“She probably doesn’t have to run as much as we do,” I said. “You know how annoying it’ll be sweating all season with them on your face? It’ll drive you crazy.”
“And you’ll break out.” Vee winced. “Will we support you? Yes. But it would be a disservice to our friendship if we didn’t try to talk you out of it.”
Ale groaned and focused on Lorelei. “You’re quiet, Daddy.”
“Gah, do not use that on me.” Lo shook her head before shrugging. “But my argument is that hair grows back.”
“We don’t have your superhuman power to grow hair overnight, Lo,” I said. “It took me five years to get this length.” I held the end of my long blonde hair, admiring the split ends already. “Even with all the vitamins, my hair is fragile.”
“I could pluck my brows, and they’d be back in the night.” Lo laughed at herself, her innate self-confidence oozing out. “Ale, I say do it. As the father of the group, my opinion has more weight.”
“It’s decided.” Ale hit the table as the buzzer went off. “Now, Lo, your hair?”
“Oh. Mine isn’t as controversial as yours. I want to add some caramel lowlights to it.”
The group all agreed they’d look amazing. Easy topic.
“Next item: sports gambling. What are our thoughts as athletes?” Vee tapped her finger, and Mallyjumpedin.
“I love the idea, even though there are some weird gray areas with being athletes ourselves. Maybe it’s an ego thing or a lifegoal unlocked, but I love seeing my name on the apps.” She spoke with her hands and seemed so much like her old self that it made me smile. “See, Mack gets it. She agrees.”
“Oh, no. I was just enjoying your manic hand energy.”
“I say we switch topics to how we can get Mally back to doing pottery again.” Vee picked up the pen and crossed out the next item on the list. “As leader of the list, I’m regrouping. Let’s focus on how we can each do something this summer to be better.”
Lo nodded a few times. “I need to create a schedule to balance training and my internship, friends and Luca. I can report out on my scheduling next week because I feel like I’m spiraling when it comes to priorities. My brother and I—” she paused, and my stomach dropped.
Her and Deanwhat?
“I need to focus on my relationship with him too. He’s been acting weird. Anyway, that’s my thing. Ale, what’s yours?”
“Fuck. Drinking?” She pinched her nose and let out the longest, grumpiest sigh I had ever heard from her. “I don’t… know.”
“Can I suggest something?” I said, my voice softer. “What if you focused on spending quality time with your mom, dad, and sister separately?”
“Oh, I like that idea.” Vee nodded. “Your sister is obsessed the lake and movies. Plan a day with her.”
“And your mom loves getting her nails done and books.” Lo nudged her. “Mack is right. You can put your energy into your separate relationships until you know the new family vibes.”
“I can do that, yeah.” Ale ran her hands together, determination forming in her eyes. “I’ll report out next week what I’ve done.”
“Even if it’s a FaceTime or a phone call, that counts. Your family is changing, and it might be for the best. You don’t know, but you gotta put all your badass, best person in the world energy into them,” I said. “I understand you’re struggling but they need you, Ale. You’re the emotional support person for the team, and it’s hard, but your family can’t do this without you.”
“Fuckkkk, I love you girls. Enough for me. Move on. Mally, what is your plan?”
“Cry. Eat ice cream. Get a tattoo I’ll regret for the rest of my life.” She shrugged. “Just kidding. Don’t… guys, don’t look at me like that.”
I snorted. “How are you going to get back into pottery? You and your ex both met there, but it’s a huge part of you. She doesn’t get to take that from you.”
“I can sign us up for a class?” Vee said, raising her voice. “I absolutely suck though.”
“And you should be focusing on summer school,” Lo said, her delivery kind. “You should find a class, Mally. I’ll go with you some night. Maybe it’ll help me relieve stress.”
Mally chewed her lip. “Okay, next week, I’ll have a class signed up.”
Vee jotted notes down on her notebook before glancing up. She had a thoughtful, targeted look on her eyes as she tapped her purple pen on the table. She often gotthat lookwhen she had an idea. Usually, they were terrible ones like getting cheese fries at midnight or ordering a thousand little plastic babies the size of a quarter so we could hide them all over campus. Her attention was focused on me, and I swallowed.
Everyone else had sharedsomething.I couldn’t just… exist and cheer them on, could I? I’d be the ultimate wingwoman, hype-man, captain, coach, whatever else worked. I didn’t want to share my worries because, hello! They had real issues! I had a weird case of envy because they all did exciting things and had love lives and felt all the feelings.
