Page 56 of The Fake
“Actually, I’m not staying with my parents.” I mull over the idea of Nathan coming with me and I have to say I don’t hate it. In fact, I’ve missed spending time with him. “Come. It’ll be fun. I can introduce you to my friends, and we can hang on the beach.”
Shaw shifts the box. “Good, it’s settled. Now, can we get these boxes to the car? Mine isn’t light.”
“Call ya later,” Nathan calls over his shoulder.
Inside, I shower, field texts from Camila about the weekend, and then start to pack. Nathan texts as I’m trying to zip up my overflowing suitcase.
Nathan: Have a good weekend. Don’t worry, I’ll tell the guys I stayed so you could have time with your friends.
Disappointment creeps in making me realize just how much I liked the idea of him coming along. I’ve missed spending time with him outside of class and our project.
Me: Offer stands to come with. Could be fun.
He doesn’t respond right away, and I decide to further plead my case.
Me:Ocean is great this time of year. There’s lots of cheesy, touristy stuff or we can just hang at the beach, surf, whatever. My friends are dying to meet you.
I don’t know why I add the last part, but I know once I tell Camila, the statement will be true.
I drop my phone on my bed and scroll through videos on my laptop to kill the time. The longer it takes him to respond, the more I’m convinced he’s wording a very nice letdown text. When my phone pings, I brace myself for the disappointment.
Nathan: Alright. I’m in. Let’s do this.
* * *
“What year is this?” Nathan asks from the passenger seat of my car. We’ve been driving for a little over an hour and already blown through small talk on the weather and school.
“Uhhh…”
He lifts a brow. “You don’t even know, do you?”
“It’s new. This year or last, I think.” I shrug. “I got it for my twenty-first.”
“When’s your birthday?” he asks, side-stepping the conversation. That’s the thing about Nathan, he never makes me feel weird about having nice things or money even though I know he probably thinks it’s over the top.
“December twentieth. Yours?”
“December first.”
“Fellow Sagittarius.” I glance over. The freeway is quiet this early, something I love about Arizona. Traffic in Southern California never seems to let up. “Tell me about your twenty-first.”
He gives me a look that says it’s too early for storytime.
“We’ve got five more hours to kill. Entertain me. What did you do? Did you do the obligatory twenty-one shots?”
“It was actually quite the night, from what I hear.”
“Ominous.”
“We went to The Hideout. I didn’t do twenty-one shots, but I did a lot. About the time I passed out, Wes got in a brawl with Blair’s ex over some naked photos.”
“Wes got in abrawl?”
Nathan smirks. “You’ve never said that word in a sentence before, have you?”
“Sure, I have,” I say with a laugh. “I’ve been in all sorts ofbrawls.” Rolling my eyes, I try out the word again. “Brawl, brawl, brawl.”
He claps. “Very convincing, Surfer Princess.”
