Somebody Else's Sky (Something in the Way 2)

Corbin’s heart beat strongly against my palm. Manning pushed up his sleeves, his forearms tense and veiny.

“Don’t,” Corbin said under his breath so only I could hear.

I looked up at him. “What?”

“You know what. Don’t use me to get what you want.” He peeled my arms off him and walked away as I stood there. Perfect. Just what I needed to end this night, being humiliated in front of Manning and Tiffany by the one person who rarely let me down.

“Let’s go for a walk,” Tiffany said to me, glancing back at Manning. “Is that okay? I need to talk to her about something.”

He took a pack of cigarettes from his hoodie pocket and smacked it against his palm, looking between both of us. “Fine by me. Don’t go far.”

Tiffany looped her elbow with mine to walk down to the water. It felt like cozying up with the enemy, except that Tiffany’s shampoo and scent and hair and body were as familiar to me as my own. I needed the kind of comfort only a sister could give me, but I also didn’t want to go anywhere with her right then.

“Everything okay with you and Corbin?” she asked.

“There is no me and Corbin.” I sniffed. “You know that.”

“But he’s so perfect for you, Lake. You need to try harder.”

“He’s not . . .” Manning. “He doesn’t . . .”

“So who does?” she asked. “Aren’t there any guys at school?”

“They’re boys.”

“If you don’t practice with boys, how will you handle men?” We stopped walking and she glanced back at the fire, presumably at Manning. I didn’t want to look, but I couldn’t help it. I wanted to know where he was. How he was. Always. Even while he was shredding my heart. Manning looked back at us as he talked to one of Corbin’s brothers.

“I mean, I don’t know why you don’t just go for it,” she said. “He obviously loves you.”

My breath caught in my throat before I realized she was looking beyond Manning, at Corbin. “This is what you wanted to talk to me about?” I asked, annoyed.

“No. Yes. I don’t know.” She snuggled closer to me against a gusty breeze. “We haven’t talked much since I moved out.”

“We have dinner together every Sunday.”

“You know what I mean.”

It wasn’t the distance causing our rift. Did she know that? Did she know what she was doing to me, how much it hurt to even look at her right now? I could barely swallow their kissing and cuddling in front of me, the knowledge they were having sex, and now . . . she was taking forever from me. It didn’t belong to her, and she had to know that, even if I hadn’t said it aloud. I might’ve kept my love for Manning in the dark, but it was as impossible to ignore as the sun. “Do you love him?” I whispered.

Either she didn’t hear or pretended not to. She smiled. This time, she was looking at Manning. “You know what he told me in the car? Dad’s so happy about the wedding that he might try to make it happen this summer.”

My mind reeled. My thoughts had been spinning since the party, and I wasn’t sure I could take much more. A wedding, this summer? My dad, happy? I wanted to take my arm back from her, but I was afraid I’d sink to my knees. “But it’s already summer.”

“If Dad’s offering up the Ritz, I’m taking it before he changes his mind. We have a lot of work to do. I haven’t been this excited to do anything in a while, probably not since high school. First, you and I should take a trip to Barnes and Noble to clean out their bridal magazines. We’ll need to stock up on Post-its to color-code the dresses by length, neckline, fabric . . .”

I billowed my sweater with my free hand to get some air against my skin. “Why can’t Sarah help?” I asked. “You always say how bad my fashion sense is.”

“I mean, she can.” Tiffany looked at her pink-polished toes as she dug them into the sand. “I just thought you might want to.”

The disappointment in her voice was evident even to me. Any other time, any other man, yes—I would’ve been happy to see Tiffany this way. More than happy. Normally everything was dumb or bogus or uncool or pathetic to her, yet on the biggest day of her life, she wanted to include me. But this was Manning. My Manning.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t,” I said. “Maybe there’s some other way I can help.”

Tiffany laughed so loudly, Manning, Corbin, and everyone else looked over at us. “Don’t worry. I think we can find a few things for the M.O.H. to do.”

“M.O.H.?” I asked.

“Duh. Maid—of—honor.”

The maid of honor . . . Tiffany’s maid of honor?