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“Can I ask you something?”
I nod. “Sure.”
“Do you ever miss our friendship?”
“What do you mean?”
“Come on, Scarlett.” She crosses her arms. “Surely you remember that there was once a time when we were each other’s ride or die besties, two peas in a pod who both hated everything about the mommy vlogger world.”
“That was a long time ago, Tully.” I pause. “We’ll always be sisters, no matter what.”
“I would prefer it if we were best friends again, though.” Her voice cracks. “I could use one of those these days.”
I raise an eyebrow. The most we spoke this summer was via email, and it was all about contracts and her social media plans.
She asked me about London twice.
“Your bestie, Jessica Reid, is attending school here too, right?” I ask.
“She is, but…” Tears are welling in her eyes. “She was just using me all this time…She dropped me once I told her I wanted to hold back on shopping and eating out so much. It took me all this time to realize I was paying for everything, and…”
She doesn’t finish that sentence.
“Anyway, I want us to go back to taking long weekend drives like we used to,” she says. “I know you have some intense band rehearsal and classes, and my schedule is pretty packed, so I’m thinking we can start doing that after the third game day. Just me and you.”
Right…“Are you dying or something?”
“Oh my god, no.” She laughs. “I just want us to be friends again.”
I can’t tell if she really believes what she’s saying, or if she’s been drinking.
“This summer made me realize that all the followers in the world don’t mean anything if you can’t think of a single person to call in the middle of the night when you’re having a mental breakdown.”
I nod, unsure of what she expects me to say.
“I can’t even talk to my boyfriend. He won’t evenkissme,” she says. “Between now and when we talk, can you try to find the reasoning behind that in one of your psychology books?”
“Um…” I shake my head. “We need to talk about Easton, Tully.”
“No, we don’t.” She shakes her head. “I only want to focus on the things that can be fixed in my life.”
“Why do we have to wait until the third game day to hang out then?”
“Because I’ll get dropped from the squad if I miss any events in the first month,” she says, looking somewhat wistful. “There are hundreds of girls who want to be on the team and I can’t risk them taking my spot. That, and I want to make sure I spend as much time as possible with myrealbest friend.”
She hugs me and my entire body stiffens at the unfamiliar contact.
Confused, I lift my hands and softly return her embrace.
“Okay, Tully,” I say. “Third game day it is…”
* * *
I manageto evade four drunk guys, an invitation to an off-campus bonfire, and a freshman rap battle on the way back to the lakeside building.
There’s a free “Welcome to College” pizza party” that’s taking place in the recreation center, but I’m not in the mood to meet any new people.
Not yet, anyway.
