Page 90 of The Vengeance You Crave

"Peyton?"

When I still don't respond, the curtain moves a little and Ella pokes her head inside. She takes one look at me and throws it aside and invites herself in.

"Shit. Are you okay?"

I sniffle and nod, trying to get a grip on myself.

"Letty," Ella calls, startling me. In only a second, she also appears at the curtain.

"Okay, you're buying that," she states before coming over and taking my hand in hers.

"I'm sorry. Things just… things just hit me all of a sudden, you know. Mom and I, we used to…" I blow out a breath, unable to keep going.

They encourage me back so that I can sit down.Sharing a knowing look.

"Things have just been so insane since she had the accident that I haven’t really had any time, and then standing there…" I blow out another shaky breath.

"It's okay, sweetie," Ella breathes, her hand squeezing mine in support.

We sit in silence for long minutes as I try to gather my emotions.

"I think you're right," I finally say. "I need to buy the dress."

"You do."

"She'd have loved it." I smile despite the pain slicing through my chest as I think about her and the fun we had together. "She'd have demanded that we went out dancing to show it off."

"Then that's what we should do."

"It's my birthday on the weekend," I blurt, regretting it the instant both of their faces light up.

"Then we are definitely taking that dress out dancing this weekend. Why didn't you tell us?"

"I don't want to celebrate. It feels all kinds of wrong right now."

"Bullshit. Your mom would want you to go out and paint the town red."

"It's not just that, though. There's all this crap with Luca and—"

"Fuck him," Letty snaps, the viciousness in her voice surprising me. "You don't get to be miserable because of him. That's bullshit. Saturday night, we're partying."

"I promised Aunt Fee I'd spend the weekend at home."

"That's fine. But as soon as the sun goes down on Saturday night. You’re ours. She can even come if she likes."

"To a college party?"

Ella shrugs. "You know what crazy shit goes down. No one would probably even notice."

"As amusing as the idea is, I think she'd rather stick needles in her eyes."

"Fair enough."

"Right," Letty says, hopping up from where she was kneeling on the floor. "Get changed. Buy the dress. Then we're going for tacos and margs. My treat." She winks at me, and I can't help but smile.

I have no idea how I was lucky enough to find these two in all the bullshit that surrounds my life right now but I couldn't be more grateful.

With the bag containing the dress swinging from my fingers, Ella and Letty lead me toward a restaurant for dinner and we're seated in the middle of the vast space and handed menus. Letty orders a pitcher of margaritas before the server has a chance to escape along with a bottle of water for her seeing as she is driving.