The Fill-In Boyfriend(21)

“Where’s Jules?” Claire asked.

“She said she couldn’t come.” I’d told Claire I’d try, and even though I hadn’t really wanted her to come over, I’d called and invited Jules.

“I talked to her on the way over.”

“Oh, good. Did she change her mind?”

“She said you didn’t invite her.”

I came out of the closet half dressed. “She said what? I called her and told her to come. How is that not inviting her?”

Claire sighed as if she didn’t know who to believe. “You guys need to get used to each other or you’ll never survive next year.”

I started to continue arguing about inviting her but then stopped. “Wait, what?”

“Next year . . . college.”

“She . . .” I didn’t even want to finish that sentence.

“Yes, she got into UCLA. She didn’t tell you?”

She was too busy sabotaging me. “No, she didn’t.” I slunk back into the closet to put my shirt on. This was not good news. It made my insides burn. I tried to push that feeling away and walked back out, holding my hands to the sides. “Yes?”

“No,” Laney said. “Too casual.” She threw me the yellow sundress.

Claire said, “She said she was going to tell you.”

“This is the first I’m hearing of it. But that’s great,” I said from in the closet because I wasn’t sure if my face would support my words. “It should be fun.” I really did have to fix something, because there was no way I wanted to continue this drama in college. “Now I really wish you were coming too, Laney.”

“I know. Don’t remind me. Community college is sounding worse and worse every day.”

“It’s not too late to join us,” Claire said.

“Actually I’m about four years’ worth of good grades and thousands of dollars too late for UCLA.”

“Who needs money and good grades when you have community college?” Claire said.

“Exactly what I’ve been saying for the last four years,” Laney said. I could hear the embarrassment in her voice and I felt bad that school had been a struggle for her.

I pulled the dress over my head, straightened it, then joined them in my room. “You’ll have fun, Laney. And we’re only three hours away. We’ll see each other all the time.”

She folded the outfit I had already tried on and smoothed the shirt over and over. “You hardly saw Bradley at all and he was your boyfriend.”

“Exactly. He was just my boyfriend. You’ve been my best friend for five years. It will be way different.”

Claire joined Laney on the bed and wrapped her up in a hug. “Who needs a Laney sandwich?”

I rushed over to hug her from the other side.

“It’s fine, guys. Don’t feel sorry for me.”

“We don’t feel sorry for you. We just needed a hug.” I squeezed her tighter.

She laughed. “I’m going to miss you.”

I gave her one last squeeze then stood up.

“I think that’s the outfit,” Laney said.

I let her change the subject, sensing she needed to. “You think? Does it say backyard barbecue?” I did a turn. “It even has pockets for my cell phone.”

“I’m so confused. Who is this new guy? I can’t get over the fact that you haven’t told us anything about him.” Claire reached for her drink still sitting on the desk and nearly fell off the bed.

Laney grabbed her leg, preventing the fall. “Yes, don’t we get to know?”

“It’s a blind date. I don’t know anything about him.”

“Who is setting you up on a blind date and since when have you ever agreed to go out with someone sight unseen?”

I flinched. I’d never been set up on a blind date before, but I assumed I would’ve said yes if I trusted the person setting me up. “This girl in my government class. She’s a junior. It’s her older brother.”

“What? Some girl from your class set you up with her brother and you said yes?”

“I kind of owe her a favor.”

“Why?”

“I haven’t been very nice to her and her friends.”

“Oh, I get it. This is like a charity date? Are you going to be safe?”

“No. I mean, yes, of course I’ll be safe. And no, her brother is not in need of charity.” I turned and looked at myself in the full-length mirror. “So yes? No?”