“And then what happened?” Caroline asks. I call her to download as soon as I get home.
“Well, we talked some more about the novel he’s working on now. And he showed me some of his old notebooks from when he was younger. Get this—he used to write Avatar fan fiction when he was in elementary school!”
“The Last Airbender or those creepy blue things?”
“The Last Airbender.”
“Ah, phew! Did you tell him about your fan fiction?”
“Are you kidding me? Of course not!”
“Hey, he told you about his! He probably would have thought it was cool.”
“I don’t think so . . . but he did say I should eat lunch with them. That he wanted to get to know me better.”
Caroline squeals so loud, I’m sure she’s going to wake Lola up.
“Oh my god! Oh my god! I’m a genius!”
“Is this always going to come back to your genius?”
“Pretty much. You’re welcome. So what else happened? Did he, like, throw you on his bed and ravish you?”
“No, we eventually just went downstairs, and then I found Lenore. She was leading this conga line through the living room? It was weird.”
“She didn’t drive, did she?”
“No . . . Lavon, that’s Theodore’s secret boyfriend—he wasn’t drinking, so he drove us all home. She’ll probably have to get her mom’s car tomorrow. I hope she’s not in trouble.”
“Wow,” Caroline says, her voice serious.
“What?”
“It’s just . . . you survived your first high school party. I’m so proud. I literally look like the star-eye emoji right now.”
“I didn’t just survive. I thrived!” I laugh, imagining Caroline beaming at me like a parent on graduation day. “And hey, you’ve never been to a high school party.”
Now she’s laughing too, but her laugh sounds different from mine.
“Tessa, I’ve been to parties before.”
“You have? When?”
“Well, I went to my first one when I went to stay with my ninang—”
“But that was in July! How come you didn’t tell me?” My voice gets higher.
“It was right after you moved, and you were going through a lot. I didn’t want to make it about me.” She must hear that I sound a bit hysterical, because her tone is softer now.
“I want to talk about you! I want you to tell me things.” That’s what best friends do, and if she’s not telling me things as big as that, then the gap between us is growing even more than I thought. “Sorry, I was just surprised, that’s all. Have there been any more?”
“Yeah, one with Brandon. Michael and Olivia went with us.”
“Like, since school started?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Oh my gosh, Caroline, it’s like you’re living a secret life! How did you get your dad to agree?”
She lowers her voice into barely a whisper, as if he can hear through the walls. “I told him we were studying for the AP Lit exam—trying to get a head start, you know? And I was home by ten.”
“Did you have fun?”
“Yeah, we did.”
I sigh. “Caroline, please keep telling me what’s going on. I always want to know. And I’m sorry if—”
She cuts me off. “It’s fine. I will.”
Then there’s this weird, long silence that feels really heavy—I don’t like it. And I want to fill it, so I don’t have to think about what it means. But Caroline must have the same idea, because we both start talking at the same time, and it comes out this garbled mess. We both laugh.
She says, “You go.”
“I was just gonna ask, what’s the next step in the plan? Like, I think I’ve done number two, number four . . . maybe even number three?”
She giggles, but it’s quieter than before. She must be getting tired. “Well, it’s fluid. You don’t have to follow them in order. That’s the brilliance of my plan. Let’s strategize after you eat lunch with him on Monday.”
“Okay, yeah, sounds good.” I yawn, and then, a second later, she does too. I know it’s silly, but it makes me feel connected with her, even though we’re so far away.
“Tonight with Nico went so well. Do you . . . do you feel like writing?”
“Not yet.” But I know it’s only a matter of time.