The Christmas Pact(12)

Kennedy



Riley and I were holed up in her bedroom. She looked less than thrilled that her mother had insisted we sleep in her old bedroom together, but what did she expect? We were adults, and my performance out there had been so convincing that I honestly wasn’t sure Mrs. Kennedy would have objected if I’d knocked Riley up in here tonight.

“You have to admit, this is pretty funny,” I said.

“I’m glad you’re amused.”

Despite the fact that I truly did find all of this amusing, I didn’t want to stay here if it was going to upset her. “Seriously, Riley, if you don’t want to continue this, I can just go.”

“No. I don’t want you to drive home in this weather. It’s fine.”

“I insist on sleeping on the floor, anyway.”

Not surprisingly, she didn’t argue about that. “Okay.”

Riley’s room was definitely dated. It must not have changed much from the time she was a teenager. A sparkly poster of a psychedelic flower hung on the wall, along with a framed photo of Justin Timberlake on her desk. It was from his NSYNC days when he had the longer curly hair.

“Timberlake, huh?”

“Stop, Kennedy. I was ten when I got that. I’m not good at parting with things.”

“You want to tell me to go bye, bye, bye right about now, don’t you?”

“Look, if I knew you were going to end up in here, I might have…cleaned up a bit.”

“Nothing to be ashamed of. We all have our crushes.”

“Oh yeah? Who was yours?” she asked skeptically.

I scratched my chin and chuckled. “Let’s see, when I was really young, I used to like Peg Bundy from Married… with Children. I don’t remember her real name.”

Her eyes widened. “The mom?”

“Yup.”

“Oh my God. You were, like, a MILF lover?”

“Yeah. At, like, six years old. What can I say? I liked the big red hair and the spandex.”

She laughed. “That’s so twisted but probably shouldn’t surprise me.”

Looking around, I asked, “You got anything fun to do in here…board games or something?”

“We should probably try to get some sleep.”

I was too wired to sleep, which really sucked for Riley. I walked around and picked a doll up off a shelf.

“Aw...who’s this?”

“That’s Lovey.”

The doll’s face had red splotches all over it.

“What’s wrong with her face?”

“I left her out in the sun once. She got burned.”

“You do realize that a doll doesn’t have actual skin that can burn, right?”

“Well, I left her out in the sun. She turned red. How else do you explain that?”

I chuckled again. “You’re adorable, Riley.”

“Adorable? I thought you found me annoying.”

“When have I ever said that? You’ve been the skeptical one all this time, not me. I’ve always found you adorable and funny and intriguing.”

“Intriguing? Based on what?”

“Based on the fact that you get so damn worked up about everything. I knew there had to be so much more to you than you just being a bitch. You’re very self-protective. Being here has helped me piece some of the mystery together.”

“Oh yeah?” She plopped down on the bed. “Why don’t you enlighten me about myself?”

“Well, I mean, the fact that your mother makes you feel inadequate...that clearly explains a lot. But now that I know what you told me about losing your boyfriend...I can see why you’re a bit cautious. That’s a huge loss, one that someone shouldn’t have to go through so young. It makes my shit seem trivial.”

“And what exactly is your shit? You’ve alluded to being in love at one time and then it ended. I mean, you gave up truly being Neil Armstrong for her. That had to have been something,”

“Yeah, it was something, alright. Something I’d rather forget.”

I needed to change the subject. I spotted what looked like a Chewbacca cookie jar on the shelf. I picked it up. “This is interesting.”

Panicked, she leapt up to quickly stop me. “Don’t touch that!” She placed it gently back on the shelf.

“Whoa. What are you hiding in there…a dead body?”

Her face turned red. “Yes,” she breathed out softly.

“What?”

“It’s Frankie’s ashes. His parents split them up between his siblings and me.”

Oh man.

I scrubbed my hand across my face. “I’m sorry. Wow, I’m really batting a hundred right now.”

“You’re fine, Kennedy. You didn’t know.” She looked down at her feet, then back up at me. “He…was a Star Wars fan. I left his ashes behind when I moved to Manhattan, thinking it might help me move on. Clearly, it didn’t.”

“Jesus. That’s heavy.” I blew out a breath. “Here, I was thinking you were hiding something stupid in there, like a vibrator or something.”

“If I were hiding my vibrator, you’d have to be much more creative to find it.”

“Oh really. Are you saying it’s hiding in this room somewhere?”