“So what? That was, like, ten years ago.” Hollis rolls her eyes at me and sighs.
“More like thirteen.” Me and my big mouth, blurting things out.
“See?” She throws her hands in the air. “That was so long ago it doesn’t count. Besides, I bet sex with him would be hot,” Hollis sings, her tone too cavalier, like it’s no problem to screw your sister’s ex.
“Xanthe, please be the voice of reason,” I whine.
“Sorry, bestie. But I’m with Hollis. I totally think you should smash the hot neighbor.”
My mouth falls open in shock. Xanthe is the good angel in the duo, and even she’s selling me out.
“Yes, that’s my girl.” Hollis raises her hand for Xanthe to give her a high-five.
“Why did I call you two? You’re the worst friends ever.” I tug at the end of my braid in frustration.
“Liar,” Hollis hisses as she swipes the curly red strand of hair that escaped her ponytail back behind her ear.
I stick my tongue out, making them laugh.
Hollis and Xanthe have been my very best friends since we met in college. The three of us were on the soccer team and ended up sharing a triple suite our entire time at SFBU—San Francisco Bay University.
After college, they both played professional soccer while I went to medical school. Now they coach the new expansion team in the women’s professional soccer league in New York. It’s amazing. Even in women’s soccer, coaches are predominantly men, so their appointment is extra special and important.
Hollis points between herself and Xanthe. “We are the very best friends you could ever have, and you know it.”
“Yeah, yeah. You’re lucky I love you.” I roll my eyes at the camera on my propped-up phone. I’m in the kitchen, hiding from a certain baseball player.
“So what are you going to do?” Xanthe asks.
“Nothing.” The two of them laugh at my answer like I just told them the funniest joke they’ve ever heard. “Why are you laughing at me?”
“Famous last words.” Xanthe giggles.
“You are so going to have sex with him.”
“I am not.”
“You so are,” they say at the same time with a roar of laughter.
“I am so over this conversation.” I groan as they laugh harder. Hollis wipes a tear from her eye as I cross my arms and glare at her through the screen. “I’m going to take a shower and then grab some dinner. Love you. Chat soon?”
“Totes, girl.” Xanthe waves at the camera. “Love you.”
Hollis grins suggestively at me again. “Don’t forget to call us after you hump the hottie.”
“You bitches,” I hiss.
My best friends roar with laughter and fall off the couch in hysterics as I hang up on them.
I will not be humping the hottie.
My irritation is back, but I’m not sure who I’m more annoyed with—Nico, my friends, or myself. No, that’s wrong. I know exactly who I’m mad at.
Me. I’m the problem. I mentally slap myself upside the head for being so attracted to Nico.
I’m standing under the hot spray of the shower, washing my hair and chastising myself, when a clang and a loud guttural screech scare the crap out of me.
“Ah!” I yelp as the water turns ice cold and slowly runs dry. Not a freaking drop falls from the showerhead. “You have got to be kidding me.”
