Page 83 of The Love Playbook
When I showed up back in Spokane early at the end of winter break, Autumn pulled the whole story out of me about how I’d discovered that my on-again, off-again boyfriend of the last couple of years had broken up with me for good and started seeing someone else.
We’ve broken up a million times before. But we always get back together when I’m home on school breaks. Then he decides that long distance is too frustrating, so he calls it quits … until the next time.
But this is the first time he’s asked to get together and thenintroduced me to his new girlfriend.
I made it through Christmas with my family, of course, but no way was I sticking around through New Year’s. Bradford is a small town, and I bumped into him and Emily—that’s her name, Emily—everywhere. It happened several times after he introduced me to her, and each time I had to smile and pretend like seeing them together wasn’t a knife to the heart.
So a few days after Christmas, I told my mom I wanted to have some time to get settled back in the house, that we’d left it a mess before leaving for the break and I needed the last couple of weeks before classes started to get things sorted.
Ellie and Piper are both gone for the duration, visiting their respective boyfriends. Which meant I’d basically get the place to myself, since I figured Autumn would be visiting her parents.
Except she wasn’t. She was here. Apparently she and Jackson both decided to cut their breaks short and come back to Spokane too. And instead of leaving me on my own and staying at Jackson’s place so I could have the house to myself, she did the exact opposite.
After I told her everything, she called Jackson, canceled their plans, and declared tonight a girls’ night. And somehow convinced me to let her style my hair, telling me that she could tell I had a lot of natural wave and I could make the most of it if I just did a few things differently, which consisted of washing my hair, using loads of conditioner, then letting her load my hair up with a variety of products while I hung my head upside down, and then she blow dried it with a diffuser.
She’s not wrong. My hair does look pretty great this way. I’m not sure I’ll do this all the time, considering it’s a lot more work than my standard ponytail. But it’d be nice to know what she actually did if I want to replicate it at some point.
A few minutes later, she appears in the doorway again, her turquoise and pink streaked hair flowing around her shoulders in beachy waves, the front half pulled back to keep it out of her face. She’s wearing a denim mini, a sparkly halter top, and a crystal pendant that dangles between her breasts. She holds up another one. “This is for you. It’ll bring you what you need tonight.”
Shaking my head, I obediently pull my hair out of the way to let her secure it around my neck. “I’m not sure a pretty rock can manage that, Autumn.”
She just shrugs away my doubts. “Not with that attitude.” She meets my eyes in the mirror. “It’s a new year. And a new moon. Time to set new intentions and call what you want into your life.”
“New year, new me, huh?” I mean, with a makeover like this, it’s an easy cliche to throw out.
But she purses her lips and shakes her head a little. “No. More like new year, same you, we just love her more.”
Her words shouldn’t make me cry, but they hit me in a soft, wounded part of me. The part who’s been so busy running after other people’s approval that I somehow neglected my own needs. “Right,” I agree, but it comes out as a croak.
She gives me a sunny smile. “Alright. Time for some karaoke to sing out our feelings and release them to make way for new ones. Let’s go!” And with that, she grabs my hand and drags me out the door.
I’m not sure I buy into Autumn’s whole thing, but I have to say, releasing all the old, crappy feelings I’ve been dragging around with me for way too long sounds like a great idea to me.
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