yesterday since I have no Friday classes, but for everyone else, their break started an hour ago.

We agreed to meet for lunch before heading on our respective trips, to celebrate me finally submitting my novel to the competition. Poppy wanted me to do it here at the table in front of them all, but it felt like something I needed to do alone to fully absorb.

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