I glanced at the stove clock as I shoved a cold cherry Pop-tart into my mouth. I had just enough time to contemplate chewing before I had to leave to meet up with Karen at her place. This was Karen’s first weekend home. I had big plans for her and couldn’t be late.

Just as I stepped toward the back door off the kitchen, Jade appeared. I waved at her, swallowed my mouthful of Pop-tart, and pointed at the door.

“I’ve got to get going.”

Jade’s attention flicked to the black, slinky long-sleeved shirt and heavy black tights I wore despite the heat and humidity. Her mouth puckered. “Really liking that look lately, aren’t you?”

A nervous giggle slipped out of me. “Yeah, well, look what it does to me.”

I gestured to my torso that, short of starving myself, hadn’t changed one bit though I’d been (mostly) sticking to my strict diet. I’d even cut back to one bottle of pop every other day, to no prevail. I guess this was as good as I was going to look.

I twirled for added effect. “Aren’t I fashion-model ready?”

No amusement softened the harsh lines around Jade’s eyes. “You promised me, Mo.”

I sighed and did my best to maintain level eye contact with her. “How often do I make it a habit to lie to you?”

Jade studied me for two minutes, then her shoulders drooped. “I just—You’ve barely talked about what that asshole did to you, and you’ve been spending a lot of time by yourself. I’m—Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’ve just been really busy lately. My teachers seem to be taking sick pleasure out of crushing me under mounds of homework and projects.”

I didn’t fully lie. I did have a lot of school work, I just barely did it. To stay in college and to keep suspicion low, I maintained a solid C-average, but I hadn’t put in real effort since the first couple days of the semester. If I could coast by, why shouldn’t I? I’d get a degree regardless if my grade was the top of my class or hovered near the bottom. As long as I wasn’t last, no one should worry.

“Is it becoming too much?”

I shrugged. “It’s not much different than high school.”

Jade touched my fingers. “Don’t be afraid to ask me for help if you need. I’m never too busy for you.”

I smiled and patted her hand. “I know and thank you. I’m sure I’ll be coming to you soon, especially near mid-terms.”

“Okay.” Jade grinned for the first time in days, though it barely split apart her lips. “I hope you and Karen have fun tonight.”

“You can come, you know.”

Jade shook her head. “Nah. I want to get my letter to Brian finished. I’d like to send it out tomorrow. He’s been waiting for my response for almost a week now.”

“Okay. Well, see you...maybe tonight. It’ll be super late if I do, but I’ll probably stay the night at Karen’s.”

“Sure.” Jade stepped back. “Bye.”

“Bye!”

I fled the house before she could find another reason to keep me around until I confessed the secret I knew she wasn’t convinced I didn’t have. If that was true, though, why hadn’t she pressed the issue? It wouldn’t take me much to crack. Did Jade not care as much as she swore she did? If so, why waste her time mentioning it at all then? I certainly wouldn’t willingly bring it up.

Maybe more had happened with Brian, and Jade just didn’t want to tell me. I couldn’t blame her. I hadn’t been too warm and fuzzy for the past few weeks.

Come Sunday, after Karen took off for St. Bonaventure, I was going to sit Jade down and make her tell me everything going on in her life.

***

Luckily for me, Karen only lived fifteen minutes away on foot. To make up for lost time, I jogged the whole distance, though I’d never been a fan of moving faster than a leisurely stroll. Ah well, the things you do for best friends.

When I reached Karen’s front door, I wiped the sweat that had gathered my top lip. My chest hitched, and I hated realizing how out of shape I was. Monday, I needed to start exercising on a regular basis. If I didn’t, how would I survive the zombie apocalypse Karen couldn’t shut up about?

Once I fixed myself into a presentable overheated blob, I knocked on the door. Mrs. Holm shouted for Karen, and Karen yelled back; neither sounded happy. My heart hitched. Oh no, what had happened between an hour ago when I’d confirmed plans with Karen and now?

I crossed my fingers and prayed Karen hadn’t changed her mind. Not only would I be super bummed that my best friend had given up hanging out of with me despite not seeing each other in almost a month, but I’d be a bit pissed that I’d gotten a stitch in my side for nothing.

About the time I considered knocking again, I heard the locks shift on the other side of the door. I plastered a smile on my face just as Karen pulled open the door. Whatever discomfort I had faded, and I threw my arms around her. Without hesitation, Karen hugged me back.

“God, I’ve missed you!” I said and felt no shame that I was on the verge of crying.

Karen squeezed me harder. “I’ve missed your face, too.”

Very reluctant, I released Karen. I glanced her over and noted the more pronounced dark circles under her eyes. I hoped the gauntness of her cheeks was due to the late afternoon lighting and not because she’d lost weight she couldn’t afford to drop.

“Is—How was the ride back?”

I wanted to kick myself. Why did I chicken out of the more important question? Now was the best chance I stood at getting an honest answer out of her.

But what if it upset Karen and she told me to go? I couldn’t wait another two weeks to see her, and that was assuming she’d even want to spend time with me anymore. Karen had Micki, no doubt a billion-times better version of me. This could be my one last chance to fix whatever cracks had appeared in our friendship in Karen’s absence.

“Was okay until we passed my dad and his new twig-of-a-girlfriend in Falconer.”

“Your mom not take it well?”

Karen snorted. “That’s putting it mildly.”

“Did he...notice you guys?”

“Fuck, yeah, he did. He even tried to hide behind his stick-with-eyes.”

“Think he’s told her about you?”

Karen sighed. “So, what if he has or hasn’t? I don’t care.”

Oh, but she did, and how could she not? Before her parents had split, Mr. Holm had been a decent guy who’d spent whatever free time his job would allow with Karen (never with his wife, though, which I’d always thought was a little strange. But not in the Mr.Holm-did-creepy-sexual-things-with-his-daughter kind of way). Karen had always clearly liked her mom more, but she’d had a soft spot for her dad.

“Maybe he’ll...”

Karen pegged me with a strange, defensive stare. “What?”

“I, uh...” I fidgeted with a loose string hanging off my grey-and-black checkered mini-skirt. “I don’t know. I’m just...talking out of my ass.”

Karen slumped against the doorframe. “I’m sorry, Mo. I just haven’t been...okay the past few days. It’s my period, acting wonky. Seeing my dad didn’t help it any, but I shouldn’t take it out on you.”

“No. No.” I threw my arms around her shoulders. “I get you.”

“Thanks.”

I knocked into her hips. “So, what are you going to wear?”

Karen glanced down at her jeans and simple t-shirt. “Isn’t this fine?”

I chuckled and pulled Karen into her house. “God, no, but don’t worry. You’re in my capable hands.”

“Oh, shit.”

***

Karen tugged up on the low V-neck of the dress I’d wrapped around her. Stripe, her temperamental, rusty Volkswagen, swerved. I smacked away her hand. Both to get her focused back on the road and to get her to leave the dress alone.

“Ow! No, let me adjust.”

“It’s where it’s supposed to be.”

Karen glared at me. “Why did I let you do this to me?”

“Because you wanted to look attractive tonight.”

“Oh, I’m a dog otherwise?”

“At least you can admit it.”

She flipped me off, and we both cracked up.

The laughter passed, and Karen pointed out the windshield. “Am I going the right way?”

“Yeah, just continue up this street until we get to the road on the right.”

“There’s two off this street.”

“The first one—Nope, wait! It’s the second.”

Karen shook her head. “I’m so glad we haven’t taken a road trip. We’d never make it out of Jamestown.”

“Well, isn’t that the point of a road trip? To find a ton of wonderful, unexplored nooks in the most mundane of places?”

“Wonderful?” Karen turned onto the correct street. “Just the word I’d attach to anything pertaining to Jamestown.”

I gestured to an illuminated lime green house just ahead—where Lori’s birthday party was being thrown. “Everyone does.”

Karen took the only parking spot in front of the house. I didn’t know if she could, but I didn’t see why it’d be much of a problem. We weren’t going to stay the whole night, and not many of the people rumored to attend had vehicles.

After Karen turned off Stripe, she leaned back in her seat. “You promise I’ll have fun?”

I nodded. “If you give it a chance. Will you?”

“I—Yeah, Mo, I will.”

***

Joseph Russel, a new friend I’d made at Lori’s, handed me Karen’s keys, which I slipped inside my mini-skirt’s tiny pocket. He gestured to Karen, who’d passed out in the backseat the moment we’d placed her there. “Is she going to mind me driving her car?”

“I don’t think she’s going to care about much when she comes to and has to deal with her massive hangover.”

Joseph cocked the cute, off-centered smile he’d been flashing me all night. “She a lightweight?”

I gazed at Karen. “You can say that.”

She normally despised alcohol, so I hadn’t believed her when she’d told me, multiple times at the party, that she’d been downing mixed drinks left and right. Why Karen would joke about that, I couldn’t say why I’d thought that, but I’d quickly changed my mind when I’d caught my best friend shoeless and on a quick route to losing her dress. My own buzz had fizzled out as I’d dragged Karen around looking for someone sober enough to take us to Jade’s (I couldn’t take Karen home, not blitzed out of her mind).

If I’d known Karen had been more upset about what her dad had done than she’d let on, I wouldn’t have brought her around any substance she could abuse (besides chocolate). But I should have picked up on how unhappy she was. I’d always been able to in the past.

“Will she be okay?”

“Yeah, she just needs to sleep it off.”

Joseph nodded, then unbuckled his seat belt. Before I could react, he left Stripe and was opening the car’s back door. He’d shouldered most of her unconscious weight by the time I crawled out of Stripe. Though alcohol was still making my already shitty balance uncertain, I tried to assist.

“No, I got this,” Joseph told me. He pointed at the front door. “Just get it for me.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, your friend’s as heavy as a soaking wet hummingbird.”

Against my will, I giggled. I blushed and raced toward the front door; prayed that Joseph hadn’t noticed my idiotic reaction. His joke hadn’t been funny enough to warrant a response. If he had, maybe I could convince him that it’d happened because I was still slightly intoxicated. It didn’t sound great, but at least I wouldn’t look completely moronic.

I opened the door with the stealth of a detonated nuclear bomb (thankfully both Jade and her mom weren’t home tonight), then turned on the lights in the living room. After, I hurried to set up the couch to the best of my current limited abilities. Just as I finished spreading out the throw blanket, Joseph brought Karen in. He eased her onto the couch cushions, and I adjusted her, so she wouldn’t have a stiff neck on top of her impending hangover.

Done, I straightened and looked at Joseph. “You’re awesome, you know that?”

Joseph shrugged. “It’s really no problem.” He glanced around. “Need any more help?”

My mind jumped to a series of things he could do but wouldn’t be appreciated at this moment. I hardly knew him, Jade’s mom forbade any hanky-panky (though she could bang whoever and whenever she wanted), and I needed to stay focused on Karen, who didn’t look close to vomiting but that could change in an instant.

“No, I think we’re good,” I said.

“Okay. Well, I should start home.”

I took my phone out of my bra (and loved that Joseph focused on my boobs, if just for a second). “Let me get you a cab. It’s the least I can do.”

“Nah. It’s a nice night. A walk won’t hurt me.”

“But...Jamestown...”

Joseph gave another of his intoxicating smiles. “I’ll be fine, I promise.”

He walked out of the house, with one last glance my way before the front door shut.