Page 56
“Mm. It’s not that sad. I’m fine.”
I go back to brushing my hair, because she’s right. She seems totally fine in her own world. I wish I could be like that. “If you hang out with anyone else, I’ll know.”
“Don’t worry,” she says. “I have no friends here.”
I put the brush down and wonder, for the first time, where exactly she’s from. Then my phone buzzes, and I don’t ask.
412 is a disaster in the best possible way: two beds, four girls, an open bag of chips, and a stack of face masks Kenzie bought in bulk over the summer because she thought college would be like this. It turns out college is like this occasionally, because she said so. Bianca is eating the chips like they’re dinner. Paige does my face mask for me, sitting cross-legged on the bed in front of me, because I keep getting it in my eyebrows. It’s cold and wet and smells like cucumber, and she talks the entire time about Koda, who she’s hung out with twice now.
“Twice,” Kenzie echoes.
“Sunday and Tuesday.”
“You didn’t say anything before?”
“I’m saying it now.” Paige smooths the mask over my cheekbone with her thumb. “Also. Kylie. I’m sorry about Saturday.”
I offer a small smile. “I know.”
She looks me in the eye. “No, actually. I used your name to get a guy’s number, and then it blew up in a kitchen in front of everybody. And then I told them about Evan, which wasn’t mine to tell, and Koda threw it at you in a diner. That was awful of me.”
“It was awful of you,” I murmur, while she smears the mask across my forehead.
“You have so much going on already. I didn’t mean for it to come out like that.”
Two weeks ago, I would have held onto that situation for a month. But she’s smearing cucumber on my face, and I’m so tired of carrying things I don’t have to carry.
“It’s fine,” I say. “I was mad. I’m over it now. Mostly. Koda’s still an asshole.”
“Oh, completely,” she says, and goes back to my chin. “Also, I got the dirt on the fight.”
Kenzie sits down next to me. “I’m next. Tell us everything you know.”
Paige tilts my face toward the lamp. “Koda said Greeley’s pissed because Nash is a freshman and took his spot. There’s only one spot, and Greeley is doing anything and everything to get Nash to fuck up before the season starts.”
“That’s it?” I scoff. “A spot?”
“Apparently it’s a whole thing.” Paige shrugs. “He said Greeley’s been running his mouth for weeks and the whole team knows it.”
“So Nash punched him,” I say.
“Koda said—” She thinks. “He said yeah, in front of everybody, which was stupid, but he didn’t start it.”
I sit very still with a cold mask drying on my face while Paige starts on Kenzie.
“Nash is still an asshole,” I say.
“Yeah,” Paige says. “They’re all dicks.”
My phone buzzes in my hand, and Paige’s eyes go down to it and back up to me. “Who’s that?”
I ignore her.
“Kylie?”
Kenzie leans over. “Is it your ex?”
Bianca stops chewing and puts her phone down. Paige watches my face. Kenzie tries to see my screen.
