“I thought you were too much of a diva to walk?” Rob said.
“Shut up, man,” James said and lifted one of my slippers off my feet. “She’s hurt. Not lazy.” He tossed the slipper at his brother.
Rob’s eyebrows pulled together. “Shit. I’m sorry, Sanders.” He reached out and ran his thumb along the bandages on my feet.
Why did they both keep touching me? “It’s fine,” I snatched my slipper back. I didn’t want either of them staring at me like I was some kind of dainty damsel in distress. I didn’t need saving. The bandages made it look worse than it was. “James can fill you in on what did and didn’t happen at homecoming. And you don’t need me to plan a prank against Isabella. I’m just gonna head back.”
“Hey,” Rob said and put his hand on my shoulder before I could move. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know you were hurt.” He turned his attention to James. “A heads up would have been nice.”
“It wasn’t my story to tell,” James said. His eyes dropped to the ring on my finger again.
I swallowed hard. I didn’t want him looking at me like that. Or being so nice. I needed to get out of here.
“Come on, Sanders,” Rob said. “Stay. It’s gonna be fun. And we definitely need the story about how you got that ring.”
I looked down at the beautiful diamond on my finger. It didn’t feel right to talk to them about this. I’d already messed up just by leaving Matt’s house. “I can’t be here. I promised Matt. Please just let me go.”
“We won’t tell anyone you were here,” James said. “Come on, I promise I won’t propose again.” He lifted up a notebook that had been on the floor. “Isabella deserves to pay for what she did to you. That’s what we meant to talk about. So let’s just stick with that. Any ideas on how you want to get her back?”
I stared at James for a moment. He’d just lost two of his best friends. He was fighting with Rachel. I certainly wasn’t giving him the answers he wanted. And I shouldn’t have cared, because Matt didn’t want me to. But I did. I cared about James. The more we hung out, the more his cracks were starting to show. And just because Matt had stopped worrying about him, it didn’t mean I could shut it off so easily. If Matt wasn’t looking out for him, who would? And I’d agreed to come with Rob so that I could try to fix the rift between the Caldwells and the Hunters. If I left right now, I would have just made everything worse. “Just a silly prank?” I asked.
James smiled again. “Yeah. Something to embarrass her in front of everyone.”
I leaned back. “As long as it’s not revenge.” Matt was right. I wasn’t and never would be more Pruitt than Sanders. And that meant no revenge. Even if I did want Isabella to die.
“It’s not technically revenge,” Rob said. “Because we’d already started plotting before Wizzy tried to kill you. Pre-emptive revenge maybe…”
“Just a prank,” James said. “Something epic.”
Something epic. Hmm.“You know what would make it more epic? Getting the whole gang back together,” I said. “The Untouchables back at it again.”
James shook his head. “The Untouchables? I always hated that nickname.” He doodled something in his notebook. “Who came up with that? Clearly whoever first said it was dead wrong.”
Oh, James.He was trying to hide his broken heart. But random proposals weren’t going to fix things with Rachel or bring the Untouchables back together.
“Well, revenge is a dish best served cold,” Rob said, ignoring James’ comment. “Isn’t that a saying? Maybe we could do something with pudding.”
I laughed. “And she couldn’t kill any frogs that way.”
James jotted down the idea.
“You know who probably makes a good pudding?” I asked. “Mrs. Caldwell. I bet if we looped Matt and Mason in on this…”
“Sanders,” Rob groaned. “We said we wouldn’t talk about your engagement to the enemy. So stop mentioning the enemy’s name in our treehouse. This is a sacred place.”
“But…”
“No buts. When you hang out with us, you’re one of us. When you hang out with them, you’re one of them.” He made a gagging noise. “No in the middle. Right now you’re a Hunter. Be agross Caldwell later. Unless you want to sleep in my bed tonight instead.” He winked at me. “I’ll buy you a nicer ring.”
James cleared his throat. “I kind of like the pudding idea. Could you imagine how much Isabella would freak if she got that in her hair?”
I tried to focus on James instead of Rob. I couldn’t handle any more teasing today. And seeing James smile again made being here feel like less of a mistake. He needed this.
“Or we could shave her head,” Rob suggested.
I laughed.
They went back and forth, making me laugh, harder and harder as I looked around the small treehouse. There were toys and comic books on the floor. It looked so much more lived in than James’ room had. Pictures lined the wall. Photos of James as a happy little boy. He had the same facial features, in an adorable little boy kind of way. "You used to be so cute,” I said and leaned over to look at one.
