“I don’t know, Ly.”
“You don’t know what?” she asked, rolling over onto her back and sitting up. “You have to go with us. It’s tradition. Mom is going to have a fit if you try to back out.”
“I’m not sure I’m feeling up for it.”
“It’s because you’re in those dark colors you’re always wearing. Come on, Trihn. Black and studs and dark denim for the beach? I have the cutest outfit you can borrow for the boat.”
A smile tugged at the corner of Trihn’s lips. Why couldn’t Lydia act like this all the time? This was the sister who Trihn missed and who she was looking forward to moving in with in a couple of weeks. This was the sister who shouldn’t have her heart broken.
“That sounds nice,” Trihn said softly.
“Plus, Ian will die when he sees you in it.”
“Ugh!” Trihn groaned. “Ian and I are not together.”
“But he wants you! I know, in your world, it’s bad to rebound or whatever, but in my world, you say good-bye to one and hello to the next. Give it a try. I know Ian would go crazy if you did. He’s liked you since you were kids.”
“What?” Trihn asked, laughing because of her sister’s ridiculous ideals. “He has not.”
“Please! You are not that naive.”
“I…wait, what?”
“Ian likes you. He always has. But you totally friend-zoned him in middle school,” Lydia explained. “That doesn’t mean you can’t unfriend-zone him. He’s cute, and you guys get along. He’s serious. He’s smart. You’ll both be in the city.” Lydia waggled her eyebrows up and down. “Think about it.”
And she was. Thinking about it made her gag. “He’s like a brother to me. Just no. No way.”
Lydia sighed heavily and sagged back in her chair. “Your loss. I bet he would worship the ground you walked on.”
Trihn shook her head. She wished that she and Lydia could just keep talking about frivolous things and let their relationship seamlessly repair itself on its own. That was what Trihn and Renée had talked about when she had first found out that Lydia was dating Preston. Lydia would probably break up with him in a couple of weeks, and then all would be well again between them.
But after last night and this morning…could I really wait around for that to happen? Pretend like it didn’t bother me? Pretend like Lydia didn’t need to know the truth?
“This isn’t really why I came out here,” Trihn said. She swallowed hard and tried to meet her sister’s eyes.
“Oh, yeah? Did Mom send you to tell me to make sure I got ready?”
“Well, yeah. She did, but—”
“All ready!” Lydia said, spreading her arms wide. She hopped out of her chair. “I don’t need more than bathing suit, but you on the other hand need my help. Come on. Let’s try that outfit on you.” Lydia latched on to her arm and tried to drag her inside.
“Lydia, I need to talk to you.”
“Okay. Let’s talk while you try on the outfit.”
“Lydia,” Trihn complained, “can’t we talk first?”
“Why so serious?” Lydia said in her best impersonation of the Joker. Then, she was dragging Trihn through the house and back to their bedrooms. She opened the door and tugged Trihn inside.
Trihn froze when she entered.
There was the bed, Lydia’s huge king-size bed.
It was freshly made, so the maid service must have already come through this morning, but it didn’t erase the memories. Lydia and Preston had had sex on this bed this morning. Trihn’s stomach revolted at the thought.
“Is…is Preston around?”
“No,” Lydia said. She was rummaging through the closet, and then she pulled out a white flowy skirt and a blue-and-white striped tank. She tossed them to Trihn. “Try it on.”
Trihn sighed and then stripped out of her outfit and into the ensemble Lydia had given her.
“Anyway, Preston has been on the phone with work all morning. He’s supposed to be taking the time off, but his boss keeps bothering him with this project he’s been working on.”
Sure he is.
“I see.”
At least he wasn’t around to interrupt them.
Lydia shoved Trihn in front of the full-length mirror and smiled. “Perfect. Ian will die.”
“Lydia,” Trihn said.
“I know you’re not together.” Lydia put her hands up in the air.
Trihn wrinkled her nose. She had to admit that the outfit did look nice even if it wasn’t something she would normally wear. But her face fell when she realized that, all this time, she had just been avoiding the conversation that she knew she needed to have.
“What’s that look?” Lydia asked.
“What look?”
“Whatever is on your face right now.”
Trihn turned away from the mirror. “I said that we needed to talk. It’s about Preston.”
Lydia huffed loudly and rolled her eyes. “Of course it is. It’s always something. I really don’t know what’s been up with you on this trip, Trihn. Mom and Dad think you’re just being a hormonal teenager, but I think it’s something else. Normally, you’re the serious one, and I’m the happy-go-lucky one, and then everything works out. But this trip, you’ve been just so mad at the world. Everyone is kind of over it,” Lydia told her. “Just because your boyfriend broke up with you doesn’t mean that you have to take it out on everyone else.”
Trihn clenched her hands into fists at her sides. Everything she had been planning to say flittered out of her mind. “My boyfriend didn’t break up with me.”
“What do you mean?”
“He didn’t break up with me. I just said that when I saw him with you. I didn’t want this to happen this way, Ly, but Preston is—or was my boyfriend.”
Lydia’s eyes rested on Trihn for a second before she doubled over. She was laughing so hard that tears brimmed her eyes. She patted her chest twice and then coughed. “Oh, that’s a good one, Trihn.”
“I’m not joking,” Trihn said.
“Oh, please! Don’t be ridiculous.”
“I’m not being ridiculous either, Lydia. I’m telling you that I dated Preston,” she said, trying to get through to her sister.
Lydia crossed her arms over her chest and stood nearly nose-to-nose with Trihn. “I get that you’re upset because I brought Preston along, but I’m not stupid. Your boyfriend broke up with you, and now, you’re taking that out on everyone else. I’ve seen the way you’ve been looking at Preston this whole trip. You’re clearly jealous.”
“You know what? You’re right,” Trihn said, throwing her hands out. “My boyfriend, Preston, has been dating someone else. As you can imagine, that makes me pretty jealous.”
“Stop saying that!” Lydia cried. “Preston never dated you!”
“I really wish that were true,” Trihn told her. “I wish that this trip were the first time I’d ever met him, but it’s not. Preston and I met on the front steps of your building a couple of months ago. After running into me that day, he pursued me, and we’ve been together all summer. I never knew he was seeing you. I actually didn’t even know you were seeing anyone until Mom told me you were bringing your boyfriend on vacation with us.”
“If all of this is true,” Lydia said doubtfully, “then why is this the first I’m hearing about it?”
Trihn sighed and hugged herself to avoid the words she hated to say. “I was blindsided at first, so I didn’t want to lash out from anger, but then I think a part of me wanted to believe that you guys would just break up, like you do with everyone else. Trust me, I didn’t even want to tell you right now, but I thought you deserved to know.”
With those final words, it seemed to hit Lydia. Her face fell, her shoulders drooped, and she looked like someone had just socked her in the stomach. “So…you’re saying that Preston has been cheating on me this whole time?”