HALEY: OMG did you guys hear what happened?

FARIDA: No, what?

HALEY: Stella’s brother Rob got arrested!! And according to Jed Landon, Stella was at the police station, too.

KEN: WHAT? WHY?!!

FARIDA: Oh no! What happened?

HALEY: Rob went totally out of control at the mall and punched Wade Boles. He broke Wade’s nose.

FARIDA: OMG. Poor Stella.

HALEY: What about poor Wade? Rob broke his nose!

KEN: Knowing Wade, he probably did something to deserve it.

HALEY: Why are you victim blaming? That’s so wrong!

FARIDA: Uh … maybe because Wade is a jerk to me, like 100% of the time?

HALEY: Okay, that’s wrong, but he doesn’t deserve to have some crazy guy break his nose.

KEN: Stella’s brother isn’t crazy.

FARIDA: Yeah. I know Rob. So do you, Haley. How can you say that about him?

HALEY: You weren’t at the convenience store when he hit the deck for no reason. It wasn’t normal.

KEN: I’m sure there’s got to be more to this story. We can’t just, like, jump to conclusions.

HALEY: Like you haven’t already jumped to conclusions about Wade?

FARIDA: Like you haven’t already jumped to conclusions about Rob?

HALEY MORANI HAS LEFT THE CONVERSATION.

KEN: I wonder what really happened.

FARIDA: I’m going to text Stella.

KEN: Tell me what happens.

KEN: This isn’t going to do the campaign any good.

FARIDA: KEN!

KEN: I’m just stating the obvious.

KEN: I mean Haley’s a friend and she believes Wade’s story.

FARIDA: Maybe she wasn’t really a true friend.

KEN: But we can’t just count on true friends to win an election.

KEN: We need other people.

FARIDA: I know. I guess right now I’m more worried about Stella than the election. But it’s not going to do us any good, that’s for sure.

KEN: And it was an uphill battle to begin with.

FARIDA: Don’t give her the gloom and doom. She doesn’t need that from us right now. Promise?!

KEN: Yeah. Okay. I’ll try.

FARIDA: There is no try.

KEN: I’ve turned you into Yoda. My job here is done.

FARIDA: STELLLLLLAAAAA! What happened?! Is it true that Rob got arrested for breaking Wade’s nose at the mall?

ME: What?! How do people know already? We only just got back from the police station!!

FARIDA: I heard from Haley. Then I saw that Wade posted a picture of himself in the ER on Insta.

ME: Why would he do that? He looked awful!

FARIDA: You’re asking ME to explain how Wade’s mind works?

ME: Fair point.

FARIDA: How are you?

ME: Not so good.

FARIDA: So what really happened?

ME: Rob and I went to see Alien at the movies. He’s been really down because one of his battle buddies died—suicide—two weeks ago.

FARIDA: What?! You never told me that.

ME: Yeah. There’s a lot I haven’t told you, TBH. Things have been hard at home since Rob came back.

FARIDA: What do you mean?

ME: I’m really tired and I don’t want to talk about it RN. It’s been a long day.

FARIDA: Okay. Get some sleep. But I’m here for you. So is Ken. I’ll drive tomorrow.

ME: Thanks. See you then.