Page 39 of Nothing Like the Movies

The last thing I needed was for Wes to think that my drunkenness had anything to do with his appearance in my house.

“Wait—Buxbaum was hammied?” he asked, a smile in his voice. “The Little Liz I used to know was not a drinker.”

“Obviously I’m no longer ‘Little’ Liz,” I snapped, keeping my eyes on AJ through the lens as I took photos of him shoving French fries into his mouth and grinning like a child.

“Obviously,”Wade agreed, which made me flip him off.

“And no one says ‘hammied’ here, Bennett,” I added grumpily,sounding like a pouty child.

But something about the stupid word everyone in our high school used to use for partying irritated me. I’d been gone for years—hadn’t even returned for breaks—so the last thing I wanted was to be reminded of those silly little Omaha details.

Gaaah why does he always make me revert to Little Liz?

“I’m gonna start, though,” AJ said. “I like it. I am gonna get fuckinghammiednext weekend.”

“I washammiedas shit last Friday,” Wade declared, grinning proudly.

Mick was laughing when he opened his big mouth and shared, “I don’t know if I’d say she washammied, but she was screaming along to every word of ‘Sabotage.’ It was very impressive.”

“Not doing this,” I said, lowering to my knees to get a shot from below the table, thankful the camera was in front of my hot face.

Because “Sabotage.” There was no way Wes was missing that reference, dammit.

I loved that song my senior year and used to crank it in Wes’s car all the time. We used to sing-yell along to every word with all the windows down.

So yes, I’d been absolutelyhammiedat my party while I’d screamed the lyrics in an attempt to exorcise old demons.

“I want to hear more about ‘Little’ Liz,” Eli said, taking off the lid to his cup before raising it to his mouth. “What was Buxxie like in high school?”

I held my breath and waited, wanting to disappear. I wished the floor would open up and swallow me whole as I waited for WesBennett to mess with what I had here, to poke his finger into the relationships and reputation I’d built for myself in California.

“Liz was always,” he said, pausing like he was searching for the right words. Since he was sitting beside Mick, I was able to see his face through my camera without him seeing me watching.

And suddenly my heart was in my throat because he wasn’t wearing the I-live-to-mess-with-you expression anymore. His mouth was relaxed in a soft smile when he grabbed a fry and said, “Her own person. She was that girl who didn’t follow the crowd unless they were going to the same place she was already planning to go. She did her own thing.”

Wade looked directly at me—through the camera—and teased, “But she had braces and glasses, right? I bet Bux rocked a retainer in her yearbook photo.”

I coughed out a little laugh. “I only wore my retainer at night, asshole.”

That made everyone laugh, but suddenly Wes’s eyes were on mine. We were both smiling, remembering the night on our road trip when he’d discovered I slept in a retainer, and my throat felt impossibly tight.

“If she was that cool,” Eli said, “then why’d she dateyou, Bennett?”

It felt like he was talking directly to me when he shrugged and said, “I have no idea.”

“Looks like they’re done,” AJ said, breaking the moment, and I was a little shaky as I turned my camera to get shots of the guys at the other table as they stood and started cleaning up their stuff.

Dinner was apparently over.

Thank God.

But hours later, when I was finally miles away from Wes and in my comfy pajama pants, I was still frazzled. I’d been parked on the couch with my laptop since getting home from In-N-Out, working on a Reel, and I was pretty sure I was finally done.

I hit play, watching it one final time.

Frank Ocean was the perfect backdrop for theBRUINS BASEBALL WEEK TWOpiece (I would never not be moved by “Pink + White”), and I knew it was good as I saved the file.

Lilith was going to love it.

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