“She’s got a scholarship to a college in California. She wants to get out of Andalusia as bad as I do. Are you really going to let some childhood crush stand in the way of that? It isn’t fair to her.” Preston shrugged, gulped his glass of whiskey, and immediately poured another one.
“Suddenly you’re concerned about her?” I turned towards him and scoffed. “You probably won’t even remember her name once you leave.”
“I mean, I like her.” Preston shrugged and walked over to sit down with his glass of whiskey. “There’s just so much more to this world than Andalusia. That’s why you should come with me to college—see what’s out there, man.”
“I guess you’re the expert.” I exhaled sharply and sat down across from him.
“You wouldn’t believe it if I told you. My eyes were really opened this weekend. College is going to be a lot of fun. The girls? Shit, man. It’s going to be four years of going balls deep in a different girl every night.” Preston grinned and sipped his whiskey.
“So, it’s going to be no different than high school?” I tilted my head to the side. “Why leave home? You can get that here.”
“It’s different man…” He sighed. “It’s just different.”
“Yeah, I guess so.” I stared at him and shook my head angrily.
I shouldn’t have expected any less from my brother. Of fucking course, he spent one weekend at the University of Alabama and all he could focus on was how much pussy he would be getting. That was just the kind of guy he had become. I always knew he was self-centered, and it was slightly charming when we were younger, but real life was happening right in front of us. Eliza was going to leave, and he didn’t seem to give a fuck. He was just angry that he wasn’t going to have her in bed with us anymore. He definitely took after our father, but I didn’t know if there was enough decency inside him to do the right thing if he was faced with the same choices. Unfortunately, as much as I hated to admit it, some of what he said was right. It wasn’t fair to hold Eliza back from her dreams. I was a small town guy who was happy with that, but her dreams were bigger than Andalusia.
Maybe Preston is right and I’m the fool.
8
Eliza
Present day
“Okay, so we’ve got a wedding dress, a venue, a reception hall, invitations—what are we missing?” I sat down in Melanie’s living room and looked over at her.
“Tomorrow we go and pick out a cake.” She grinned from ear-to-ear. “That means we have to sample everything in the store to make sure we get the right one!”
“I like the sound of that.” I nodded and put my hand on my stomach. “Probably because I’m starving right now.”
“Let’s order out!” Eliza reached over and picked up her phone.
“I’m not really in the mood for pizza.” I wrinkled my nose.
“How about Chinese?” Eliza looked up at me.
“Wait, Andalusia has a Chinese restaurant that delivers now? Seriously?” My eyebrows went up in shock.
“Yep! See, not everything is awful here.
” She grinned again and tapped her phone. “Do you still like Sesame Chicken?”
“You remember.” I chuckled and nodded. “Yeah, that would be awesome. Do they have fried rice?”
“The best!” Melanie lifted the phone to her ear.
Melanie ordered some Chinese food and we started a romantic comedy movie on Netflix while we waited. It was nearly an hour before the food actually arrived, but Melanie was right—the fried rice was really good. By the time we got finished, I was stuffed, and we lounged around in a food coma while we finished the movie. I used to love romantic comedies when I lived in Andalusia. They were a reflection of the potential of love. I hadn’t really enjoyed them much after I left—probably because I didn’t have Melanie there to critique the plot with me and point out all the flaws. They also didn’t resonate any form of reality for me. I couldn’t even pretend that Prick Charming was going to show up with all his flaws and beg me to turn his motorcycle into a white horse, so we could ride away into the sunset once he realized he was a Prince underneath that rough exterior. That wasn’t reality because real life was nothing like the movies. Real life was full of hurt, heartbreak, and nothing could be easily wrapped up in a bow to roll the damn credits. The turmoil just kept going—and going.
“Okay.” I yawned after the movie was over. “I think I’m going to turn in early.”
“It’s barely nine o’clock!” Melanie looked at me in confusion. “Aren’t you on West Coast time anyway? It’s like late afternoon for you…”
“I go to bed early pretty often.” I raised an eyebrow.
Not seven o’clock early, but I need some time to work on my resume.
“Alright, fine. I should go to bed early anyway. I need as much energy as I can get for all the cake we have to eat tomorrow!” She grinned and nodded.