I gave Sawyer a smile as we walked away, but he was looking in the other direction.
GOOD-BYE FOR NOW
I gazed across the aqua-blue ocean, watching the waves as they lapped at the white sand. Upton's arms were wrapped around me from behind, his chin resting on my shoulder. My heart felt heavy and full. I took a deep breath and let it go, just to see if I could lessen its load, but somehow it felt even heavier.
"What are you thinking?" Upton asked quietly.
"I'm thinking that I'm really going to miss you."
He chuckled, sending a pleasant shiver through my chest. "You sound surprised." I smiled and sighed again. In a way, I was surprised. I couldn't believe that, in such a short time, everything about him had become so familiar to me. The warmth of his skin, the roughness of his cheek on the mornings he didn't shave, the crisp scent of his clothing, the sexy lilt of his accent. And I was going to miss every last bit of it. Every last bit of him.
In a little while, we were going to jet off in different directions, for distant corners of the world. And as much as I knew that saying good-bye was going to hurt, I had to wonder . . . did I really want to be tethered to someone? Did I want to go back to Easton as Upton's girlfriend and have to second-guess myself every time I flirted or needed a date for a party or met a guy I really liked? It kind of went against the whole carpe diem lifestyle I'd promised myself I'd have back when I was on the island.
I had to say something. I had to be honest with him. And I had to get it over with before my heart burst.
"Upton, about this whole long-distance thing," I said, turning to face him. He kept his arms around my waist so that our faces were extremely close.
"You're goingto get all practical on me now, aren't you?" he asked, giving me a quick kiss.
"It's just..." I took a deep breath and fiddled with the buttons on his white linen shirt. "It doesn't seem all that realistic."
"I know," he said.
I glanced up at him, feeling both hopeful and disappointed at the same time. Is it wrong that part of me wanted him to fight me on this? "You do?"
"Well, I can't expect a girl like you to just cloister yourself away, can I?" he said with a smirk. He tucked my hair behind my ear, then ran his hand down the length of it.
"It's not that I don't care about you ... I mean, I do," I said in a rush. "It's just, I've got this whole new seize-the-day thing going on and--"
"After three near-death experiences and six days trapped on a deserted island byyourself, I supposed that's to be expected," he said with a shrug.
I laughed. "So you understand?"
"Of course," he replied. "But does this mean it's over and done? No more Reed at all? I've got to quit you full stop? No calls or texts or anything? Because I don't think I'm ready for that."
My smile brightened. "I don't think we have to be that drastic," I said, pulling him closer.
"What if we say we'll stay in touch and just.. . see what happens? "
"And maybe see each other over spring break? I mean, if neither of us is with anyone else," he clarified quickly. "Because my parents have this villa in southern Italy that you would just adore."
"Southern Italy? I think I could handle that," I said, resting my cheek against his chest.
"They don't have deserted islands there, do they?"
"None that I'm aware of. But if they do, I promise to have them populated before March," he joked, holding me tightly.
"I would appreciate that," I replied.
We stood like that for a while, for what seemed like a very long time, until the tide started to come in and the cool water lapped at our feet.
"Reed! They're loadingup the car. We've gotta go!" Noelle shouted from the patio outside her house.
"I suppose we should get this over with," Upton said finally. My heart dropped. "Do we have to?"
He glanced over his shoulder at Noelle, who was giving us a no-nonsense stare from above. "Unless we want to die a slow death at the hands of Noelle Lange," Upton said. I giggled. "I'll be right there!" I shouted to her.
She rolled her eyes, groaned, and went back inside. Upton smiled down at me, his arms draped around my waist. "So, this is goodbye?"
"Good-bye for now," I clarified.
"All right then." He reached up and cupped one hand around the back of my neck, his thumb caressing the supersensitive skin below my ear. Shiver city. "Good-bye for now, Reed Brennan."
Then he kissed me and kissed me and kissed me, until our feet had sunk into the wet sand, and my lips went from tingling to numb, and I had memorized exactly how perfect I felt in his arms.
THE GREAT AND POWERFUL OZ
I stared out the window as the private jet lifted from the ground, tugging us smoothly into the clear blue sky. The island dropped away beneath me, and I felt the weight of everything that had happened there falling away with it. A new year, a fresh start. That was what Mr. Lange had said. I was definitely down with that.
"Some vacation, huh? " Noelle said, leaning her head back against the leather seat. We were sitting across from each other, the only passengers on the plane aside from her mother, who was seated near the back with a sleeping mask covering her eyes. Tiffany and Amberly had left earlier that morning, so this time we had the comfy jet all to ourselves.
"It was definitely exciting," I said wryly.
"Putting a positive spin on things," Noelle said with a smile. "I like it." My iPhone beeped and I lifted it from my lap. Upton had been texting me ever since I left him on the beach that morning, with funny little updates on what he was doing. This one read, simply:
Up and away. U?
I quickly texted back.
Me too.
"God. Who knew Upton could be so clingy?" Noelle joked.
"It's not clingy. It's cute," I replied. The phone beeped again. Damn. UR getting further away. I can feel it.
My grin widened. I texted back.
Toughen up or its gonna b a long 2 months!
I hit send, then silenced my phone, tucking it back into my bag. When Upton and I had kissed good-bye on the beach, I had told myself that it was our last kiss. That I had to go back to Easton and live my life as if Upton and I had never happened. That was how I had decided it should be. Besides, Upton had always been a player. Whatever we had been through together, no matter how much he swore he wanted to keep in touch, I had to be realistic. I knew there was a good chance he was going to forget all about me the second I walked away. But apparently that was not the case. And it felt nice.
"So, your parents are meetingyou in New York?" Noelle asked.
"And my brother, Scott," I said, a thrill of anticipation running through me at the thought of actually being with my entire family at the same time. I only had one day before I had to be back at Easton for second term--not enough time to go all the way back to Pennsylvania. So my family had decided to drive out to New York, and Mr. Lange had offered to put them up in a hotel for a couple of nights so we could all hang out. I had been hoping they could all meet, considering everything Noelle's dad had done for me on the island, but he was on his way to California for some business meeting. It seemed like no one I knew was ever in the same place with their parents for very long.
"Mmmm. I finally get to meet Scott Brennan," Noelle said, actually licking her top lip.
"Ew. No. I think you two should stay very far away from each other," I said.
"Afraid I'll eat him alive?" Noelle asked with a smirk.
"He'd puddle at your feet," I replied.
"Fair enough." She looked out the window and sighed. "I can't wait to get back to Billings and get you moved into my room. One more term and I finally get that elusive diploma." For the first time in a long while, I found myself thinking about everything Noelle had been through in the past year. The trial after Thomas's murder, getting expelled from Easton, being on probation. She was supposed to graduate last spring, but that hadn't happened thanks to her punishment. Last fall, however, her father had found a way to get her back into Easton and she'd spent the last few months repeating the first half of her senior year. Now she was actually going to get to finish out her high school career and get on with her life. But she was going to be a year behind all her peers--behind Dash and Natasha Crenshaw and all the others. It must have been torture for a person like her, a girl who was always in charge and in the know, to be bringing up the rear for once.
And now she was so looking forward to getting back to Billings when who knew what surprises might be waiting for us there? I couldn't handle the idea of her not knowing, not being prepared for the fact that Billings might be threatened--again. I took a deep breath and decided to take the plunge.
"Noelle, Sawyer said something to me at brunch this morning about a conversation he overheard between your dad and his dad and someone on the phone." Noelle lifted her head and eyed me curiously. "About?"
"He said they kept mentioning Billings, and basically, it just sounded bad, "I told her, fiddling with the string on my hooded sweatshirt. "I think they might be talking about splitting us up again."
Noelle laughed. "Uh, no. If that were happening, I'd know about it."
"But I-"
"Reed, please," she said, pushing her hair behind her shoulder. "Leave the heavy thinking to me. If there was anything going on with Billings, Daddy would have told me. End of story." I wanted to believe her. Normally I would. But I couldn't get Sawyer's words out of my mind. "For the good of the school ..."
"But your dad doesn't know everything, does he?" I said, shifting in my seat. "It's not like he's on the board or anything."
Noelle laughed openly, shaking her head as she reached for the W magazine on the table in front of her. "No. No board appointment for Daddy. He likes to work behind the scenes. Kind of like the great and powerful Oz."
My brow knit as I looked at her. "What did that mean? Did her father somehow have more power than the board? I had never even seen him before this trip. As far as I knew, he hadn't been to campus in the year and a half I'd been at Easton.
"But I-"
Suddenly Noelle snapped the just-opened magazine shut and looked up at me, her eyes bright. "I just had the most fabulous idea! You and your mother should join us at Bliss tomorrow!" Okay. I guess we were changing the subject.
"Noelle, that's really nice, but there's no way we could afford--"
"Shut up. We'll just put it on our tab," Noelle replied. "Come on. You knowyou need to relax before school starts. And has your mother ever even had a massage?"
"Not that I know of," I replied.
"Afacial?" she asked.
"Definitely not," I said with a laugh.
"Thenyoumust come," Noelle said. "Please?"
"What'll my dad and Scott do?" I asked.
She ducked her chin. "Are you kidding? They're going to be in New York for the first time. I'm sure there's some kind of ball game they could go to or some famous pizza they'll just have to eat."
I cracked up laughing. It was like she knew them. "Okay, okay. We're in."
"Good. I'll book it right now."
She pulled her iPhone out of her bag and started to scroll through the address book. I sat back and looked out the window again. There was nothing visible now other than blue sky and the even bluer ocean. Somewhere, miles and miles in front of us, were the U.S. and Connecticut and Easton Academy. We were on our way home. Tonight I would get to be with my family, and tomorrow my mother and I would spend the day with Noelle and her mom blissing out at Bliss. And the day after that, we'd be back on campus, back in Billings and back to our normal lives.
FRESH START
"Okay, so the first thing we do is go to housing and make sure your transfer goes through," Noelle said, tugging her rolling luggage behind her as we made our way around the circle in front of Bradwell. It was freezing out, and we were both wrapped up in warm wool coats again. It was hard to believe that a few days ago I'd actually been overly warm. "We have to get them to send someone over and move the extra furniture out of the triple and into my room. Then tonight we'll have a little party to welcome you back." My heart skipped a beat at the thought of being in the same room with all the Billings Girls again. "You're sure they're all okay with this?"
"Are you kidding? They're more than ready to grovel at your feet," Noelle said, pushing her huge sunglasses up on top of her head. "I've already got Rose and London on food and decorations, and I wouldn't be surprised if a few of them had some gifties for you to say they're sorry."
I laughed and rolled my shoulders back as we came around the side of Bradwell. I was trying to ignore the pitter-patter of my heart, the blood racing through my veins. Somewhere on this campus was Josh Hollis How was I going to feel when I saw him? What was I going to say? What would he say? I had to play it cool. I definitely could not mention the fact that he'd gone radio silent for more than two weeks. If I did, I'd sound like a pathetic, pining loser and that was not how I wanted to come off.
I was Reed Brennan. I was a Billings Girl again. I had a super-hot European boy pining for me. The rest of the world could kiss my butt.
"I can't wait to see Constance's face when we tell her she doesn't have to be in a triple anymore," I said as Noelle hooked a right around the back of the building and started up the pathway toward Billings. "She is just going to--"
My mouth snapped shut as I walked right into Noelle from behind, tripping over her luggage. I almost fell flat on my face, but managed to stop my forward momentum by grabbing her arm.
"What just happened?" I said with a laugh. But Noelle's face was as white as bleached wood. Her jaw hanging open in a way she never would have approved of if she could have seen it. That was when I heard the beeping. The grinding. And smelled the unmistakable stench of diesel fuel.