Chapter 24.
It was two days after Christmas, and I was about ready to murder Avery if I didn't get out of the house without her. Seriously, I knew my dad expected me to be nice to her, but when she was so awful to me, it hardly seemed fair that I was expected to be considerate of her feelings. I had filled Kelsey in on my predicament, and the one time we had hung out at her house with Avery in tow, it had been so miserable, we hadn't attempted it since.
When Dylan texted asking what I was up to, I replied, "Plotting the sudden demise of my evil step-sister." I was only partially joking. If I thought I could get away with it, I would probably have taken drastic action by now.
Unfortunately, anything I did to retaliate against Avery would only make me look bad. Even my dad seemed to think she was a nice girl. Her two-faced personality was really starting to get on my nerves. I needed to prove, once and for all, that Avery was not the girl everyone thought she was. I needed to show my parents how manipulative and evil she was, and reclaim my life back. I just had absolutely no idea how I was going to do that.
"Lilly, you have company," Dad shouted upstairs to me.
I frowned, wondering who it could possibly be, then shrugged and trudged downstairs. I wouldn't be allowed to leave the house unless I brought Avery along anyways, and I would not give her the satisfaction of letting her ruin any outings with my friends.
Downstairs, two handsome guys waited for me, and I froze in surprise. Dylan was one, but the other...was Ben. I hadn't seen Ben since we left for college, and I hadn't talked to him since we had broken up. What was he doing here? It wasn't like we were friends.
"Hi," I said softly, my gaze darting back and forth between Dylan and Ben. "What are you guys doing here?" I asked. "I can't go anywhere. At least, not without Avery, and I refuse to give her the satisfaction."
Dylan grinned. "Yeah, Kelsey told me," he said. "We're here to bust you out of here."
I folded my arms across my chest, looking at them questioningly. "How?"
"Well, you see, Faye, I happen to know Avery pretty well. I had the misfortune of dating her for a couple of months, remember. And if there's one thing that Avery can't resist, it's a handsome, football playing guy."
I rolled my eyes. "So you're going to distract her?"
Ben smiled, stepping forward shyly. "That's why Dylan recruited my help," he explained. "If you want me to."
I frowned. "I don't understand. What exactly are you guys suggesting?"
Dylan smirked. "I thought you could use a break from Avery. And, I know your dad told you that you had to bring her along if you went out. But if Avery has a date with another guy, she won't complain if you go out without her. The trick is, we have to make her think it's her idea."
"You need to spell this out for me, because I'm still not getting it."
Ben shrugged. "Dylan asked me if I would be willing to distract Avery for a while this afternoon so the two of you could hang out together. Avery will probably go for it, because she knows I'm your ex-boyfriend and she'll think she's making you jealous. If you don't want me to, just let me know. I don't want there to be any hard feelings between us."
"You would do that?" I asked. "Spend an entire afternoon with Avery so Dylan and I can spend time together? You do realize she's evil, right?"
Ben smirked. "You may have mentioned that once or twice, yes. But she'll be nice to me, since she's using me to make you jealous. It won't really upset you, will it? Me hanging out with her? I have no real feelings towards her. It's just a favor to Dylan."
"No, it's fine," I said. "Honestly, you were right to break up with me. We weren't right for each other. I'm over it."
Not to mention, I was plenty confused about what was going on with Luke and Dylan. I had no idea what I felt for either of them, and the last thing I needed was another guy to add to the mix.
Dylan looked relieved. "Good. Let's go find Avery, get her to fall for the setup, and then you and I have plans, Faye."
Avery was hiding out in the guest bedroom, and when I knocked softly on the door, she looked up in surprise.
"What do you want?" she snapped.
I shrugged nonchalantly. "I'm going out with Dylan and Ben," I said. "I wanted to see if you wanted to come."
Avery perked up at Ben's name, and when he stepped into the room, she practically started panting. "Hi, Ben," she purred. "Are you the ex-boyfriend?"
Ben coughed to hide his surprised laugh. "For now," he said, winking at me as he delivered the line Dylan had told him to. "Although I'm kind of hoping Lilly will forgive me sooner or later."
"Forget Lilly," Avery suggested, taking the bait. "You should take me out instead. There must be somewhere halfway decent around here to grab a bite to eat, right? Just the two of us?"
"Oh. Um...okay," Ben agreed. "I guess that would be alright."
As Avery grabbed his hand and practically dragged him from the room, he mouthed "Have fun" to Dylan and me. Once they were gone, Dylan turned to me and grinned.
"I knew that would work," he said.
I smirked. "What can I say? You're a master of manipulation."
"I try," he said. "Are you coming, or what?"
I looked down at my jeans and t-shirt, wondering if I should go change. "Is this okay to wear?" I asked. "They're not my nicest clothes."
Dylan laughed. "Don't worry, it doesn't matter what you're wearing right now, because you won't be wearing it later."
I choked. "Olson!" I scolded.
"Get your mind out of the gutter, Faye," Dylan laughed. "You'll see what I mean when we get there."
Fifteen minutes later, he pulled up in front of Goodwill. "Did you want to do some shopping?" I asked, confused.
Dylan winked at me, handing me a $20 bill. "We're going to have some fun," he said. "We each have $20 to spend. I'm going to pick out what you wear out to dinner, and you'll pick what I wear. And it has to be the funniest, craziest outfit you can come up with."
I giggled. "Why are we doing this, again?" I asked.
Dylan shrugged. "Because it's fun, and I figured that with all of the drama going on with Avery, fun was exactly what you needed."
"Have I ever told you you're the best?"
"Not enough," Dylan said. "But don't worry, I already know I'm great."
We both headed into Goodwill, and I gravitated to the men's section of the store, looking for the brightest, craziest colors I could find. Someone had donated a baby blue suit that looked like it hadn't been in fashion since the 70s, but it was outside of the $20 budget, so I had to keep looking. There were plenty of wacky t-shirts in bright colors, but I wanted something extra crazy. After all, Dylan was giving me full license to dress him. I was going to make him regret that decision.
In the dress clothes section, I found the ugliest burnt orange dress pants I had ever seen, and the best part was, not only were they Dylan's size, they were only $4. They were so ugly, Goodwill was practically giving them away. In the miscellaneous accessories bin, I found a pair of honest to goodness suspenders, and I almost laughed out loud. Yes. Those would be absolutely perfect with the hideous pants.
Now I just needed to find the right shirt. I looked through the dress shirts for a brightly colored shirt that would clash with the pants. After all, the point was to make Dylan look goofy, and I definitely planned to deliver. I grabbed a lilac dress shirt, holding it up against the orange pants with a frown. It definitely clashed, but it wasn't quite as hideous as I had been hoping for. The puke green dress shirt further up the rack was a possibility, but again, it wasn't quite what I had envisioned.
I had combed through the rack twice when I finally found it, buried behind several much nicer shirts. It had been pushed to the back, because it was so hideous that literally no one wanted it to try it on. It had once been a perfectly nice white button down dress shirt, but someone had inexplicably tried to tie die it, and they had used just about every color in the rainbow. It looked like someone had vomited rainbow in random spots and patches all over the shirt: a spiral here, a starburst pattern there, stripes. The shirt had very little white left on it, but it had so many colors, it was dizzying to look at. In short, it was absolutely perfect. It was a few sizes too big for Dylan, but that would only make it funnier when he put it on.
I draped the shirt over my arm, along with the ugly orange pants. The ties in the corner caught my eye, and I grinned. Yes. That was absolutely what the crazy dress shirt needed: an even crazier tie to spruce it up. I found what I assumed was an ugly Christmas tie covered in red and gold garland, and I scooped it up, adding it to my collection.
I finished off Dylan's look with a pair of ridiculous looking bowling shoes, which I was pretty sure would fit Dylan, and a fur trapper hat. All totaled, my purchases came to $17. I grinned, knowing that I couldn't have found crazier clothes if I had tried.
"Are you ready, Faye?" Dylan asked, eyeing my bag warily. He had already checked out, and was waiting for me by the doors.
I nodded, grinning at him. "Yup," I said, handing him the bag. "Where are we changing?"
Dylan shrugged. "I was thinking we could just duck into the bathroom at the restaurant," he said.
"What will we do with our clothes, then?" I asked.
"Don't worry, we can cram them into the hideous oversized purse I found for you."
I shook my head. "Just you wait till you see what you have to wear, Olson," I threatened. "You'll be begging me not to make you wear it."
Dylan smirked. "Doubt it. I'm awesome enough to pull off anything."
"We'll see."
Dylan brought us to a local diner that was known for it's good, inexpensive food. It was one of our favorite hangouts, and more importantly, it was Avery-free. Ben had been under strict orders not to bring her to the diner, so we could avoid bumping into them.
We ducked into the bathroom to change, and when I saw what Dylan had picked for me, I burst out laughing. It was either the ugliest bridesmaid's dress ever, or it was an unfortunate sexy clown costume. Either way, it was a hideous, yellow taffeta dress covered in colorful polka dots, with rainbow tulle poking out from beneath the short flared skirt. He had paired it with strands of green and purple Mardis Gras beads, an oversized carpet bag, and the tackiest beaded pumps I had ever seen. The overall effect made me look like a color-blind girl addicted to gaudy sparkle.
I crammed my clothes into the bag, taking a minute to play up the silly effect of the outfit by styling my hair into pigtails and coating my lips with bright red lip gloss. As I glanced in the mirror, I was unable to contain my giggle. This was exactly what I had needed to take my mind off of Avery.
As I left the bathroom, I caught sight of Dylan, who was dressed in the crazy costume I had picked for him, glaring grumpily at me. I was unable to contain my laugh at the sight of the horrible tie-dyed shirt drowning on his muscular frame, clashing hideously with the burnt orange suspenders, and topped off with the suspenders, the tacky garland tie, and fur trader hat. The overall effect was hilarious.
"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up," Dylan grumbled. "You're a cruel woman, Faye."
Catching sight of me for the first time, the corners of his lips twitched up into the ghost of a smile. "Of course, you look equally ridiculous, so I guess we're even."
"Shall we go sit down?" I asked, lifting my chin and strutting out into the dining room like I was completely oblivious to the craziness of our outfits. Dylan chuckled, following closely behind me. The diner was a seat yourself kind of establishment, so I chose a table for us in the corner, where we would be able to sit privately away from the scrutiny of the other diners. Dylan pulled my chair out for me like a gentleman, and I sank down gracefully into the chair.
"So, this is fun," I said as Dylan took the seat across from me. "Thank you for figuring out how to give me a break from Avery. You have no idea how badly I needed that."
"Oh, I had some idea," Dylan assured me. "And I'll rescue you every time, Faye. All you have to do is ask, and I'll figure out how to help."
"Involving Ben was a stroke of genius," I admitted. "Avery never would have gone for it if she thought it was what I wanted, but since she thinks she's hurting me by stealing my ex-boyfriend? It's brilliant."
Dylan waved his hand dismissively. "It was nothing," he said. "Child's play. You forget, I'm related to Kelsey. She's a master manipulator, and I've picked up some tricks from her over the years."
Dylan and I spent the entire afternoon together, laughing at all of the strange looks we received from the waitstaff and the other restaurant goers. I couldn't even remember the last time I had laughed so hard. It had been exactly what I needed to distract me from Avery. Once again, Dylan had come through for me when I needed him the most.
—
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