Page 44 of People Like Us

As she rang up Lindsey’s stack, her eyes flicked to me. “Oh—hey, you!” she said, bright and unsuspecting.

My heart thudded as I shook my head, praying she’d let it lie.

Emily glared at me. “Do you know her?”

I swallowed, tasting acetone. “Not really. We met last night at the charity thing.” My lie curled from my lips too easily.

Angelica smiled with all of her teeth, exposing the gap in the center. “Yeah, sorry I didn’t catch your name last night.”

“Lola,” I said, forcing a friendly tilt to my mouth.

“Angelica,” she replied, and I made a note to ask God to bless her for silent compliance on Sunday.

Lindsey made a show of grabbing one of the neon orange “now hiring” flyers from the counter with a huff, as I paid for my own record with a few crumbled bills and quarters.

The door shut behind us with a hollow thud. Lindsey looked Emily over cautiously. “Do you not like your coworker?”

Her nostrils flared. “She’s friends with Penelope.”

“Oh.” Lindsey’s laugh tinkled like wind chimes.

I feigned sudden curiosity. “Did you two find her last night?”

“No.” Emily’s answer was flat as a tombstone.

“What’s plan B?” I prodded.

Lindsey tugged at a glass door painted with looping white letters: City Thrift. “We’ll see.”

Emily stormed in ahead of us. Inside, the fluorescent glow revealed stone walls peeling in shades of olive and ochre. Lindsey grabbed my hand and steered me toward a rack of dresses in the back of the store.

Emily darted to a display by the front window, shaking the bottle of soda like it had a genie inside she was attempting to evict.

“Help me find something for tonight,” Lindsey whispered, tossing hangers aside. I’d never seen Lindsey wear the same thing twice, so watching her flip through a rack of dresses previously worn by somebody else was other worldly.

I studied her, glancing back at Emily’s stiff shoulders. “Does she seem okay to you? She’s been…really tense lately.”

Lindsey held up a flimsy black number. “She told Jack.”

I shake my head in disapproval of the garment. “Told Jack what?”

Lindsey gave me a pointed look, and waited for the realization to be evident in my features. “No!” I hissed, and she nodded in confirmation.

“Why didn’t she tell me they’d broken up?” I kept my voice low. Emily had always been closed off with her emotions. If I were a master of pretending, then Emily had been legendary. But I thought, at least, she would express some sort of remorse over the ending of a four year relationship—even if it wasn’t a conventional one.

“They didn’t,” Lindsey said, grinning darkly.

“What do you mean they didn’t break up? She told him she’s—” I cut myself off, mouthing the word gay before going on, “and they didn’t break up?”

“He said it was fine. It’s not like they’re sleeping together anyway.” Lindsey rolled her eyes.

Emily had told us the previous year that her boyfriend wanted to wait until marriage to have sex, which was really convenient for her because she had no interest in sleeping with him at all.

But it had always puzzled me why Jack didn’t want to. He was sculpted like a God, and his family wasn’t religious in a way that controlled their whole lives like Andy’s or Emily’s parents were. I thought about asking her, but she was incredibly private—not just with her own secrets, but anyone else’s too. If you told something to Emily, you could put money on the fact that she would take it to her grave before she ever sold you out.

“Why would he agree to that?” My brows pinched. I’d always felt bad for Jack, though I’d never say it to Emily, cause I felt worse for her. But now that he knew, his complicity only solidified how much better he deserved.

“They figured they’d just pretend to break up for college,” Lindsey said, pulling a deeper plum dress from the rack.