I consider having another sip, but Hunter drags me out to the dance floor. Our favorite hip hop song comes on and it feels good to be dancing with my best friend, just like when we were younger and used to act silly together in our pajamas and pretend hair brushes were microphones. I haven’t felt silly in a long time, and it’s needed.
After a while I start to feel sappy. “I’m going to miss you!”
Hunter hugs me. “I’m going to miss you!”
“Do you really have to leave right after graduation?”
“Yeah, the big guy is very impatient. Plus, I have another audition the day after, so he’s flying me out there. You should come up and stay with me in New York over the summer.”
“Yeah, but you’re going to be working and going to school. I don’t want to get in the way.”
She grimaces and says, “Can you keep a secret?”
I look at her like she’s lost her mind. “Can I keep a secret? Can I have a crush on my coach and tell nobody but you? Yes, yes I can.”
“I’m not going to waitress. I’m not going to have a job at all.”
I stop dancing. “And how do you plan on paying for acting classes?”
She spills all the beans in one single breath. “He’s moving me into his penthouse and footing the bill for everything.”
My jaw hits the floor. “You’re kidding, right?”
She shakes her head.
I stop dancing and pull her to a dark corner. “Are you sure about this? Moving to New York for a guy is one thing, but moving in? That’s starting to scare me a little.”
She squares her shoulders. “Well, I’m not moving to New York for a guy, am I? I’m moving to New York to take acting and singing classes, remember? I’m just…relying on him to take care of things so I can do that.”
“But you’re pinning everything on him? What if he cheats on you? Dumps you? You know he has a bit of a reputation, right? Where will you go?”
She looks pissed. “First of all, thanks for the vote of confidence, and secondly, do you think I can’t figure it out?”
I shake my head because I didn’t mean it like that. I see Roland and Ridley slow dancing together out of the corner of my eye. Whatever. “I’m sure you will. I’m just worried that you’re taking a huge leap.”
She scoffs. “This from the girl who’s scared of her own feelings. The woman who can barely look her crush in the eye. The girl who can’t even notice that he’s drop dead in love with you and you with him, and yet the two of you continue to waste time because of what everybody thinks!”
“Hunter, shh, someone will hear you.” I look around to see if anyone’s listening, but the closest people are bustling past us to go outside to the gardens, appearing to be quite drunk.
Hunter hisses. “I don’t fucking care anymore. We are basically graduates already, so we can do what we want—don’t you get that?”
I look around for Weston, but I don’t see him anywhere. “He’s made his feelings clear. He could lose his job.”
“Maybe. Maybe not. And that right there is where we’re different. I don’t want to spend my life pining over something I didn’t try,” she says.
Her words sting. But I don’t want her to see me cry.
Funny, she’s the only person I usually do allow to see me cry.
“I need some air,” I say.
“Addie,” she calls after me, but I’m already outside.
She doesn’t follow.
I find myself hiding in the garden behind the hedge that surrounds the swimming pool. Under a nearby rose arbor, a bench facing the marble fountains seems like the perfect place to cry. I’m not sure how much time passes, but eventually I sob my way through a whole packet of tissues. It’s not saying much, since I could only fit so many tissues in my tiny clutch.
Out of nowhere, someone hands me a fresh tissue.