Page 23

I pause. I realize I didn’t finish reading the letter. When I saw that I had until September first to move out, I panicked and stopped reading.

“Hold up,” I murmur.

I grab the letter of doom from the kitchen counter where I left it. I read it on my way back to Kora. “Are you kidding me?” I’m so engrossed in the letter that I don’t notice the coffee table until I hit my shin on it and curse.

“Shit, are you okay?”

“Yes.” I wince and flop myself on the couch, rubbing my shin, and hand her the letter. “They’re tearing the house down to build an apartment building.”

“I feel like this plot of land isn’t big enough for an apartment building.”

“Well, the empty plot behind me belongs to them too, so maybe they’re combining them. When I moved in, they told me there was a possibility they’d build something back there.”

I’m miserable. It never occurred to me that they might demolish the whole place.

“I feel like I can’t catch a break. I just want to feel stable and at ease at least once in my life.”

“I’m sorry.” Kora gives me a side hug. “Just know, this town is your home, and you belong here. Nobody can take that away from you.” She pauses for a second. “And fuck those landlords. I wish them nothing but the worst.”

I laugh. “Can we get voodoo dolls and do horrible things to them?”

Kora shoves me slightly. “Now that’s my girl. Yes, absolutely. But for tonight, let’s get drunk and make bad decisions.”

“What kind of bad decisions?” I indulge her, even though I know I won’t be doing anything other than drinking and crying tonight. “Isn’t drinking already a bad decision?”

“No, drinking is appropriate for this situation. But how about a prank call?”

“Kora.” I wave her off with a flick of my wrist. “We aren’t in middle school.”

Not that I have any personal experience. I never got close enough to anyone in middle school to have the type of friendship where we’d get in trouble together. I attended three different middle schools, and I was lucky if I found someone to eat lunch with.

“But we’re drunk, so I feel like I’m on the same level as a middle schooler.”

I snort. “What’s next? Spin the bottle? Truth or dare?”

“I dare you to make a prank call.”

“I dare you to come up with something different.”

“Fine, not a prank call. But what about calling a hot guy and asking him to come over?”

“Come over and what?”

She giggles. “Girl, don’t pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about.”

“I mean, you’re here. Sorry, I love you, but I am not having a threesome with you.”

The sip of wine Kora just took straight from the bottle comes flying out of her mouth. “Robin, oh my God.” She wipes her mouth. “No, I meant, you’d invite him over after I leave.” She has actual tears streaming down her face, and I feel happy for the first time this evening.

“Sure, that’s what you meant.” I wink at her. “If you’re so interested in me, you could’ve just said so. You didn’t need to come up with a fake prank call scenario.”

“I wish. If I wasn’t straight, I’d propose to you right this second.”

“Same.” I take the wine bottle from Kora and take a big sip. “I don’t even know any hot guys.”

“What about Mr. Grumpy Motorcycle?”

I scoff. “You’re the one who told me to stay away from him.”