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She didn’t even bother with a response as she grabbed a pink gift bag and thrust it to me. “I’m paying you back for my college tuition.” She beamed. “Open it.”
I shook my head. “I told you that you weren’t paying me back for that. Besides, unless it’s a check, this bag doesn’t feel heavy enough to have six thousand dollars in it.”
She rolled her eyes. “Just open it.”
I pulled at the tissue paper, my attention less on the bag in my hands and more on the giddy excitement that was painting her face. “I don’t think you used enough,” I said dryly as I pulled at yet another sheet of the crinkly paper. When I finally got to the bottom, there was a pair of black socks that said ‘I make Nerdy cool’ in deep blue writing.
I pulled them out and held them in the air. “I think you overpaid.”
She laughed, her nose crinkling, and shook her head. “I had them made! Aren’t they awesome! I won’t give you any of my beloved socks, but if you need some, I’ll always buy you your own pair.”
I put them back in the bag and dropped it on the table. Wrapping my arms around her, I said, “I also make nerdy sexy, right?”
She laughed again. “If you say so.” Leaning into me, she tipped her head back. “I’m starving. Let’s order a pizza and watch a movie. I’m feeling generous today. I’ll let you pick.”
I nodded, guiding her to the living room. “Sounds good. While we wait, we can talk about these ridiculous pictures you put everywhere.”
27
Piper
I wasn’t sure if Lawson actually liked the pineapple and black olive pizza he ordered for us or if he was just trying to make me happy. But either way, I was happily stuffing my face full of the ooey, gooey deliciousness while he complained about the pictures I’d put out.
I chewed quickly and swallowed, nearly choking in an effort to defend myself. “What’s wrong with that one?”
He grabbed the black eight by ten frame and held it up to my face. “Do you see this?” He pointed to the image of me standing next to a tree in a prom dress, my hair upswept and makeup perfect.
I nodded slowly. “Yeeeeees…and?”
He moved his forefinger to the right and pointed at himself. “And do you see this?”
&
nbsp; I tried to contain the laughter, really, I did, but I couldn’t help myself and the giggle rippled out. I clapped a hand over my mouth, but that just made it worse.
“Exactly,” Lawson deadpanned. “Your laughter says it all. I’m getting rid of that one.”
It had been no shock to anyone that I’d gone to my senior prom with Hampton, even though he’d apparently been gay and dating my brother at the time. It had all made sense later, the way they’d insisted on taking a few pictures just the two of them with their arms around each other’s shoulders. We’d just assumed they were being dudes.
Lawson had made the unfortunate mistake of wandering downstairs while we were getting ready to go and Mrs. Reed had insisted he come out and take pictures with us. She’d apparently had a momentary bout of blindness, because he’d been in a pair of boxer shorts and tank top, his arms pale and scrawny, his knees knobby. He’d protested loudly, but when Mr. Reed had stepped in, his deep voice booming, Lawson had no choice but to do what his mother asked.
So here we were, immortalized in this frame, me in my six-hundred-dollar prom dress and Lawson in his Star Wars underwear and a muscle shirt that didn’t do him any favors. I pulled the frame from his hands and held it to my chest, my eyes wet from laughing hard, and gasped. “This one is my favorite, though!”
He just shook his head and took another bite of pizza. “Don’t be sad when it goes missing one day,” he muttered under his breath.
I dropped the picture back on the table and pulled a knee under me, angling my body toward his. “We just don’t have any recent pictures of us.” I lifted one shoulder, twisting my lips into a pout. “And I wanted to fill the frames with us. Luckily, your mom had plenty to choose from.”
“Are they all this terrible? If so, I’ve gotta have a talk with her. Maybe an unfortunate fire in her closet.”
I picked at my nails and admitted, “Well, I may have picked the ones I looked really good in.”
He just made a noise in the back of his throat and glared at me. I was still fighting laughter when a thought occurred to me. “Why does your mother have so many pictures of just the two of us?”
Lawson swallowed and must have not meant to, because he began coughing and sputtering. I watched him for a minute, but he was still making noise, so I knew I didn’t need to use the Heimlich on him yet. After a second, he dropped the crust in his hand onto the open pizza box and grabbed his beer, taking a swig. “Mom always joked that we would end up together. Guess she was trying to force us together.”
The more I racked my brain, the more memories came floating back of all the times my mom or Mrs. Reed had suggested Lawson and I do something together. Most of the time, we’d both ignored them, but occasionally we’d find ourselves alone together.
“You know, the more I think about it, the more stuff is starting to make sense,” I murmured, grabbing his crust from the box and dunking it in the marinara sauce.
