“Okay,” I say, my voice a wimpy whisper as I grab my phone and open our endless text chain to type out an invite that contains exactly no information other than that there’ll be a movie and Chinese food.
I expect I’ll get at least one of them replying that she’s too hung over to make it out, but apparently chicken lo mein is exactly what they all require for recovery, because half an hour later, the three of them are standing at my door.
The second I see their faces, I crack. “Chase and I broke up.”
Silence.
Then finally, Kiki says, “Holy shit.”
Gia immediately sweeps me into a hug, and I know she thinks he dumped me, but I let her do it anyway, let them usher me inside and onto the couch. My mom is out picking up the food, and their attention is on me, waiting for me to pour out my heart. It takes me a minute to figure out what to say, and Gia takes the opportunity to jump right in. “Do we hate him?” she asks.
I laugh and squeeze her hand. “No, we don’t hate him. He’s great. It turns out I’m just … not his fangirl anymore.”
Shannon’s eyebrows shoot to the sky. “Wait. You broke up with him?”
It’s hard not to exchange glances with Kiki, but I know if I do, Shan will pick up on it immediately and demand the truth. And while I finally feel safe figuring out my shit with them, I don’t know what to say until Jasmine and I figure out where we go from here. “I did. I … realized I’m looking for something else.”
“Wow.” Shannon looks at me—really looks at me—and the corner of her mouth curls into the tiniest hint of a smile. “You really did change this summer.”
My mom lets herself in then, the sound of the door saving me from having to respond. I jump up and take the bags from her hands, giving her a peck on the cheek and scurrying into the kitchen. I’m pulling out the takeout containers when I hear footsteps and see that Shannon has followed me.
“I’ll be out in a second,” I tell her, searching the cabinets for paper plates.
“I know.” She glances into the living room, where my mom is chatting with Kiki and Gia, and turns back to me. “Look … I’m sorry I was kind of shitty, telling Jasmine and everything. That wasn’t cool.”
Thank God there’s nothing in my hands but plastic cutlery, because at the sound of Shannon Salter saying the word “sorry,” forks and spoons go clattering to the countertop. “Did you just apologize?”
“It happens occasionally.”
“It doesn’t, though. We’ve been friends for more than ten years and I don’t think it ever has.”
“Okay, well, shut up, because I’m making it good.”
I shut up. How can I not?
“I thought … I thought you were gonna disappear on me, okay?”
“For Chase?”
She crosses her arms. “Of course for Chase. You finally got the guy, Lara. You weren’t gonna need my fashion advice or makeup tips or even car rides. I don’t know what happened between the two of you, but he was smitten as fuck. Any idiot could see it. And, well, every idiot knows you were smitten with him, so.”
I can’t even believe what I’m hearing. Never in my life would I have imagined Shannon Marie Salter to have an insecure bone in her entire perfect body. “You really thought I would ditch you for a guy? After everything?”
“Chase wasn’t just a guy, Lar. He’s the guy.”
“Okay, but you’re the Shannon,” I counter, raking a hand through my short blond curls. “I barely leave the house without you. I will always need you, and not for your clothing or makeup.”
She picks up the cutlery, opens the cabinet I’d been reaching for, and pulls out the plates. “That used to be true, but things have changed. You seemed like you didn’t need me anymore, and then I met Jasmine in AP French, and she seemed like she might, so.”
“Shan, you will always be of the utmost importance. You are the person who got me over being embarrassed to buy tampons in public. You’ve been getting my ass to school on time since the day you got your license. When I got that horrifying zit right before picture day sophomore year, you spent like an hour making sure I didn’t look like a human pizza. But there’s more to being friends than being needed. You don’t need to, like, provide a service, okay? Well, other than eyeliner application. I’m really reliant on that.”
“Deal,” she says, her lips curving at the corners.
I grab a bottle of Diet Coke from the fridge and bump it closed with my hip. “You were really straight-up trying to replace me, huh?”
“It sounds so bitchy when you put it that way.”
“Yeah, because it was bitchy, Shan. That’s why you’re apologizing, remember?”
She sighs heavily. “Fine. Yes. It was bitchy. I was bitchy. But for what it’s worth, Jasmine’s cool. I think you’d really like her.”
It’s just … too much. I have to put down the soda. I have to put down everything because I have started cracking up and I feel like I will never stop. It’s so loud that Gia and Kiki come rushing in to see what they’re missing.
“What the hell?” Kiki looks back and forth between me, who’s laughing her ass off, and Shannon, who’s looking at me like I am deranged.
When I finally manage to gather myself, I look Kiki right in the eyes and say, “Shannon thinks I would like Jasmine if only I got to know her.”
“Oh.” Kiki bites her lip so hard to keep from laughing that I think she’s going to draw blood, and I lose it all over again.
“What the hell is going on here?” Gia asks Shannon, who just shakes her head.
Having sort of come out twice today so far, I know that when an opportunity arises, you have to take it. The laughter stops, and
