And there, right in the middle of it all, is my mom holding a cup of coffee and chatting animatedly with someone holding a reflector.
When she spots me, her brows furrow, and she waves me over immediately.
“Julia? What’s going on?”
“Nothing,” I say when I reach her, and she sets the coffee down on the bench.
“Honey. I wasn’t born yesterday. I can tell something’s wrong.”
“Am I that obvious?”
“Well, my very independent college girl who sometimes forgets to call and text me back tracked me down in the middle of Central Park…” She eyes me knowingly. “I think it’s safe to say something’s going on.”
I let out a deep exhale. “Mom, I think I messed everything up.”
Her face softens. “Messed what up?”
“I broke up with Drew.”
“Drew?” She blinks. “Who’s Drew?”
I laugh weakly. “The guy I was dating.”
“Ohh. The one from the hospital? Right, right. I don’t know why I thought his name was Chad. Cassie is always calling him that.”
I half laugh, half sigh, but before I can say anything else, a familiar voice cuts through the chaos.
“You broke up with Chad?”
Cassie Kelly has her camera slung around her neck and is walking over, hair up in a messy bun, oversized sunglasses perched on her head like a crown. Behind her, the celebrity being photographed is literallywaiting. But Cassie’s focused entirely on me.
“Drew,” I correct on a sigh. “His name was Drew.”
Cassie waves a hand. “Whatever. It’s about fucking time.”
My mom’s eyes go wide. “Cassie!”
“Don’t act surprised. That boy had placeholder energy.” Cassie shrugs. “Tell me I’m wrong.” Then she looks at me. “And tell me you broke up with Chad because you realized your heart wants someone else…”
“I’m in love with Ace.” I blurt it out, and Cassie whoops in excitement.
“Well, it’s about time you realized,” my mom says like she’s known all along. Which, apparently, is the story of my life when it comes to Ace. While she’s smiling sweetly, she also mutters, “Poor Kline.”
“I just…don’t know what to do now. I feel like my life is a clusterfuck,” I say, voice smaller than I mean it to be. “Ace and I aren’t talking. And I don’t know how to fix it.”
Cassie tilts her head, assessing me the way she probably does her photography subjects. “There’s a Gamma Pi party tonight, right?”
My eyebrows shoot up. “How do you know about that?”
“Because I’m Cassie motherfucking Kelly,” she says, smiling. “I know everything.”
“I don’t even know if Ace is going to be there,” I tell her the same thing I told Kayla and Scottie when they told me it would be the perfect place to talk to Ace.
Cassie smirks. “He’ll be there.”
“How do you know?”
She pulls off her sunglasses and points them at me like a mic drop. “Again, because I’mCassie motherfucking Kelly, that’s why.”
