“Yeah, that sucks,” she says, inhaling before letting it out in a whoosh. “I just wanted a scholarship and a banging body. Check, done.” I giggle as she laughs from her gut. “But you know, I think things happen for a reason. You needed a best friend—done, me. You need fun—done, college. And you need someone to make you smile—boom, Ryan.”
I smile even harder. “I don’t know.”
“Did you not have fun?”
I can’t wipe this grin off my face. “I did.”
She eyes me. “Did something happen, Sofia Castilleja?”
My blush deepens. “Maybe. I don’t know.”
“You don’t know!” she laughs, and I can’t hold back my own laughter. I feel like a little girl, swooning over some One Direction guy.
“I just don’t know, Amelia, honestly. He makes me feel weird, and I swear, he tells me I’m beautiful at every turn. It’s insane.”
She beams, her eyes sparkling. “Aww. That’s so sweet.”
“And he just listens and, like I said, is so easy to talk to… Ugh, I don’t know.”
She’s still grinning at me. “What do you feel?”
I groan loudly. “Like a crazy person.”
She laughs. “Someone likes my brother.”
I close my eyes, covering my face. “He kissed me.”
Her sudden shriek scares the hell out of me. Wide-eyed, I hold out my hands. “What in the world!”
“I’m so excited!” she says, shaking me. “Was it amazing?”
I smile shyly, groaning more. “I mean, for my first, yeah, it was pretty spectacular.”
More shrieking comes my way before she starts wiggling as she shakes me violently. “No way! That was your first?”
“Yes, crazypants, stop shaking me!” I smack her hands, but she ignores me.
“Oh. My. God! Did you tell him that?”
“No!”
She laughs. “Oh my God. That is so sweet. Did you cry?”
I make a face. “Do I look like the kind of person to cry after a kiss?”
She pauses and then shrugs. “I cried.”
“Because you’re a glass box of emotion.”
She pauses once more. “Touché.” Then she grins down at me. “Tell me everything.”
So I do, and it’s amazing. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to explain how important this friendship I have with Amelia is. While she’s a little spunky and doesn’t know how to control her shrieking, she’s fun to talk to about this. I didn’t even know what I was missing, but now that I have girl talk, I don’t ever want to go back to what I had before.
Which was nothing.
Now, I feel like I’ve got it all.
“Are you sure you’re okay with this?”
“Totally,” she answers right away, leaning on her elbows. “He has never ever dated any of my friends. I found out he slept with Drew’s sister, but that’s the closest he’s ever come to anyone I know. He just never wanted to mix a relationship with someone I cared for. So that has to mean something since we all know how close we are.”
I think that over. “But if it goes south?”
“Then it does, but you’ll always be my best friend. Plus, he’s going into the NHL, so really, we won’t be seeing him but at family things.”
I shake my head. “No big, right?”
She shrugs. “He’ll be kind, that’s for sure. And if you want, we can be so awful to him. Shelli would join!”
I laugh out loud. “You’re so mean.”
She giggles. “He’d know I was doing it for you because, no matter what, I love my brother.”
I press my lips together. “But what if I hurt him?”
She flashes me a quick grin. “Then my cousins and I will kill you. We have hockey sticks, and we know how to use them. Kneecaps. It’s all about the kneecaps.”
My eyes widen in shock. That escalated quickly! “But I love my kneecaps.”
“Then don’t hurt my brother.”