I hug Laura with my free arm. “It’s okay. I need to go. I’ll, um, see you when I get home, okay?” She’s still holding my hand against the counter, and I have to exert a little pressure to slide it free. “It’ll be okay.”
And when I push open the front door, I find Maggie sitting on Daphne’s hood, waiting for me.
“So you don’t have to go alone,” Laura says from behind me. She gives me a small smile when I glance at her over my shoulder, then shuts the front door.
Maggie has her pink aviators on, the ones that used to exactly match her hair before she dyed it again. The current shade is one I hadn’t seen yet. It’s a swirl of lavender and periwinkle that makes me think of unicorns. She keeps her sunglasses lowered as I approach, her weight supported by her arms outstretched behind her on Daphne’s hood.
“Laura called you?”
“Well it wasn’t you.”
My neck warms. “I didn’t know what else to say.”
“So you say the same thing. Again. Until I hear it.”
“I’m sorry, Maggie. I really messed up.”
Maggie tilts her head down so she can peer at me over the edge of her sunglasses. “That’s it?”
“I should have trusted you with the truth and I never should have manipulated you in order to keep it from you.”
“You should have and you shouldn’t have.” She flicks her eyebrows up, indicating that I should keep going.
“And these past couple weeks have been horrible for a lot of reasons—which I will tell you—and not having you to talk to made it so much worse,” I say, taking a step toward her. “I get that I deserve this, that it’s my fault, all of it, but I really miss you.”
Maggie slides forward until she’s standing on the ground and takes off her sunglasses. “Laura, she kind of filled me in. I always thought she was a bit of a brat, you know? Barely saying anything when I tried to talk to her.” One shoulder lifts. “But she’s not so bad.”
“She’s amazing,” I say, looking at Maggie, standing in front of my best friend because of my sister. “I can’t believe she called you.”
“Youshould have called me.”
“I know. I’m just glad you’re here. And I’ll keep saying it this time. I’m sorry.”
“—and you love me, and you miss me, and your world means nothing without me in it.”
I smile, feeling my heart swell.
Maggie’s expression, close to smiling back, goes flat. “It has to be different. It can’t be us against the world anymore. I don’t want that.”
After this past week, I know I don’t either. “I know.”
“I’m not saying everyone without exception, but I get to decide who I want to be friends with. No more looking to you for a thumbs-up or -down, Caesar, okay?”
“It should never have been that way,” I say past the lump in my throat. Even if Maggie forgives me, I won’t be forgetting what my selfishness cost her anytime soon. “What else?”
“Well...”
“Anything,” I say, meaning it.
Maggie glances down at her feet. “As much as I’ll miss Bertha, I don’t think I can go back to working for Jeff again. I can’t believe I lasted as long as I did. Another day and I would have done something bad, end-up-on-my-permanent-record-and-affect-what-kind-of-college-I-get-into bad. I can’t risk it.”
“That’s it?”
“What do you meanthat’s it? That’s a big deal. I’m throwing you back to the wolves, alone. At least, I’m throwing you to one wolf, and he sucks out loud.”
I smile at my best friend and my heart flutters when she smiles back. “I really missed you.”
“I missed you too.”
