Allegiant (12 page)

He smiles and leans in to kiss me again.

“
Ahem,” Thomas subtly
clears his throat from the doorway.

James stops. He reaches out, takes my hand,
and squeezes it, smiling at me. I mouth “I love you.” He winks at
me and then drops my hand.

“
Ready?” Thomas
asks.

“
Ready,” James confirms and
takes a step back.

“
It was nice to meet you
Emma,” Thomas says to me.

“
You too. Come by any
time.”

The two of them fade from my vision, James a
little more slowly than Thomas, and I’m left with LB to wait for
Shel. She’s been napping on my bed this whole time. It’s funny how
a place that was so full moments ago can now feel so empty. That
is, assuming Garrett has gone. I walk out into the living room, and
it is indeed empty. He must have left while I was on the phone.

My stomach growls, and I realize I haven’t
had any dinner. I check the clock and it’s almost eight. Shel
should be here around nine. I head to the kitchen to make myself
something to eat. This is going to be a long night.

When I greet Shel at the door, the evidence
of her emotional state is worse than I imagined. I thought the
drive would have calmed her some, but her eyes are rimmed in red,
her mascara has run down her cheeks, and her nose looks raw from
wiping.

“
Hey,” she says quietly and
takes a deep breath.

I instantly open my arms to her and she
steps into them for a hug. “This sucks,” she says against my
shoulder.

“
Yeah.” It’s all I can
think to say.

We make our way to my apartment, and LB
greets us at the door. “She’s getting so big,” Shel says as she
crouches down to pet her. “What are you feeding her? Super
food?”

“
Nah, just the regular
stuff. Maybe I give her too many treats? She’s spoiled.”

“
As she should be,” Shel
says and shrugs out of her jacket. “All us women deserve to be
spoiled.” She stands and lays the jacket over the back of the
couch, setting her purse on the floor. “Is this the…?”

“
Birthday present?” I
finish for her, making a face. “Yes.”

She runs her hand across the leather and
looks impressed. “It’s nice.” She glances at the television. “I
thought…”

I roll my eyes and sit down. “After I found
out about Dane’s…um…situation, I didn’t want his gifts anymore. I
gave the TV to my neighbor.”

Shel joins me on the couch. “That Garrett
guy?”

I nod. “He barely owns anything. He has my
old loveseat too, which I’m planning to trade for this hunk of junk
as soon as I can.”

LB jumps into my lap to be
scratched and, as she makes herself comfortable, Shel asks, “So,
how
did
you find
out about Dane?”

“
I received a newspaper
article in the mail all about the lovely Ms. Teagan Meyer,” I say
sarcastically. It’s easy to let my true emotions show around Shel.
If anyone will understand how I feel, it’s her. “The end of which
prominently discussed her upcoming nuptials.”

Shel’s mouth falls open. “Who sent it?”

I shrug. “I don’t know. There was no return
address.”

“
Can I read it?”

“
Sure.” I pick up LB, move
her to Shel’s lap, and then pause. James crumpled the article
earlier today in his fit of frustration. Maybe it’s still near the
top of the garbage can. “Let me get it out of the trash.” I head
over to the kitchen, peer into the basket, and pluck out the
article-ball. I bring it back to Shel and hand it to her. “Sorry. I
got a little upset.”

“
Understandable,” she says
and takes the wadded up piece of paper.

I sit down opposite her, and LB makes her
way back to my lap. I scratch behind her ears and concentrate on
listening to her purr as Shel unfolds the ball and reads the news
story. When she finishes, she crumples it back up and tosses it
across the room. “Well, that’s just shitty,” she says. “Why are men
such morons?”

I laugh. “Good question. Maybe we should be
asking ourselves why we fall for them in the first place.”

Shel smiles, but then her amusement fades.
“How can I trust Matt after this? How can you?”

I shake my head. “I have to believe he has a
good reason for keeping Dane’s secret. If not, I will gladly be
your accomplice in his murder.” I pause. “Did he try to explain
himself? What happened?”

Shel rearranges her body on the couch to get
comfortable. “We were hanging out at my place when he got the call
from Dane. I take it he found out you knew?”

“
He sent me a text tonight
and asked how I was, so I told him. I said I was pissed, he asked
why, and I told him to ask his fiancée.”

This makes Shel smile. “Oooo, nice.”

“
He tried to call me, but I
wouldn’t answer.” LB stretches out her front legs and kneads her
paws against my thigh. “He texted me again, and I promptly told him
to lose my number. I haven’t heard from him since.”

“
Well, he must have called
Matt right after.” She tosses her hair over her shoulder. “They
started to argue, which is weird for them, and when Matt jumped off
the couch and started pacing, I knew something big was up. He kept
saying, “It wasn’t me, it wasn’t me.” So, naturally, when he hung
up the phone I asked him what was going on.” She grimaces. “When he
told me, I lit into him about keeping this from you. He knows what
you’ve been through! The last thing you need is more heartache. At
least if he had told me the truth I could have steered you away
from Dane instead of pushing you two together! I’m so mad at
him!”

I can’t help it and laughter escapes me. I
slap my hand over my mouth.

“
What’s so funny?” Shel
asks. “I’m upset here!”

“
You,” I say with a smile.
“You just admitted to setting me up with Dane.”

She rolls her eyes at me. “Please. You knew
that all along.”

“
True, but you rarely admit
to anything.” In the beginning, Shel found creative ways to get
Dane and I in the same place at the same time, all the while
denying her “involvement.” But, as time went on, she didn’t need to
intervene anymore, and that was my own fault. I’m responsible for
my own feelings and my own actions.

“
What is it?” Shel
asks.

“
What? Nothing.”

“
You just went from
laughter to sadness in, like, a second.”

I sigh. “I do wish that
Matt would have said
something
, even if he didn’t admit
the whole truth. Maybe he could have just said ‘he’s not
relationship material’ or something like that, instead of going
along with your plans. But even so, Dane’s the one who’s ultimately
to blame here. At least he is in my eyes.”

Shel scoots over to sit closer to me and LB.
“You don’t blame me then?”

I frown at her. “No! Why would you think
that?”

“
Because I was rooting for
Dane and Matt’s involved! I swear to you I didn’t know about Dane’s
engagement. If I had, you sure as hell would have known
too.”

I give her a reassuring look. “I know that.
It never crossed my mind that either of you knew. I promise.”

Relief visibly floods through my best friend
and her shoulders relax. “Thank God,” she says. “I was beating
myself up the whole way here.”

“
Is that why you’re so
upset?” I make a face. “Don’t be! Calm down.”

She laughs. “At first all of my anger was
directed at Matt, but as I drove my thoughts started to turn to my
part in this. Let’s just say it didn’t help things. I feel so bad,
Em.”

“
Well, don’t. I’ve been
through worse. Besides, it’s not like Dane and I were a couple
anyway. We were friends that should’ve stayed friends. Now we’ll
just be…nothing.”

I hear the familiar chirp of Shel’s phone,
and we both glance in the direction of her purse. “I bet I know who
that is,” I smile.

She groans and gets up off the couch. She
searches through her bag and finds her phone, dismisses the call,
and tosses it back in.

“
What are doing?” I ask.
“Wasn’t that Matt?”

“
Yep.”

“
Aren’t you going to talk
to him?”

“
Nope.”

“
Come on,” I say and unfold
my legs. They’re starting to go to sleep. This disturbs LB and she
looks at me, annoyed. “You should at least let him know where you
are.”

Then I hear my phone ring. We look at each
other and laugh. “Don’t answer it,” she says.

I stand. “Let me at least see who it is.” I
jog into the bedroom. “It’s Matt!” I holler to Shel.

“
Don’t answer it!” she
yells back.

I do as I’m told; although, I don’t feel
good about it. I walk into the living room. “How long are you going
to be mad at him?” I ask.

“
That depends. How long are
you going to be mad at him?”

“
Shel.” I give her a
condescending look. “Don’t fight with Matt over me. Call your
boyfriend and make up.”

She shakes her head defiantly. “No. He needs
to learn that if he messes with you, he messes with me. We’re all
supposed to be best friends; we’re all supposed to have each
other’s backs. We don’t keep secrets that hurt one another.”

I cross my arms and give her a stern look.
“I will not be responsible for the two of you fighting or worse.
Call him.”

“
Not right now.”

“
Shel…”

“
He needs to stew about
things for awhile. Men have to be trained, Em. He needs to learn a
lesson.”

I look at her skeptically. “What is he, a
dog?”

She laughs.

I give up rationalizing and bend over to
pick up the crumpled Teagan article to deposit back in the trash.
“I take it you’re spending the night then?” I ask as I head toward
the kitchen.

“
Would that be
okay?”

I toss the ball into the garbage can. “Of
course.” When I return to the living room, I find Shel sorting
through my meager collection of DVDs. “Movie night?” I ask.

She nods enthusiastically. “Let’s camp out
on the floor and watch movies like we used to when we were kids. We
can gorge ourselves on popcorn and other junk. Sound good?”

“
Sounds awesome.” I move to
gather my purse and smile. “Go wipe that mascara off your face and
let’s get some snacks.”

Shel and I returned from
the store with three bags of junk food, plus a new movie to watch.
I don’t know why we felt we had to purchase
The Lucky One
, because it’s a love
story and that’s the last thing we need right now. But Shel heard
it was good, and I hadn’t seen it either, so we got it. We also
bought a large assortment of sweet and salty snacks – chips,
popcorn, pretzels, red licorice, gummy bears, and, of course,
chocolate. You can’t go wrong with Twix, M&M’s, and
Butterfingers. We moved my small coffee table out of the way and
pulled my blankets and pillows off the bed to set up our “camp” on
the floor in front of the television. After we changed into pajamas
and set out our snacks picnic style, I pressed play on the DVD, and
we proceeded to get lost in the relationship of Beth and Logan.
Around two in the morning, with the movie over and our stomachs
stuffed, we called it a night.

“
Thanks for letting me
stay,” Shel says to me in the darkness.

“
You’re always welcome
here. Don’t ever question it.”

She yawns. “Next time you need to come out
to my place.”

“
Will do,” I say
sleepily.

I drift off, but after an hour or so, I wake
up needing the bathroom. It must be from all the Coke I drank. I
pull myself off the floor and lazily shuffle to the bathroom,
cursing my bodily functions. I’m so tired. I wonder what it would
be like to not have to do this anymore. The next time I see James
I’ll have to ask him if he misses going to the bathroom.

When I sit down, the toilet seat is freezing
and the feeling wakes me up a bit. As I sit there, my mind wanders
to Matt and Shel. I wish they wouldn’t fight over me. It’s stupid,
really. If anyone should be fighting, it’s me and Matt. Or me and
Dane. Wait. We are fighting. Back to me and Matt. Did I mention I
was tired?

As I leave the bathroom, I have a thought.
Maybe I can help fix this. I tiptoe to my purse and pull out my
phone. Shel made me turn it off after we got back from the store as
to avoid any more calls from Matt. I sneak back into my bedroom and
turn it on. I have three voicemail messages.

“
Emma? It’s Matt. I know
you’re upset. Please call me.”

“
Me again. Do you know
where Shel is? I’m worried. Call me.”

“
Obviously you’re beyond
angry. I’m sorry. Please tell me that Shel is with you. She won’t
answer her phone. Okay. Bye.”

I send him a quick text, which was my plan
all along. He’s probably asleep, but he’ll see it in the
morning.

Shel is here.

At least he’ll know where she is and stop
worrying. I set my phone down and head back out to the living room
to go to sleep.

As soon as my head hits the pillow, my phone
chimes, telling me I have a message.

“
Shoot!” I whisper to
myself. The last thing I need is for my phone to wake up Shel. It
will go off a least four times if I don’t check it. I get up as
fast as I can without waking her, taking huge steps like an idiot
to get to my bedroom quickly. I snatch the phone from my
nightstand. It’s Matt.