When I get back to the cabin I have three missed calls, two voicemails, and seven unread text messages, all from Cozy. Ninety-nine percent of them say something to the effect of “Please tell me you’re making out with Miles right now!!!”
I flop onto my bed like a starfish and dial her back.
“So? How was it? Did he use tongue?”
“Cozy,” I cut in.
“Did he lay you on your back? Straddle your lap? Kiss you senseless?” she continues.
I yell this time. “COZY!”
She silences.
“He has a girlfriend.”
I hear her scream on the other end. “WHAT?!”
“Yeah…” I groan, hiding my face under the crook of my arm.
“Do we hate her? Because if you want me to, I’ll hate her.”
“No, we don’t hate her. Wecan’thate her. She’s too nice to be hated.”
“Damn. I knew this whole bucket list from afar thing was a bad idea. Call Birdie up there! I need to have a word with her,” Cozy demands.
“About that… can we just maybe curb the bucket list concept on my end this summer. I’m not leaving this room ever again,” I moan, rolling over on my stomach and suffocating my face into my blanket.
“You got it, babe. Consider it canceled. I just wish I was there to watch10 Things I Hate About Youand binge ice cream.”
I picture a wild mess of curls bouncing to the tempo of her outstretched accusatory finger as Cozy eviscerated her first scumbag of a boyfriend when she’d caught him cheating on her in the back seat of his car. Not a single person who witnessed that moment had any idea what a mess she was later when the heartbreak settled in. For Miles’s sake, I’m kind of glad she’s not here. Even if what Miles is doing with Lexi is fair, I know Cozy would react the same for me.
“My mom’s got you covered on the ice cream part, but let’s watch it together on FaceTime tonight, okay? I could use a distraction.”
She groans. “I hate to do this to you, but do you remember Tetherball Baker?”
She doesn’t pause for me to answer.
“His friend Peter invited me to join them bowling tonight, and it was on the bucket list, so I said yes. You don’t hate me, do you?”
I chuckle, and then sigh. “No, I could never hate you. You go and do something fun. One of us should be. Just remember… if there’s no picture, it didn’t happen!”
“Do you even know your best friend? Thisinfluencerwouldn’t miss the chance to post about it.”
I laugh because if I don’t, I’ll cry, and I don’t want her canceling her plans for me. I’m just regretting not staying is all.
“Hang in there,” she says.
“I will. And Cozy, for what it’s worth… I don’t hate Miles either. He deserves to be happy.”
“More like he doesn’t deserveyou,” she argues. “But there’s always Reed!”
I shake my head. “Bye, Cozy.”
I watched Julia Stiles poetically confess all the ways she hates Heath Ledger in front of an entire classroom of peers last night and cried myself to sleep.
I hate the way I don’t hate you, Miles. Not even a little bit.Not even when you shock me with a girlfriend and rip my heart out. Not even at all.
But a tiny smile graced my lips when my phone chimed me awake with a message from Cozy. It wasn’t just the picture she promised but a whole reel slowed down to match the upbeat of “We Will Rock You.” Bowling pins tumbled down in front her in a strike as a guy collapsed her knees under the weight of his arms. He hauled her in the air, spinning her in a circle and holding up the number one.
