Chapter Two

Haley

Abby insists that I’m going to fall in love tonight.

“Tonight is the night for your summer fling!” She bumps my hip as we stand side-by-side next to the bonfire. She gets this way sometimes—has these grandiose ideas in her head and then lets them have their own space to grow and live. I shrug her off because even though she’s my best friend, sometimes even I have to take her with a grain of salt.

Abby is in love with ideas and dreams. I kind of always envied that about her. It’s one of the reasons we work as friends. She’s a helium balloon, I’m the string keeping her tied down. Life isn’t as magical as she wants it to be.

She brushes a hand over the top of her head, making sure her ponytail is still perfect. It is. It always is. “You better believe this is serious. Take a chance, Hals. Plus, that palm reader said love was in your future this summer.”

Internally, I scoff because yeah, a fortune teller at the summer carnival did tell me that. But it was only nosy Mrs. Baker in a costume. No one, except maybe Abby, would take her at her word. For someone who is a tried-and-true Southern Belle, she has a lot of whimsy.

“It’s spreading. Georgia Ann and Lyla are both now in flip-flops,” she says, peering across the field toward a small group of our other Southern Belles. Her lips curl up into a snarl. Bless her heart. “They’re both going to be the death of me.”

“It’s flip-flops, Abs.”

“It’s not SBA!”

That means “Southern Belle Approved.” Abby is a stickler for the Belle rules. In her mind, we need to be in heels and pearls no matter where we are going or what we are doing. She’d wear pearls under her cheerleading uniform if her coach would let her.

I hand her a drink to make it better. “Let it go this once. We’ve already been here for a couple hours now.”

She sighs and takes the drink from my hand. “Only because it’s the Back to School Party and the end of summer. First thing Monday, I’m enforcing all SBA expectations.” She makes a note in her phone and then slides it back into her pocket. Not that she would ever forget this happened.

“Cheers to that,” I say, mocking her a little. She gives me a look of disappointment, but it fades and is replaced with her doey-eyed smile.

“Tonight is going to be magical.”

I laugh. “There’s nothing magical about the BS party.”

“Hals,” she says, “there’s everything magical. It’s an ending and a beginning at the same time. Haymont boys. Lane boys. Culler boys. You don’t know what could happen.”

I laugh. “Yes, I do. It will be like the other parties—drinking, random hookups, maybe a fight, puking.”

I made out with a boy from Lane at the last party, and it was going really well until he made a move to go further with me, even after I said I wasn’t interested. After that, it was pretty much the end for me, besides escorting Lyla home.

“To magic!” she cheers, holding her cup up. I don’t want to, but I can’t fight it. I need Abby and her whimsy in my life, so I tap my Solo cup against hers.

Mid sip, she gasps and squeezes my forearm, her eyes focused in on the porch at the Newman’s farm. On Jake Lexington. He’s sitting with my brother on the front porch, and even in the distance he makes those butterflies appear. I’ve had a crush on him since forever. I’ve tried to get over this, because 1. Abby also likes him. 2. My brother would lose his mind if I even entertained the thought of a relationship with Jake, his best friend. And 3. I know it will never happen.

But I can’t get over it.

With everything that’s gone on the last few months, I always expect it to be different. I want to be able to see him and not have this urge for him to touch me or say my name or smile. I guess you can’t turn off crushes the way you can light switches.

“My goal tonight is to get Jake to dance with me.” Abby’s eyes are super focused on him, like a lion stalking down prey.

I push down the butterflies. “Jake doesn’t really dance, Abs.”

Plus, Abby and Jake had this moment this summer at the cabin where she thought something was actually going to happen. It didn’t. I overheard him talking to my brother afterward, saying it would never happen with her, but I didn’t have the heart to be the one to break her spirit. I also still feel guilty that I am relieved by that.

Abby shrugs. “I can try anyway,” she says as she pulls out her phone and looks herself over. She smiles, grabs me, and snaps a selfie of us. “I’m going to make my move.”

“I’m going over there,” I say, nodding toward Georgia Ann, Beau, and some of the other Belles. I can’t watch this.

With that, Abby starts on her way toward the porch and the boy of our dreams. Over her shoulder she yells back, “Don’t forget, Hals: tonight will be magical.”

A few hours later, Jake is very drunk, standing a little too close to the fire. He tilts the bottle to his lips, eyes straight ahead into the flames. I know things are rough for him, with Jamie, but I wish he’d talk to us. Chris told me he never talks about it. All these months, and even he doesn’t really know what happened that night.

Jake must feel me staring, or so I like to imagine, because he looks at me. Something flashes across his face. He opens his mouth like he’s going to say something to me. I can feel my heart racing. How can he make me feel this by just opening his mouth?

“Howell, beer’s gone!” he shouts.

I exhale when he turns away. Obviously I’m only asking for trouble. Jake will never see me the way I want him to see me. I move over toward my brother, who I’m seeing for the first time tonight, and he raises an eyebrow in my direction as if to ask me what’s wrong. It’s annoying sometimes to feel like he knows me enough to look at me and see I’m bothered. Weird as it is, there’s also a lot of comfort in that. I don’t have to try with him, or worry about what he will think, or if he will be there when I need him. We tell each other like it is when we need to, and no one has his back more than me, and vice versa. We shared a womb. He knows me better than I know myself, even when it’s annoying.

Jake starts howling into the air.

“You should take it easy, man,” my brother says.

“I’m good, man. Beer me,” Jake says.

Chris sighs. “You’re going hard tonight.”

“I’ll get it myself,” Jake says, but changes his mind two wobbly steps later.

I move over and sit beside Reyes. He is reading on his phone. “What are you looking at?”

His eyes widen. “A new fan fiction.”

That’s all he says to me, then he goes back to his story. Okay then.

“This party is lame,” Shelby Kramer says loud enough for everyone to hear her. For whatever reason, she stands here with her hands crossed over her chest, and her best friend mimics her. Besides Shelby’s legacy status as a Belle, I don’t think she even likes any of us.

“You can always leave,” Jake yells across the way to her. She flips him off. He flips her off.

There’s a space next to Georgia Ann and Beau. I can dart out and back into the other people. I’m about to stand when I feel Jake looking at me. Abby is still touching him too close, too much, but his eyes are on me for a second. Then he groans and swallows down his whole beer in one go. The sound of popping glass and leftover alcohol is loud. It makes Reyes jump up from the ground and yell at Jake. He reaches in the cooler, but it’s empty.

“Where has the beer gone?”

Chris moves from his seat to help Jake. “You don’t need more right now. Take a break.”

“Why, bro? It’s the last day of summer vacation! I’ll take a break tomorrow.”

“We have practice tomorrow.”

Jake cusses under his breath. “All the more reason to drink while I can. I’ll sober up tomorrow at practice.”

Chris, Will, Beau, and Spencer all exchange a look, and Jake sees it, too, because he points between them. “Don’t do that shit. Don’t talk about me.”

“No one said anything, man,” Will argues.

“You don’t have to. You said it with your eyes. I’m not that drunk yet.”

“Yeah, you are,” Chris says.

“Nah, man. No. If I was drunk, I wouldn’t be able to do this…” Jake jumps up to stand on the top of the cooler and balances on one foot. “A, B, C, D…”

He goes through the whole alphabet, and no one stops him. I’m not really sure what his problem is. When he gets to Z, he bows and nearly falls over. “That doesn’t count! Beer!”

But no one moves. Jake flips them all off. “I’m out of here,” he says, and he stumbles away from our group and back into the rest of the party. Chris sighs, his shoulders tense. “He’ll be back in a minute.”

But he doesn’t come back. Twenty minutes later, he hasn’t returned or answered his phone or even done anything to garner the whole party’s attention in some drunk Jake fashion.

“We should probably go find him,” Spencer suggests.

Chris nods, and without another word, the group of us splits apart and goes off on the search for Jake. At this point in our lives, we don’t even need to coordinate. We’re all old pros at this game.

I’m only a few feet away from the bonfire when I stumble on Shelby Kramer talking with a couple of cheerleaders, Jessica and Sara Lynn, both of whom have asked me for tips on dating my brother.

“He used to be fun and sweet, now he’s a big douchebag,” Shelby says.

“I know. I can’t believe I used to like him,” Sara Lynn adds.

“Bless his heart, it’s not really his fault. I can’t imagine not being able to walk anymore,” Jessica says.

“You know, no one has even seen his brother in months. Is he even alive anymore?” Sara Lynn asks.

“My nana said they made the town stop sending food. Rejected everyone in town and called us nosy,” Jessica says.

Shelby tsks. “It’s a shame, really. Jake Lexington used to be pretty awesome. Now he’s nothing more than a drunk douchebag angry that he has a cripple brother.”

“Shut up,” I yell, stepping in between the three of them. They all look surprised to even know I was there. I’m not really one to start something, but these girls are making me mad. “Seriously? None of you know Jake or his family or what they’re going through. You should all shut up right now.”

“You don’t know anything, either,” Shelby says.

“I know enough not to be an insensitive bitch about it,” I yell. Shelby actually backs away from me. “I thought you were leaving? You should take your friends with you.”

Shelby scowls at me before she leaves, and the other girls follow behind her. I’m semi-shaking from the confrontation when I turn around and come face-to-face with Jake.

At first, he doesn’t say anything, but a second later he smiles. “Did I just hear Other Howell cuss out Shelby Kramer in my honor?”

I feel the blush spread across my cheeks. Only Jake calls me that. It’s kind of annoying, but it’s also a little endearing. “She was out of line. They all were.”

He crosses his arms and studies me. He doesn’t seem nearly as drunk as we thought he was before. “I didn’t know you had it in you.”

“I didn’t either,” I say quickly.

Jake Lexington is staring at me so intensely, it’s getting awkward. I feel frozen in place, even though I also have the urge to run. He steps up closer to me and says, “I’m impressed.” Then he’s pulling me toward him, and he whispers in my ear. “Thank you, Other Howell.”

Jake Lexington is hugging me. He has never hugged me before. His arms are wrapped around me, holding me against his chest. His body is warm against me.

“You’re amazing,” he whispers, and his lips linger close to my neck. His breath gives me chills. Jake is paying attention to me, and he said I was amazing. I feel like I’m dreaming, like I’m floating. This is what Abby meant about magic.

When Jake pulls away, he wavers on his feet, and I miss the embrace immediately. I wish I had been in his arms longer. God. This is ridiculous. Get yourself together, Haley Elizabeth Howell.

“Hey, you found him!” Chris yells, running up to the two of us. “Good job.”

I nod, and Jake looks at me again.

“Yeah, she’s really something else,” he says. He flashes me a smile.

They leave me standing there, reeling in the exchange we had. Maybe Abby was right.

Maybe tonight is made of magic.