Mrs. Beattie emerged from the upstairs, grinning at her guests. “We are just so excited!” she squealed at the couple who had just stepped into the foyer. “And so is Lucas!” She pushed Lucas toward them. The husband, Wade, who wore a Burberry barn jacket and had blindingly white teeth, pumped Lucas’s hand. The wife, Patricia, whose toothpick arms were apparent even under her snug-fitting cashmere peacoat, gave Lucas a kiss on the cheek.
“Oh. My. God,” said a voice from the porch. The adults parted, and an overly tan, scarily skinny, gum-snapping teenage girl with long, teased black hair, wet-looking red lipstick, and jutting boobs marched right up to Lucas and clapped her long-fingernailed hands on his shoulders. “Lukey!” she screamed in a nasal voice. “You look uh-mazing!”
Lukey?
“Whoa. Brooke.” Lucas smiled shakily. “You look . . . different.”
The Rumsons nudged the Beatties. “You two have both grown up a bit since we last saw you, huh?” Mrs. Rumson said.
“Remember the kind of trouble they used to get into?” Lucas’s mother clucked. “Remember all the secret clubs they formed?”
“They were inseparable. I always said those two would get married someday,” Mrs. Rumson murmured before all the parents bustled off to the kitchen.
Hanna’s head snapped up. Married?
Brooke poked Lucas’s shoulder. “When you said I looked different, I hope you meant gorgeous!” She traced her finger over Lucas’s T-shirt, then let her hand fall to the waistband of his jeans. “Has someone been working out? And where’d you get those sexy new clothes?”
“Ahem.” Hanna stood up and strode into the foyer. This flirtation had gone on long enough. She had been the one who’d encouraged Lucas to buy the True Religion jeans and streamlined polo from Armani Exchange he was wearing.
“Oh.” Lucas glanced at Hanna. “Brooke, this is my girlfriend, Hanna.”
“What’s up?” Brooke took in Hanna’s unwashed hair, schlumpy Eagles sweatshirt, and ratty old Sevens. A look crossed her face that said, She’s no threat. She stepped closer to Lucas. “Aren’t you so excited to go on this trip? I’ve heard the beachside parties there are amazing. And I can’t wait to work on my tan.”
Hanna pressed her lips together to keep from snickering. This girl was already so orange she looked like she’d been born in a tanning booth.
“It’s going to rock,” Lucas said. “I was just telling Hanna about it. There’s amazing hiking, sightseeing, food . . .”
“. . . and the nude beach,” Brooke added, licking her lips.
“Uh, excuse me?” Hanna bleated.
Brooke slung her arm around Lucas’s shoulder. “You’re in for the treat of your life, Lukey—everyone sunbathes naked down there. And you and I are going to do Jell-O shots every night.”
The cheese popcorn rose back up in Hanna’s throat. She had to put a stop to this. “Um, I need to talk to you.” She grabbed Lucas’s arm and pulled him into the den, which was littered with video game boxes, old magazines, and three more Advent calendars, one of which looked like it was made entirely out of puff paint.
There was an innocent smile on Lucas’s face. “Is everything okay?”
Was everything okay? Hanna took a few breaths to steady her nerves. “What do you think, Lukey?”
Lucas ran his hand over his hair. “Yeah, Brooke used to call me that when she was little—she couldn’t pronounce Lucas.”
“It’s horrible. It sounds like pukey.” And they were going, Hanna thought, to the Puke-atán peninsula with Princess Puke-a-tan herself.
Lucas shrugged. “It’s just a stupid nickname.”
Hanna squeezed her eyes shut. “Are you seriously going on vacation with . . . her?”
“Are you jealous? Over me?” Lucas grinned like this was the most amusing thing he’d ever heard. “Hanna, you have nothing to worry about. Brooke’s like a cousin.”
Some people hook up with their cousins, especially when they see them sunbathing nude, Hanna thought bitterly.
She eyed Brooke in the other room. She was studying herself in the round mirror near the door, puckering her lips and slathering on more gloss. If Mona were here, they could nudge each other and make fun of Brooke’s tacky press-on nails. If Ali were here, she’d freeze Brooke out and make her feel like the biggest dork in the universe.
A sour feeling streaked through Hanna’s stomach. Dating a popular boy came with its pitfalls and insecurities, but she’d figured she would never, ever have to be concerned about other girls with a nerd like Lucas. Then again, because skanks didn’t regularly throw themselves at Lucas, taking off their tops and tempting him with Jell-O shots, he had no immunity against this kind of thing. There were so many people who had dropped out of Hanna’s life in the last few years—her dad, her ex-boyfriend Sean Ackard, Ali, Mona, her mom. All she wanted was someone stable who’d be around forever. But now even Lucas felt so precarious . . . and there was nothing she could do to stop him from going.
Chapter 3
Old Habits Die Hard