“Yes! Her editing skills are top-notch, but she really took offbecause she was doing a whole skit where she’d make herself look like an entirely different person with makeup and play two parts. Like, we’re talking Hollywood-level makeup. At first, it was just two-person skits, but then she started doing full-cast things. I can’t even imagine the time she put into all the makeup and editing.”
“Oh my God. Yes! I remember now. She did that scene fromShe’s All That. Somehow, she looked like Freddie Prinze Jr., Rachael Leigh Cook, and Matthew Lillard all in one video.”
“Yep. That’s one of her most viral. I think like a hundred million views or something crazy. And then she did one like all the ladies fromSex and the City. And full-on looked like all of them! I couldn’t believe it.”
“So, Finn,” Ace interjects, cutting off Scottie’s and my Lilian Latrain talk before it devolves into discussions of the luteal phase. “How about those Mavericks?”
Finn laughs. “It’s okay, Ace. You don’t have to act manly for me. It’s not even football season.”
“Yeah, well, tell that to Boden. The fucker barely answers my calls. Didn’t even text me back about the party last night. My life could have been in danger. He didn’t care.”
“He’s got, like, two-a-day practices,” Finn argues. “I wouldn’t want to drag my ass out in the middle of the night to deal with your shit either.”
“Don’t say that, Finnley. You love me.”
“Yeah,” he grumbles. “Against my better judgment.”
“Oh, stop. If you hadn’t have seen Scottie on the first day of school, you’d be in love with me right now.”
“And what?” Scottie scoffs through a laugh. “I’d still be with Dane?”
“Don’t even fucking joke about that shit,” Finn mutters, his mood sullied so much that Ace and I make wide eyes at each other.
“I should’a killed that kid.”
Ace jerks his chin at me to create a distraction, so I say the first thing that comes to mind.
“Drew asked me out again last night.” A different kind of silence falls over the table, but I keep talking. “Our actual date got cut short by Gunnar’s party, and he says he’s had a crush on me since he met me last year—”
“He’s had a crush on you for a—” Ace starts to ask, but Scottie cuts in before he can continue.
“Well, of course he’s had a crush on you, Jules. You’re the best. Right, Ace? Right, Finn?”
“Right,” Finn says immediately.
Ace watches me closely. I don’t know what he’s thinking right now, but his silence makes me chew on my bottom lip and twist my straw in my water. I don’t want to care so much about what he thinks about every little thing, but I do. He knows me better than anyone.
“Of course he’s had a crush on you, Jules,” he eventually says, and his face softens. “There’s no one better than Julia Brooks. I’m a close second, of course.” He winks at me. “But you’ve always been number one on my list. And I was number one on Finn’s list until Scottie came along.”
Scottie snorts. Finn elbows Ace in the chest.
“Ow,” Ace mumbles, rubbing his chest with his eyes on me. They dance with affection, and I count my blessings that I’ve had a best friend as awesome as him for my entire life.
“I’m sorry I ruined your bromance with Finn, Ace,” Scottie comments with a mischievous smile. “I know the two of you were quite the couple at the beginning of freshman year.”
“Oh God,” Finn mutters. “Please do not encourage him.”
Ace just laughs. “Oh, c’mon, Finnley. You know you miss being my roommate.”
“I miss being your roommate as much as that peg-legged stripper from last night misses her left foot.”
“She was oddly talented, wasn’t she?” Scottie questions.
“From your lips to God’s ears, babe,” Finn comments through a chuckle. “I almost forgot her left leg was wooden when she wasplaying backup dancer and singer with Thatch and that old dude with the glasses.”
“Dr. Bunnfield,” Ace chimes in.
“Excuse me?”
