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Now we’re both laughing, which is obviously better than the alternative.
“Thinking back on it, you did look kind of sick when you first walked into all that hoopla.”
Sarah nods. “I was baffled, then pissed. She ambushed me like that last year, too.” Looking to her lap, she says, “I don’t like extra attention aimed my way, and she knows that. She’s not mean and she doesn’t do it to torture me, but it can feel that way. I think my mother really believes she’s helping me to,” Sarah air quotes, “come out of my shell.” Looking my way she adds, “But I’m not a social butterfly like her. That woman can work a room, and people have always just gravitated towards her. She’s interesting, she can be funny…I don’t know, people naturally like her. We’re different.”
“You don’t think people like you?”
Sarah levels me with a look. “Well, I thought Penny was a genuine friend…and I took Parker at his word, too. And up until last year, Penny was myonlyfriend.”
“Usually I’d say one good friend is worth a hundred acquaintances, but in Penny’s case…”
“Yeah.”
“Tell me about the seventeenth birthday bash. Wait, no, let me guess...A spa day with your besties? A weekend jaunt to Paris for some shopping? I’m sure no expense was spared.”
“Stop it, you jackass.” She’s smiling, so I know my teasing didn’t go too far.“My mother let me know about it two weeks before, which is definitely why she took the surprise route this time around.” Her eyes are wicked when she says, “I basically made her life a living hell for two weeks.”
“How so?”
“It wasn’t intentional. I was legitimately freaking out. You don’t take an introverted kid and invite a bunch of girls and trap them on a bus with you for twelve hours straight…Girls who didn’t even acknowledge me up until then.”
“Sounds pretty awkward.”
“I was back and forth between being sick to my stomach and wanting to kill her.”
“How did it turn out?”
She shrugs. “While I’d love to say she was one hundred percent wrong, it did kind of set me up with a few more friends for my senior year. And Tatiana, Clara, Penny and I are,” she stops herself, “I mean, weweretight.” She rubs her temples, working out what she’s about to say. “Aside from wanting Parker to evaporate these past few months, I felt like a,” she looks unsure of her next words, “social success this past year. Does that make sense?”
“Social success? I don’t know. Sometimes I think girls put more weight on stuff like that. I’m definitely not someone who’s ever been at the center of it, but I’ve never wanted to be.”
“But that’s what I’ve always told myself, too. Do you think that’s more of a defense mechanism than the truth?”
I mull that one over for a bit. “I don’t like what I see when I look at the quote-unquote popular kids, in your crowd or in mine. I feel, I don’t know, older than them, or alien. But I see your point, that you kind of put them down in your mind so that you don’t have to think about why you’re not one of them. Still, I’ve always had Mike and that’s enough for me.”
“What’s his story?”
“He’s a good friend. He can be a dumb ass sometimes, like when he sucks up to people like Logan. He doesn’t recognize when he’s being used, which doesn’t makehima bad person. Let’s just say he’s way more optimistic and trusting than yours truly.”
“So he’s your ride or die?”
I never liked that expression. “Are those the only two viable options?”
She shrugs. “It’s just nice when you have someone you can depend on.”
“Yeah…I can depend on him.”
We’re quiet most of the way through Virginia, and Sarah nods off for a bit. She’s awake when I come out from paying for gas and gets out of the car to stretch while I’m filling the tank.
“Some co-pilot I am,” she says on a yawn.
“Right? For all I know we could be heading towards California right now.” I look her way just as she’s reaching up overhead, which makes her cropped shirt ride up to the point where her entire torso is exposed, right up to where the band of her white bra is resting. The sight makes me disoriented for a second. When I cough she looks to me with concern, but I recover well. “Who needs you when I’ve got my phone?”
“My dad always says stuff like, ‘When I was your age we’d have a map stretched out across the entire front seat.’”
“I have to agree that we do have it pretty easy as far as navigation goes.”
“Where are we, anyway?”
