Mandy, Giselle, and Penny lounged on the large sectional sofa in the McKinney living room while watching music videos. Penny diligently painted Mandy's fingernails with fuchsia polish while Giselle read a gossip magazine.
Mandy's cell phone rang. When she saw Chad's name across the screen, she pressed the ignore button.
"Who was that?" Penny asked.
"Chad."
"And you didn't answer?" Penny gasped, as if ignoring Chad Reynolds was a felony.
Mandy shrugged. How could she explain to her friends that she wasn't into Chad? Spending a good portion of her days wondering if their relationship was real or fake had certainly contributed to her indifference. Beyond that, she wasn't in love with Chad. Mandy's desire to discover Chad's real feelings was for her own benefit. She wanted to assess her own true self-worth.
If she was honest with herself, their relationship existed because it was good for her image. Over the past few weeks, Mandy had begun to reconsider maintaining relationships just for status. She was contemplating breaking up with him, but was just too much of a coward.
"You're not into Chad anymore! I knew it would happen eventually. High school boys are so lame. Now that we are juniors, it's time for us to start dating college guys," Giselle said.
It was typical for Giselle to assume Mandy's loss of interest was related to a feeling of superiority.
"That is such a great idea!" Penny always thought anything that emerged f rom Mandy or Giselle's lips was brilliant.
"I know college boys will like us." Giselle held up her gold compact. She spread crimson lip-gloss over her smug smile. "We just have to go somewhere to meet them."
"Oh, I know where! Club Ice!" Penny said.
Club Ice, Mandy thought. College boys. That could be fun.
"Isn't it twenty-one to get in?" Giselle asked.
"We won't have to worry about that," Mandy said, and both girls believed her without question.
"Yay! I'm so excited! We have to wait for your nails to dry." Penny had just finished Mandy's manicure.
Mandy stared at her nails and blinked twice. "They are dry. Let's get ready."
Giselle rummaged through her black leather pocketbook for her mascara. Penny reread the nail polish label, perplexed. "It doesn't say fast-drying…"