Daydream (Maple Hills, #3)(20)
I think Russ and I are the only people not alarmed about Robbie wanting to party less. The rest of the team, however, particularly the ones who Nate wouldn’t let in and are now older, all feel like they’re missing out on some kind of rite of passage. Robbie didn’t say he’d never throw another party; he said he wants to focus on showing Faulkner what he’s capable of and being more responsible. But obviously nobody listens to anything properly, as I discover every practice, and they just heard “less parties.”
Before Nate and JJ moved out, Robbie viewed multiple places to live on his own this year. He said he wanted to create some distance between Robbie our friend, and Robbie the man hoping to get a faculty position once he’s finished his studies.
Robbie said the only reason he didn’t move out when he wanted was because none of the places that were available were built with disabled people in mind. He said the stress he would have experienced trying to get a landlord to do the bare minimum like improve the building accessibility and safety wasn’t worth it, and he’d look again in a year.
Halle rolls her eyes at my offer, tucking Harold Oscar’s book under her arm as she stands from my bed. “I don’t think so. It’d be weird to go to a party alone, and I have stuff to do. Assignments, my writing project, book club stuff, y’know.”
“You won’t be alone. I’ll be there.”
“You’ll be busy with your friends.”
“We just established you’re my friend.”
She sighs, but it’s different from when Anastasia sighed earlier. “Are you always this… persistent? Convincing? Dare I say, slightly stubborn?”
“I don’t know,” I admit honestly. “I never need to work this hard usually. Most women want to be my friend.”
“I’m sure they do, Henry. I’m going to go, I have work soon, but I’m going to borrow this book, if that’s okay?”
I shrug. “Sure. I’m not reading it anyway.”
“Thanks again for the garden.”
“Thanks again for the cookies.”
She turns to leave, and right before the door closes, I call her. “Halle?”
Her face peeks through the small gap. “Yes?”
“I really do like your hair.”
Chapter Six HALLE
“FOUND ANYTHING?”
I look up from my tablet screen and give Cami an unenthusiastic thumbs-down. “Sadly, they don’t seem to stock happy, healthy kids or to live long enough to see my children get married online. Maybe a fruit basket?”
“Fruit basket is good. It’ll help with the long-life thing,” Cami says, taking the seat beside me in the break room. She leans over to look at the options on the fifth department store “gifts for her” section I’ve scoured since my brother texted our sibling group chat asking what we were getting Mom for her birthday next week. “Could you maybe promise to take her to a spa when you go home for Thanksgiving?”
I decide to avoid explaining how, in a misguided attempt to negotiate with my ex-boyfriend, I committed to not going home for the holidays this year. “That’s a great idea, but I’m kind of in charge of making sure my siblings have something to give her, too.”
“I thought your brother was older than you,” she says, and I can’t help but sigh in Eldest Daughter.
“He is, but, like my stepdad, he’s incompetent. Which means if I don’t arrange a gift, Mom won’t be getting a gift on her birthday. It’s totally fine. I’m used to being the family manager.”
I know that Cami is the youngest sibling, so she probably has no idea what I mean when I call myself the family manager. Ironically, it’s a title Grayson gave me when we were younger to fully signify his less-than-enthusiastic contributions to any and all family responsibilities.
Cami locks my screen and slides the device away from me slowly. “Y’know what will help you decide… alcohol. I make all my best decisions drunk.”
I haven’t decided if I like drinking yet. I like being invited to things and I like the confidence I get when I’m buzzed, but I despise being hungover. It makes me anxious and tearful and a little oversensitive, but I’m not sure if those invites will stop if I’m not as fun.
“Weren’t you drinking when you decided to home dye your hair?”
Cami’s previously blond hair is now a deep auburn shade, but only after we spent hours in the hair salon, while fighting my first hangover I should add, getting it fixed. “Okay, so maybe my execution was bad, but try and tell me that red is not my color. Four different people have told me I look like Jessica Rabbit. Do you know what it’s doing to my ego? If only I had her titties. I’d be even more unbearable.”
“You don’t want the back pain, trust me.” I instinctively push my shoulders back a little to fix my posture and the space between my shoulder blades crunches. “And you do look like Jessica Rabbit. You should buy the Halloween costume now.”
During our trip to the salon, I learned that Cami had a situationship with West, the guy whose job I got. She thinks it’s silly to be upset since they weren’t even a couple and she kind of hated him anyway, but she is and she’s dealing with it in the only way she says she knows how. Partying as much as possible.