Page 57 of Be Your Anything
“Have a good night,” she says, then she drops down into her front seat, pulls out onto the road, and drives away.
“You just got back, Rem. I don’t want to be in an argument already,” I tell her as we walk into my house.
I go through the routine I always do: kick off my shoes, drop my keys on the entryway table along with my wallet and sunglasses—though I never need them at night—and then walk into the kitchen to get myself a drink.
Because holy fuck do I need one.
“Exactly. I’m back in town for the first time in months and I feel like nobody is even excited about it.”
Her words are a sharp slice through my gut.
It isn’t true, at least not for me.
I care about Remmy. We’ve been together since we were sixteen and seventeen years old. OfcourseI’m happy she’s here.
But I can’t help the fact that I was surprised by her sudden appearance, or that none of the girls at the table knew how to interact with her when they’ve apparently been used to seeing Lennon by my side over the past few months.
I mean, that would be awkward for anyone.
More importantly, I can’t force the people whousedto be friends with her to be over the moon to see her.
She says she’s home for the first time in months, but really it’s been at least a year. She can’t expect nothing to have changed in that amount of time, especially when I don’t think she makes an effort to talk to anyone. She and Rebecka used to be best friends and they haven’t spoken in… Shit, I don’t even know how long.
How do you tell someone the reason their relationships are broken is because they didn’t put in the maintenance work to keep them strong?
You can’t expect a car to run without changing the oil.
I take a sip of my whiskey, keeping my back to Remmy.
“I’m glad you’re back, Rem. Obviously I am. And the rest of the girls? They just haven’t seen you in a while. You haven’t been back to Hermosa in over a year.” I rotate my head so I can see her over my shoulder. “We were just surprised, is all.”
She comes up behind me and wraps her arms around my stomach, resting her chin in the space between my neck and shoulder.
“Good surprised, I hope,” she says, her hands flirting with my button-up shirt.
I stay silent, trying to focus on the feeling of her hands on me.It’s just been a while, I try to remind myself. I’ve gotten into a pattern, a routine, a way I do things and who I do them with.
The last time I saw Remmy, I was surfing over Memorial Day weekend up in Malibu. We got dinner, but I was with Otto that weekend and was distracted by stuff going on with Hannah at the time. Remmy wanted to go out to a club, and I wanted to just go back to the hotel and relax.
After dinner, we kissed goodbye in the hotel lobby and then she took off to meet up with some friends.
Before that, the last time we were together was New Year’s when she went with me to Sydney for a competition. We stayed at this amazing resort and got spa treatments and did a bunch of shopping. A fancy dinner and drinks on our balcony overlooking the big party in the streets, fireworks brightening the sky.
It has to be expected that things might be slightly strained or strange when we’ve seen each other only twice in the past six months.
I barely knew how to react when I saw her in the crowdtonight. I seriously thought I might have been hallucinating.
There I was, about to leave a message on Lennon’s voicemail asking her where she was since I’d cancelled with Otto, and Remmy strides over, people parting instinctually to make room for her.
Even though she’s been away from Hermosa for a year or so, people still know who she is. Even if they don’t, she gives off a certain vibe, an energy that tells you the most important person at the party just showed up.
Remmy walked right up to me, my mouth ajar, and put one finger under my chin, pushing it closed.
“Hey, baby.”
That’s what she said.
We hadn’t seen each other in two months, she doesn’t call me for weeks, she shows up in town out of nowhere, and that’s what she says when she finds me out in public.Hey, baby.
