Chapter Thirty

IT ONLY TOOK a day for Joey to realize how awful it feels to be a third wheel. As annoying as Betty had always seemed to her, Joey now understood her frustration.

She didn’t forgive her or anything, but she understood. The whole family was thrilled with the engagement and immediately fell into wedding planning mode. Joey shouldn’t have been surprised because they’d done the same thing for her, but from the outside, it suddenly felt really annoying.

If she had hoped to avoid the arrangements, those hopes were immediately dashed when Betty woke her up the next morning and invited her to breakfast.

“Come on,” she said, sitting on the foot of Joey’s bed. “My treat.”

Not one to turn down free breakfast, Joey pulled herself out of bed and took in her appearance in her dresser mirror. She was terribly jetlagged and had barely slept all night. Everything was fuzzy, and she looked about as good as she felt. No wonder Dan wanted to marry Betty. She was a hot mess.

Betty drove them to their favorite place for waffles and rattled on about everything Joey had missed while she was away.

“And don’t worry, Dad filmed it, so I can show you later,” she said, ending her story about the school musical.

As they walked into the restaurant, Joey turned to her sister and came to a halt.

“You’re leaving a few things out,” she said. “Or at least, a certain someone.”

Betty blushed and cast her eyes down. “Oh, Jo,” she said. “Can you ever forgive me?”

Joey knew the only way forward was to accept this new reality. And so she lied.

“There’s nothing to forgive. I just want to hear how it all happened.”

“Really?” Betty looked back up. “Oh, Joey! You’re the best! I was going to wait until we were seated, but would you be my maid of honor?”

Since she was apparently no longer saying true things anymore, she heard the words “I’d love to,” come out of her mouth.

Betty squealed and hugged her, then pulled her inside. As they sat, Betty started from the beginning.

“Well, he was just so sad after you left,” she began. “We all were. But he took it really hard. His dad got him that job to keep him busy, but everyone was really worried about him. I think he just doesn’t do well with surprises.”

Joey tried not to roll her eyes. Betty was erasing how Dan felt about Joey from this story. It was probably what she told herself so much she actually started to believe it.

“Anyway, we started hanging out a bit and got really close. I realized he had feelings for me, and I tried to tell him I didn’t feel that way about him, Joey. I really did.”

Joey knew this wasn’t true but nodded.

“But, well, he asked me out on a date, and I thought I should at least see how it felt. And then I knew I couldn’t just be friends with him anymore. He said he never really loved you and knew it was supposed to be me all along. I never realized it, but that’s exactly how I felt too.”

Joey was thankful she had a mouthful of waffle, because it was the only thing that kept her from yelling. Or maybe crying. But she sat there and chewed and thought about what she was hearing. Betty had a tendency to gloss over things in her stories, but she had never really lied about something with Joey before. At least, Joey didn’t think she had.

If Dan had told Betty he’d always been in love with her, what else could she do but stand aside? Maybe he’d settled for her all along and had been pining for Betty in those months leading up to the end, finally realizing he’d married the wrong sister.

“Betty, can I ask you something?” Joey said.

“Of course,” Betty said.

“Why did you hide my scholarship letter?”

“Oh, I didn’t know you knew about that,” she said. “But, I mean, you got there, and it all worked out, right?”

“No, Betty. I mean, yes, I did still go there, but that doesn’t mean hiding the letter was okay.”

“Okay. But you have to understand. I was so mad at you.”

“When?”

“So, remember when I wanted to go to Dan’s prom? Well, I called that guy Trent from his school who went to camp with us and asked if he’d go with me. None of Dan’s friends had called and I was getting desperate. Well, Trent said you told him I couldn’t go to the prom, so he’d asked someone else.”

Joey felt herself deflate.

“Betty, I’m sorry. I really shouldn’t have done that. I just…you know what? I’m not going to offer excuses. I shouldn’t have done that.”

“I know. That was so mean. Anyway, I hung up with Trent and was looking for a way to get back at you. I was in your room when Dan stopped by with the letter. He put it on your desk. He looked so sad. So, I decided getting rid of the letter would make Dan happy and be a less permanent revenge. How could you be mad at losing something you never knew you had?”

Joey looked at her sister. Was this how she had been at eighteen? It was impossible to see herself clearly in hindsight, but she knew on some level they were similar. Could she have done something to deliberately hurt someone she loved, just out of spite?

The answer came to her like a bolt of lightning. She already had. She was mad at Dan about the letter, but instead of talking to him about it, she ran away. Instead of just asking him to put off proposing while she went to London, she had taken off, leaving him behind to pick up the pieces of the life he had planned.

Leaving him to fall into the arms of her sister. He was better than the two of them put together. Joey still wasn’t sure whether Betty and Dan belonged together, but she no longer knew whether she and Dan did either.

Had she ever deserved him?