Hot Mess

Her eyes lit up. “Really?”

“Of course. We’re friends now, right? That’s what friends do. They keep in contact with each other, no matter how far away they are.”

“Okay.” She perked up at that. “Can we put the soil in now?”

I nodded and handed her the spoon, but she shoved her hands right in the soil.

That’s what friends do. They keep in contact with each other, no matter how far away they are.

My own words echoed inside my head.

I knew that. I knew that’s what real friends did. Yet, of all the people I classed as my friends who had my private email, not a single one of them had bothered to check up on me.

In fact, none of them had said a word supporting me until it looked good for them.

I knew the hashtag. I knew four people I considered my friends started I Stand With Elle. But they didn’t. Not a single one did—they all stood behind me until I was ready to stand up for myself.

None of them stood up for me.

And if you’re not willing to stand up for someone, you have no business standing with them.

“Elle? Are you okay?” Ari looked at me, her head tilted to the side. “You look sad.”

“Oh, I’m okay. Just thinking about something. So, how many pots are we filling?”

“All of them!”

I looked at the pots.

We were going to be here a while.

***

I sat on the back deck of the diner with Blaire while Theo and Alex chased the girls across the beach. Blaire had called me and demanded I come out for dinner, and I’d happily accepted, even though it meant a quiet moment of Adalyn freaking out that Elle Evans was coming for dinner.

After spending all day potting approximately forty seeds, I didn’t feel like cooking.

“You went viral, you know.” She peered at me over the rim of her gin glass. “Everywhere. All over the media, all over social media, everywhere you could.”

“I know. My sister told me.”

“Okay. Every other person in your situation would be happy about that, but you look miserable. Who shoved a cactus up your ass?”

I let out a small laugh at her words. “Well, none of it is real, is it?” I relayed the epiphany I’d had this morning. “None of them cared until it mattered that they did. I knew it was a shallow world, but I realized today just how shallow it is.”

She smiled, setting her glass down. “For sure, girl. These people… wow. No offense.”

“None taken.”

“I don’t know how you survive in that world. It’s rough. But what will you do without it?”

“Change how I use my platform, I think. Use it to bring awareness for what I’ve been through. Teach kids how to be safe online. Warning signs of problematic people. Charities, that kind of thing.”

“So does that mean you’re giving up vlogging? As it is now?”

“I’m not sure. I have to work it all out, and I have to figure out how to do it all.”

“Does that mean you’ll stay?”

“Stop asking me things I don’t know the answer to!”

We both laughed.

I toyed with the stem of my wine glass. “My sister lives in New York. It would be a big change, but I’m not going anywhere anytime soon. I’m here for at least a month, so I have a lot of time to plan.”

But my gut already knew the answer. Even if it meant finding an actual rental property, that’s what I would do. I didn’t think I was ready to leave Creek Keys until I’d found my footing again.

Which opened my world up to a thousand possibilities.

Not least romantically.

But I wasn’t going to say anything yet. Not to Blaire, not to Charity, not to Theo. I would keep that inside and let things run their course the way they should.

Until then, I would figure out my own life.

Theo and Alex joined us, both out of breath like they’d run a marathon.

“Never. Again,” Alex wheezed. “I need the gym.”

Theo nodded. “Same.”

I frowned. “I’ve seen you shirtless. You go to the gym.”

Blaire wiggled her eyebrows. “Shirtless, eh?”

Theo gave her a withering look. “She decided to throw a glass of ice water over me. Was I supposed to stay sitting in a wet shirt?”

“No, you should have gone outside in the sun for thirty seconds and kept your abs to yourself.”

I disagreed with that, but whatever.

“So, Elle, you were the poor person who had to plant all Ari’s seeds. She keeps talking about them and how she’s going to feed me tomatoes,” Alex said wryly. “I bet that was fun.”

I laughed. “I only did it because Theo had to work.”

Theo frowned. “I didn’t have to work.”

Wait, what?

I shifted to look at him. “She told me you had to work, and that was why she came to ask me to help her plant the seeds.”