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,everyidiot 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 justaguy, Lar. He’stheguy.”
“Okay, but you’retheShannon,” I counter, raking a hand through my short blond curls. “I barely leave the house without you. I willalwaysneed 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 itwasbitchy, Shan. That’s why you’re apologizing, remember?”
She sighs heavily. “Fine. Yes. It was bitchy.Iwas 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 betweenme, 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 I do glance at Kiki this time. She gives me an encouraging look.
Deep breaths.
“I do like Jasmine. A little too much. It’s, uh, kind of why I broke up with Chase.”
For the second time in a minute, there’s the familiar sound of plasticware clattering as Shannon drops it and the plates to the floor.
And then it’s silent.
I turn to Kiki. “Uh, is this how it went when you told them you were going to homecoming with Jasmine?”
“No, but apparently they’d both already assumed I was gay.”
“Aren’t you?” Gia asks, her face screwed up in confusion.
Kiki laughs. Which absolutely does not mean she isn’t. Or that she is.
“Okay, wait, back to Bogdan,” Shannon demands. “So, the Chase obsession is over.”
“Yes.”
