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“Okay, so you’re going for a consult…,” Cassie reminded her, and Erin picked up where she left off.
Erin also started making dinner as they talked. Cassie critiqued her knife skills and Erin laughed at her. It’d been barely two weeks since they last saw each other, but Cassie loved this—sharing their time even if they couldn’t share their space.
As they sat down to eat—Cassie on her couch and Erin at the kitchen island—Erin asked, “Got any weekend plans?”
“Nah,” Cassie said. “It’s the a cappella retreat, so Parker’s gonna be gone all weekend.” She realized what she was saying as it came out of her mouth. They’d never talked directly about Parker. “You probably know that. Anyway.”
Worse than mentioning Parker—Cassie had been going tocomplain. Since Parker was gone, it meant Cassie would have Acacia all weekend without having to worry if she’d ditch her for Parker. Not that Kaysh had done that, but she was definitely amorphouslybusymore often since Cassie and Parker had been fighting. Even if they had been getting along better since the concert before spring break. Parker had even seemed excited at the idea of Cassie visiting from Boston over the summer. Mildly excited, but still.
Cassie tried to push through her awkwardness. “Acacia and I will probably be pretty chill, not get into too much trouble.”
“Are you saying Parker is the troublemaker of the group?” Erin was focused on her food, not on Cassie on her phone screen.
“Kaysh and I have been getting ourselves into trouble since wewere kids,” Cassie said. “I’m pretty sure we’re the bad influence on Parker, not the other way around.”
“I’m sure Parker causes trouble all on her own,” Erin said. “I like to think I’m not a completely oblivious parent, though I’ll admit I’d probably rather not know a lot of what she gets into.”
Cassie took the opportunity to shift the topic. “What kind of trouble did you get into in school?”
Erin looked at her. Cassie grinned, and she could tell Erin was fighting a smile and then, “Well, there was this one time…”
The weekend was chill, like Cassie had expected, but Acacia said that Parker came back from the retreat grouchier than usual. It took till Wednesday for Kaysh to find out why.
Acacia [9:48 PM]
Fuck. She and Sam broke up
Cassie [9:49 PM]
Fuck
When Acacia and Cassie had breakfast Friday morning, Kaysh looked tired.
“She’s not handling it well,” she said. “You know how she puts responsibility for everything on herself.”
Cassie could only imagine. She pushed scrambled eggs around on her plate.
“And, babe, Donovan is taking me away for the weekend,” Acacia said. “You have to stay with her.”
Cassie stared at her. “What?”
“I wouldn’t leave her alone, but Donovan planned this like a month and a half ago,” Kaysh said. “I need you to stay with her this weekend.”
“She doesn’t even like me that much lately,” Cassie said.
“Well, she likes herself even less right now. You’ll make her feel better. Even if she doesn’t think that’s what you’re doing.”
Cassie didn’t believe that. But she couldn’t say no to her best friend.
“Okay.”
“Promise me,” Acacia said.
“I promise.”
She wasn’t alone with Parker for half an hour before Parker was yelling at her to leave.
“Get out, Cassie! I don’t want you here!”
