I gave him facts about me, too. How my goal in life was to see one of my screenplays made into a film or television series. How I dreamed of achieving the EGOT—an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony. Sure, it seemed like a far-fetched dream, but if Audrey Hepburn could do it, maybe I could, too.
Even though I was nowhere near as talented as Audrey.
I told him she was my favorite actress. Her romantic comedies were some of the best in the world and the reason I’d fallen in love with writing romances. I told him about other writers I loved, too.
I told him so many things others probably found boring, but he listened and asked me questions about my dreams, my wishes, and my hopes.
“You can do it all, Chick. Youwilldo it all,” he promised. “You’re too damn stubborn not to.”
That wasn’t a lie. Even if I didn’t do it all, I was going to fight like hell to get as close to my dreams as possible.
“What about you?” I asked. “What do you want to do?”
“I hate that question,” he muttered. “It always feels loaded.”
“Loaded with what?”
“Pressure.” He grumbled a little through the receiver and then cleared his throat. “Everyone has an idea of what they want to do. Hank and Raine want to open that bakery and café shop. Grey is a shoo-in for taking over his family’s whiskey company. Reggie has it locked down to be a dick begging people for money so he can get a ticket back home to Kentucky. Everyone has their stuff figured out, while I’m walking around lost as fuck like John Travolta inPulp Fiction.” He paused. “That’s another favorite movie.Home Alone, thenPulp Fiction.”
“I’ve never seen that movie.”
“And to think you were just starting to grow on me.”
I snickered. “You’ve been growing on me, too, actually.”
“Is that right?”
“Yes. Like a disgusting fungus between my toes.”
He laughed out loud, and my stomach fluttered with butterflies from the sound. I liked that. I liked that I made him laugh.
“You don’t have to have it all figured out right now, Landon. So many people go to school undecided. Some people take a year off to figure out what they really want to do. Some people don’t go to school at all. None of those are wrong choices. None of those choices are better than others.”
“I wish my dad understood that.”
“I’m beginning to think parents aren’t meant to understand us kids.”
“And we aren’t meant to understand them,” he added. “I want to be better than mine, though. If I ever had kids, I’d want to be there for them, unlike mine.”
I wanted to be better than mine, too.
My phone dinged as I received a message from Tracey. She and Raine had been texting me all night about a partyat Reggie’s house—which was the last thing I wanted to be a part of.
Tracey:You were right about Reggie. He’s a jerk, and I’m done with him forever.
The following messages were about how he was caught hooking up with Monica. Even though it sucked, there was some relief I felt when I read Tracey’s messages. I’d listened to Tracey cry too many tears over that guy. As long as he was out of the picture, I was happy for my friend.
“It seems Tracey is officially over the Reggie infatuation,” I yawned into the phone receiver.
“Good. He’s a fucking asshole.”
“Rumor has it he hooked up with Monica.”
Landon groaned. “She’s been a mess lately. I worry about her sometimes. I know she drives me up a wall, but I also know her life is shit.”
He wasn’t wrong. Every time I saw Monica, she looked less and less like herself. She hardly even showed up to school anymore, either. “So her being involved with Reggie probably isn’t a good thing.”
“Probably the worst thing,” he replied.