Page 125 of Almost Beautiful (Beautiful 3)

“YOU OKAY?” I ASKED ABBY.

She squeezed me with a side-hug. “Thank you. This is exactly what I needed”

Bonnie’s ashes had been delivered to us the day before, and it took Abby a full hour to decide what to do with the urn. She didn’t want to look at it every day, but she also didn’t feel right storing it away in the closet. So, we decided on Shep’s old room.

We popped over to the hardware store and I made a simple shelf. Abby set the urn in the center and decorated each side with small flower vases and seemed to feel okay with it. But I wasn’t sure if she was ready for what we were about to walk into.

Boom Fest was Eastern State’s lesser version of Coachella. The girls wore sparkling, skimpy outfits, wild makeup that usually included glitter or those little fake gems stuck to their faces. The guys had it easier, typically in Baha hats or fedoras and Hawaiian shirts.

Abby and America looked the part, America in some wild white ensemble: a white corset with wide straps that laced up the front and a pair of whitespanks—she called them—but there was also a see-through white shirt she wore under the corset tank top thing, with sleeves that hung just above her elbows and then the rest of the fabric hung low over her shorts. Her hair was in a bunch of braids with white and silver ribbons and she was sporting some kind of white lace up leather combat boots. She even had silver metallic lashes and heart shaped goggles she was using as a head band or something.

Abby wasn’t quite as flashy, but it still made me feel like my old self was bubbling just under the surface. I didn’t say anything about the black bikini top that had a Route 66 patch on one triangle and a motorcycle embroidered on the other, or the black micro shorts she was wearing—but the old me would have.

For some reason, it was the shin-high lace up black leather boots she was wearing that made me the most uncomfortable, and I couldn’t figure out why.

Abby adjusted the thick black choker on her neck and turned to search for Finch, one of her two French braids flipping over her shoulder. “You coming?” she called.

“I’m coming, betch! Patience,” Finch called from thirty yards away. His boyfriend Felix was following close behind.

Abby rose up on the balls of her feet to kiss my cheek, and then laughed as she wiped away the silver glitter than had apparently transferred from under her eyes to my face. “Oops, let me get that,” she said with a smile.

“Leave it on there,” I said, leaning back. I held her hand at bay and then pecked her lips when she didn’t expect it, making her laugh even harder.

My brothers and their significant others were supposed to be waiting for us at the Ferris Wheel, but I didn’t see them anywhere.

“That’s weird,” I said, looking at my watch. “We’re ten minutes late.”

“Sorry,” America said.

“And none of them are here? Wasn’t this the spot, Shep?” I asked.

“Didn’t you see the group text?” Shepley said. “Thomas said he couldn’t make it so everyone else kind of dropped out after that.”

“No fucking way,” I said, looking around. “They’re not coming for my twenty-first birthday? I went to all of theirs! That’s bullshi—”

“April Fools, motherfucker!” Trent said, tackling me from the back.

I turned to see all four of my brothers and their girls standing behind me, and all eight sets of their eyes lit up.

“Happy Birthday!” they said in unison.

Abby hugged Cami first.

America went straight for Falyn and Ellie.

The girls all took turns hugging each other, like my brothers did to me. When it was Thomas’s turn, he hugged me tight.

“We wouldn’t miss it, baby bro.”

Seeing him felt awkward, and I didn’t like that. He wasn’t just my brother anymore, he was my boss, my warden, and I’d already seen him a second time in San Diego just since Abby’s mom died to get in the rest of my training with Marks and Taber—and some other dude named Sawyer who showed up for no reason other than to watch. And no one else but Liis knew.

Liis nodded to me, and I was sure she could sense my sudden unease. “Happy birthday, Travis.”

“Thanks, Lind … Liis.”

From my peripheral, I saw Abby notice. She kept a relaxed smile on her face, but her eyes lingered on the awkward exchange for just a moment before she looked away to finish chatting with Ellie.

“Let’s go,” Finch said. “The bands are all the way on the other side.”