"It was an accident, they bumped into each other," Adam clarifies. "And it worked out. Lori looked great at prom."
She did, but that was because there were eighteen girls committed to fixing her hair and makeup, and someone even called their mom to deliver a backup dress for Lori to wear.
I scoff. "Well, duh. Lori could wear a paper sack and still be ten times prettier than Jenna."
Adam gets up, clearly sick of getting the third degree. "Jenna will be here in five. Make yourself scarce, Faye."
I jump up beside him. "What? I haven't gotten to say anything to her since the pool incident!" And I have some very colorful words to share with her. The only time I saw Jenna after that was at the actual prom, where I couldn't kick her ass because of all the teachers, and then at graduation where, again, there were way too many witnesses.
"Faye, you're—" Adam starts.
"Let's go to Tim's," Dylan interrupts, rising from where he was lounging on the couch and sliding between me and Adam. "I want an Iced Capp. Keep me company, Faye?"
I know exactly what he's doing, and my narrowed eyes tell him that, but he just smiles at me in the lazy way that's all Dylan.
I debate for a moment before relenting. "Fine. But you're buying. And I want a donut."
"Deal," Dylan says, and I don't miss the appreciative nod Adam sends his way when he thinks I'm not looking. Jerk.
I follow Dylan to his car and buckle in as he reverses out the driveway and heads down my quiet street. Before he can argue, I grab his aux cord and plug in my phone to play my music as punishment for siding with Adam.
He groans when a boy band fills the speakers of his car but doesn't protest since he knows I'm not letting him get his cord back.
I look over at Dylan. He's conventionally good-looking. He's half–white Canadian, half-Jamaican, with black hair shaved in a fade and eyes just as dark, set against the light brown of his skin. His entire left arm is covered in black-and-white tattoos with the occasional pop of color, which, combined with his height, definitely gives him that badass vibe, even though he's a teddy bear. But I've never been attracted to Dylan. Every time I look at him, I remember the scrawny little kid that pushed my face into my birthday cake when I turned eight, and nine, and ten, and eleven. It took me longer than I'm proud to admit to realize he shouldn't be allowed anywhere near me when I blow out my candles.
We pass Jenna's BMW as we turn out of my subdivision, and I scowl.
"He really isn't getting back together with her, right?" I ask Dylan.
"Not that I know of," he says without taking his eyes off the road.
"Why did he date her?" I grumble, remembering all the shit she pulled on me over the years. "He knew she hated me. He knew I'd come home from school pissed off about how she started rumors about me or made Lori cry, and he just opened the door to our house and invited her into my safe space. Why would he do that, Dyl?"
"You handled her all right, all things considered," he says, signaling and pulling into the Tim Hortons parking lot. "And she's not terrible. You guys just always butt heads."
"You're supposed to be on my side! Remember when she spread that rumor that I was blowing the PE teacher and almost got him fired and me expelled?"
No one believed me when I said I wasn't, and even Adam and Dylan asked me if it was true. Kellan's the only one who undoubtedly believed me, who sat with me in the principal's office even though he wasn't supposed to be there, telling me stupid jokes to keep me from shaking.
Dylan's lips spread into a thin line. "I'll give you that one. But Adam didn't know it was her who started the rumors, if it even was her who started them."
I didn't talk to Adam for like three weeks after he refused to break up with or even reprimand my mortal enemy.
"Why does he hate me?" I ask quietly, more to myself than to Dylan.
Dylan opens his mouth, closes it, then replies, "He doesn't hate you, Faye." But his hesitation says it all.
I slump into my seat as he inches the car forward in the drive-thru line. "Why can't he like me? I'm his sister, but it's like he can't even tolerate being in the same room with me."
He hates hanging out with me, hates having to do anything with me at all. Even Lori's shocked anytime he shows his face when we hang out at my house.
"Is he . . . is he still mad about the Zach O'Sullivan incident?"
Dylan gives an uncomfortable laugh. "I think incident isn't a strong enough word for what happened, Faye."
"What happened wasn't my fault," I mumble for what seems to be the millionth time in the last year.
"I know. It takes two to make a relationship start and end. But he did explicitly ask you not to get involved with his friend."
"Adam has lots of friends! I can't be expected to not date all of them!"
Dylan snorts. "He just doesn't want you to date his best friends, in case it ends up like Zach . . . which it did."
I cross my arms and grumble, "Well, Zach was a self-absorbed asshole."
"Maybe," Dylan concedes, "but he was a self-absorbed asshole who was one of Adam's best friends, who now won't even look at him, never mind talk to him."
Zach and I dated for a whole three months before we started fighting more than kissing, and it was over before I knew it. After that, Zach ran the opposite direction from Adam whenever he saw him and stopped inviting him to hang out. He didn't even ask him to come to his nineteenth birthday but invited everyone else.
"Zach still talks to you, Alessio, and Kellan."
Dylan shoots me a look as the car inches forward. "He also didn't fuck our sisters."
I huff in reluctant agreement. "Fine, I'll give you that. But I'm not dating any of his friends right now—" barring secretly sleeping with Kellan twice "—so why does he still hate me?"
"Have you talked to him about it?"
"No. You think Adam and I can have a serious heart-to-heart? You're delusional."
All I've ever wanted was for us to be closer, or at least to be friends. Hell, I'd even take him simply stomaching my presence for longer than an hour.
"Well, we'll be in Cuba for an entire week. There's nowhere for him to run."
He's right. We're going to be at a resort in five days. Sure, it's a big resort, but not big enough for him to ignore my existence. Maybe we can connect there. Maybe we can take a step forward in our relationship. It would be better than nothing.
Dylan pulls up to the speaker and lowers his window.
"I'll have an Iced Capp and a jelly-filled donut," I tell him, looking out my window, wondering what Adam and Jenna are talking about.
They broke up. I graduated high school. Maybe Adam and I can have a fresh beginning, and Cuba can kick-start it for us.