“Maybe this will help.” Madison adjusted my fan, but I barely felt it. She peered at me, a worried expression on her face, and dug around in her bag until she found a tissue. “And here. You’re sweating.”
Just perfect. I grabbed the tissue from her and wiped my face. The plane started to pick up speed, and my chest squeezed. My breath turned wheezy. Tyler turned around and laughed when he saw me. “I guess you really don’t like to fly.” He smiled, but it wasn’t a nice smile. It said, Pussy!
I couldn’t even articulate an insult. “Try the yoga breathing,” Madison whispered. She inhaled through her nose and exhaled loudly out through her mouth. I tried it, too. Tyler and his friends howled with laughter.
“Just ignore them. C’mere.” Madison guided my head down toward her shoulder. “Shh. Everything’s okay.” She stroked the back of my head, and I started to feel a little better after I closed my eyes.
But then the plane started to taxi.
I clutched Maddy and tried not to cry. Hottest first date ever! I didn’t even think she knew what was going on. A full panic seized me. The plane shook. My heart raced. Sweat ran down my back.
“Is he all right?” the flight attendant asked.
“Um…” Madison really didn’t know the answer.
“Just make sure he stays buckled.”
The plane started going faster, faster than any crazy-ass Massachusetts driver on the interstate, faster than it should have been going. Oh my god, it was going so fast! Then the front of the little plane lifted off the ground. Tyler and his douche crew cheered, and I looked up at Maddy. “I don’t feel so good.”
“Okay! All right!” She looked around, panicked, and I got the impression that maybe she wasn’t so good in an emergency. She rummaged through the pocket on the back of the seat and pulled out a small white bag. She hastily opened it and handed it to me. “Just in case, you know—”
I threw up noisily into the bag. Then I moaned and threw up again, all the while hunched next to the lovely Madison A. Delaney.
The plane made it into the air, and two rows in front of us, douchebag Tyler laughed raucously. “Best. Weekend. Ever!”
Chapter Six
MADISON
“So… it wasn’t that bad, was it?”
Roberto Palmieri, a.k.a. the Italian Stallion, a.k.a. my super-hot fake date, smiled as he wiped his face again, making sure the vomit was all gone. “No problem.”
I leaned closer so Tyler, who was being a total loser, couldn’t hear me. “We can totally take the ferry home.”
Bob nodded weakly. “Deal.”
I patted his hand. “C’mon. We have a driver waiting for us.”
We waited until Tyler and his annoying friends—a lot of whom were also Sienna’s friends—were safely off the plane. “See you at the house!” Tyler called. He and his entourage hopped into an enormous SUV and drove off, their aviator sunglasses firmly in place.
“They’re staying with you?” Bob’s forehead wrinkled as he watched the SUV fly over the grassy airport parking lot. “All of them?”
“No. Tyler’s family has their own house on the island. They’re just coming over for cocktail hour later.”
“Yay.” Bob grabbed our bags, but the driver came over and insisted on taking them.
“I know.” I sighed as I climbed into the back of my parents’ enormous Navigator. “Tyler’s not my favorite person, but he’s like family. I’ve known him since I was a kid.”
Bob climbed in next to me. He was still pale, but he looked so much better than he had a few minutes ago. He popped a breath mint in his mouth, poor guy. “Did you ever date him?”
I wrinkled my nose. “Ew, no. Totally not my type.”
Bob stared. “I think he’s into you.”
“Nah.”
The driver climbed in. “Nice to see you, Ms. Delaney. Your mother asked me to pick a few items up downtown. Is it okay if we go there before we head to the house?”