He seemed to be selling it pretty hard. But I trusted his judgment. The clothes he’d helped pick out had looked good on me. He knew what he was doing. He was going to plan weddings one day. So he could surely handle a hairdo.
Kennedy lifted her camera, being careful not to mess up her nails, and snapped a picture of me. “This is seriously the best day ever. I don’t want to ever forget it. Can you get one of us together?” she asked Justin and handed him the camera.
“Promise you won’t touch your hair again?” he asked.
She nodded.
He took the camera from her. “Say cheese,” he said.
I smiled as big as I could. Kennedy was right. I didn’t want to forget today either. We’d basically gotten a spa day without leaving my room. Plus Kennedy was allowed to visit whenever she wanted now.
“What happened to your new cell phone?” she asked as she took the camera back from Justin.
“It’s in my dresser.”
“Why?”
“Because it was annoying.”
She laughed and walked over to the dresser. “Why was it annoying? It has so many new features that mine doesn’t.” She pulled it out and turned it back on. It immediately started buzzing in her hand. “Whoa.”
“What?”
“You have so many missed calls and text from Matt.” She squealed and started reading the texts to me:
“Brooklyn please just let me explain,” she said in a deep voice.
“I never slept with Rachel. I swear to God.”
“You can’t shut me out too.”
I swallowed down the lump in my throat. None of the Untouchables had been seen together all week. I was pretty sure their friendship had burst into flames just like Matt and my relationship. Probably around the same time that James put his fist through a window. Matt had lost everything. And I knew what that felt like.
Kennedy scrolled down. “There’s like a bajillion messages here, Brooklyn. How could you ignore all of these? Oh my God, they get even better.” She continued reading:
“I’ll do anything to get you back. Just say the word.”
“Meet me downstairs. Please.”
“Mr. Pruitt won’t let me up anymore because our relationship contract has a discrepancy. What the hell is he even talking about?”
“I’m sorry I made you look like a fool at lunch by not telling you the truth. I should have told you. But nothing happened between me and Rachel. Isabella jumped to a wild conclusion. And she was holding it over my head. You know that I’m worried about James. You know that this would hurt him. I don’t understand why you don’t believe me.”
“I’d never lie to you, Brooklyn. Never.”
“Will it help if I make a fool of myself?”
Kennedy looked up from the phone. “He made a fool of himself for you, Brooklyn. Even though he didn’t know if it would work because you were ghosting him. It’s so romantic.” She pressed the phone against her chest with a sigh.
“What did he do?” Justin asked as he started messing with my hair.
“To make me mad? Or to try to win me back?”
“I got the gist of the mad part. He hooked up with someone else while you were together.”
“No, not while we were together. Before we were together.”
Justin lowered his round brush. “So why are you mad at him exactly? He can’t undo his past.”
