Page 150 of More For Me

Her smile is excited, like she was hoping I was going to ask her that. “I love you because I know that I never have to be anything but myself with you. I love you because I’ve never once doubted that I can count on you. I love you because you’re so smart and you see the world in such a cool, optimistic way. I love you because you love my sisters and my mom and you never judge them for being too much. And I love you because you’re the best friend I’ve ever had.” She kisses me lightly. “Do you want me to keep going? Because I could do this for a very long time.”

“That’s okay,” I croak out, tipping my face into her neck so I can hide my welling eyes in her hair. But she’s not having any of it. She grips my cheeks and pulls me to face her, blue eyes fierce as she stares at me.

“You told me once that I was your happy place,” she says, more seriously now. “I want to be that for you. But I can be your sad place, too, Bodhi. You are allowed to feel however you feel with me, okay? It won’t make me love you any less. Do you believe me?”

“I do.” If there’s anything I know about Everly, it’s that she learns from her mistakes. She meant it when she apologized for lying to me last time, and she won’t do it again. And that’s only one of the many, many reasonsIloveher.

“Good.” She leans forward and presses her lips against mine and it’s hard to imagine ever feeling sad again.

“Can we please go in the tent now?” I ask, sliding my hands up her sides to pull her flush against me. “I really, really missed you.”

“I missed you, too. No more running away without telling me. You need to escape to the woods, you bring me with you.”

“But you don’t like the woods.”

“I like you.” Before I can get my lips on hers, a text alert pulls her attention away. “Oops. We’re out of time.” She pulls out her phone and grins down at the screen. “Tent’s gonna have to wait, buddy. I need to show you something.”

I start to argue, but my voice halts when I see the gleam of excitement in her eyes. I know that gleam—Everly is planning some adventure. And there’s nothing in the world I would rather do than follow her.

* * *

The boyscout in me is not happy about the state of my tent when we shove it into my Jeep, but Everly insists we don’t have time to properly fold and pack it. “We’re on a very tight deadline,” she says, looking at her phone again.

“Your car or mine?” I ask as I drop the sleeping bag on the back seat.

“Both.” She gives me a little smirk and the passenger side of her car opens. I blink as Will unfolds himself from the seat.

“Has he been there this whole time?”

“Yeah,” he mutters, stretching. “Took you long enough.”

I turn to Everly, completely confused. She takes the keys to my Jeep and holds them out for Will. “What’s going on?”

“I’m your driver for the night,” he says, not sounding very excited about it. “Get in.”

“Why do I need a driver?”

Everly rolls her eyes, like it should be the most obvious thing in the world. “Because everything that happens from here on out is a surprise.”

“And if you drove yourself, you’d ruin the surprise.” Will takes the keys from his cousin and starts to push me toward the back seat.

“I don’t even get to say goodbye to her?” I ask, struggling against him—which is pointless, since the man is mountain-sized.

“I’ll see you in a little bit!” she calls over his shoulder as Will pushes me onto the seat.

“I don’t even get to ride up front with you?” I ask, not sure if I should laugh or be annoyed. We’re an hour outside the city, and I would much rather spend that drive with Everly than her cousin. At the same time, her excitement is pretty palpable, and it’s basically impossible for me to not be happy when she is.

Will scoffs. “I know you, man. You’ll pester me and pester me until I give in and tell you where we’re going.” He hands me a tablet and a set of Bluetooth headphones before he shuts the door. “Besides, you have viewing material.”

The viewing material turns out to be clips fromRansom the Runway. More than an hour’s worth of clips, every one of them featuring me and Everly. I recognize many of them from the show, but there are a few I’ve never seen before, footage that didn’t make the final cut, apparently. I watch as we walk down the Vegas strip, our arms around each other, singing at the top of our lungs while Everly’s cousins roll their eyes and complain about us. Then we’re sitting in the back room of the store, Everly laughing her head off while she tries to fit me in a too-small sample size of one of her menswear pieces.

We’re arguing over the white board in the living room of our house, my face red while I try to explain all the reasonsSay Anythingis a better 80’s film thanThe Breakfast Club. She eventually gets so annoyed that she dumps a bowl of popcorn over my head.

We ride a roller coaster at Six Flags. Shop on Rodeo Drive. Badger River and Fox into letting us put face masks on them. Dance in LA. We’re bent over and holding on to each other in some bar, laughing until we cry.

It’s clip after clip of the two of us together. The last few years of our friendship captured on film and collected here for me to watch while Will drives me to God knows where. I don’t know what the hell I ever did to deserve a gift like this, but it’s hands down the best thing anyone has ever done for me.

I don’t look up until the screen goes dark. Only then do I take out the headphones and meet Will’s eye in the rearview mirror. He looks like he’s trying hard to keep a straight face.