The-Lucky-List-Rachael-Lippincott

She doesn’t say anything. She just bites her lip, looking away. “Listen, Em. I, uh…” Her voice trails
off, and my heart sinks straight to the floor. I knew something was weird about this call. Had Matt said
something to her? “Todd invited me and a couple of the other counselors to his house, and I said yes
and—”
“Hey!” I say, trying to keep the smile on my face. “That’s super cool, Kiera. I’m really happy for you.”
I am happy for her. I mean, it’s her first boyfriend. Of course she wants to spend all the time she can
with him.
But I can’t deny the fact that it hurts, the fact that she doesn’t want to come back to Huckabee. To
the carrot cake recipe I scoured the internet for, excited for her return, and our annual tradition.
She’s fine and happier being away from here. Being away from me and our current mess of a friend
group.
She looks up, her eyes round and hopeful. “Really? Listen, I know we have plans and I haven’t been
there to help with all the Matt stu, and I’m really sorry about that. But I’ll definitely make it up to
you.”
I wave my hand like it’s no big deal. “Don’t even worry about it,” I say. “In fact, I think things are
finally starting to come together with all of that.”
Kiera leans forward, looking excited. “Wait, really?”
“Yeah,” I say, nodding enthusiastically. I know I’m overselling, but her expression stirs me on. I
picture Matt’s smile yesterday on the pool deck. “I mean, he actually talked to me yesterday.”
“He did?” Kiera is practically squealing.
I nod. “He caught me after-hours skinny-dipping yesterday at the pool—”
“Hold up,” Kiera says, trying to process what I’ve just told her. “You went skinny-dipping?”
“Yeah, with Blake. Anyway, Matt came back because he forgot something, and—”
“Em,” Kiera says, cutting me off. She nods, giving me the same look of admiration that Matt gave me
yesterday. A look I haven’t seen in three whole years. From any of my friends. “That’s pretty badass.”
“That’s what Matt said!”
Kiera lets out a long, exaerated breath, filled with relief. “I am so relieved. I’m going to be honest
—I was really worried.”
A wave of guilt washes over me for putting my best friend in the middle of this. But also… a wave of
frustration that she’s more excited about this than about seeing me again.
“I’ll be back the day before the Huckabee Lake trip,” she says, talking fast, her voice filled with
excitement. “I feel like the trip is going to be the perfect place to officially get you guys back together.”
Not only was it the first time we’d all be back together in one place, but the Huckabee Lake trip
definitely had a bit of mythos around it. It was more than a little famous for people coupling up over
the course of the weekend.
Including my parents.
“We can fix everything then, and it will all be back to normal by the time senior year starts.”
Normal.
That’s what I want… isn’t it?
I think of Matt standing by my locker between classes, and eating breakfast sandwiches in his car on
the way to school, and scrolling through the new movies at the historic theater in town on Friday