It was early June, a Tuesday, and, as always in the South, it was hot. Melissa Milton was walking home a few blocks from where she was cleaning Robert Carlo’s pool every day. She was wearing her summer uniform of shorts and a t-shirt with sneakers and almost skipping along as she listened to her phone. Her golden hair floated when the occasional breeze broke the heat. The music of Blackpink blasted through earbuds as she sang along with the English lyrics, ‘little bit of this, little bit of that, gimme gimme gimme’ and then hummed along with the Korean lyrics.

Turning onto her street, she saw a familiar blue Taurus and started jogging forward as she saw Lavi open the door and hold her arms open. Getting near, Melissa slowed down to put away her phone and earbuds.

“Sis—!” Melissa squealed.

“—from another miss!” Lavi finished. Lavi grabbed her friend in a hug. At 5’8”, Melissa had to lean her athletic body down just a little to hug the shorter cheerleader with curly dark hair, whose figure was fuller and softer. Lavi was dressed in sweatpants and a t-shirt, an unusually plain look for her. As they pulled apart she grabbed her overnight bag from the passenger seat and shut the door.

“So,” Lavi started, “you seem to have 180’d since I talked to you earlier.”

Melissa was smiling broadly, “What do you mean?”

“I mean I thought I was going to come over to find you listening to Billie Eilish and writing emo poetry on LiveJournal.”

“Oh my God, I did that, like, once!”

Lavi put one hand on her hip. “Babe, there are clubs you can’t leave once you join them.”

Melissa rolled her eyes. “Come on, let’s get inside and I’ll educate you on why I’m not sitting the dark staring off in the middle distance and shit.”

“Are there cookies?”

“Only if you brought them. I think mom found my stash because it was gone yesterday.”

“Well, it’s not cookies but...” Lavi opened her bag.

Melissa’s eyes went wide. “I love you, I love Sylvia-mom.”

Lavi grinned. “I know.” Inside was a large Ziploc bag with homemade fudge.

Thirty minutes later they had managed to eat some real food in the kitchen, exchanged pleasantries with Melissa’s mom and stepdad, and then retreated to her room. Melissa didn’t bother leaving the room to change into her own sweats and t-shirt, the clothing being as much a tradition as the sleepovers since their first one in ninth grade together. Lavi didn’t avert her gaze. Soon the movie ‘Clue’ was playing on Melissa’s television while they settled on Melissa’s bed. They sat cross-legged and facing each other with the bag of fudge between them. If Melissa’s mom came in it would quickly disappear under Lavi’s shirt.

Melissa was nibbling on some fudge when Lavi said, “Okay slut, spill. I’m dying here.”

“What?”

“What? Seriously? You go clean that weird guy’s pool and come back on cloud fucking nine? What’s up?”

“He’s not weird!”

“Tommy said he was like the Unabomber or something.”

“Tommy did not say that. Tommy said he was eccentric and didn’t like to go out. He’s not some crazy hermit.” Melissa was quiet for a few seconds and then said, “Want to see him?”

“You have a pic?”

“Yeah, I was acting like I was checking my phone one day and took a couple of him.”

“Holy shit balls, you’re like up close stalking his ass!”

“It’s not like that. I just...”

“Wanted a picture of him to look at when you’re not around him.”

“Uh. I guess. Look, do you want to see him or not?”

“I’m dying of curiosity here, so yeah.” Melissa’s phone was soon logged in and she was showing it to Lavi. “Huh,” was the reply.

“So?” Melissa prompted.

“Well, he’s like a guy. From the way Tommy and you talked I thought he’d be like George Clooney or something.”

“Nah, he’s not like that but he has a great voice and when he looks at you it’s like he’s opening you up and when he listens he really listens like just him listening to you makes you the center of the universe.”

Lavi’s eyes went wide. “Wow. Mellie.”

“What?”

“I’ve never seen you like this.”

“Hey, this isn’t just me. Ask Tommy, he will tell you the same thing. There’s a reason Tommy was taking his shirt off to mow the guy’s lawn and it wasn’t because he needed to work on his tan.”

Lavi waved her hand. “Your bro doesn’t need to work on a damn thing. It’s one of life’s great shames he plays exclusively for that league. I tried sponsoring him for team both ways after all.”

“Did you finally give up after the nail painting incident?”

“Yeah.” They both ate some more fudge. “Still,” Lavi said, “this isn’t like you and you still haven’t explained the transformation of Eyeore Mellie to Tigger bouncy Mellie.”

Melissa ran a hand across the bedsheet. “I’ve been feeling down. You know that.”

Lavi didn’t take her eyes off her friend. “It’s that time, yeah. Tell me something I don’t know.”

Melissa continued to find the bedspread interesting. “So, I went over there to clean the pool and he was there. I didn’t take over my book because I’ve just been kind of curled up today and didn’t get any reading done...”

Lavi shrugged. “So, no book club. I get it but that means you’d be there less time, not more. I was waiting for you a bit.”

“So today ... uh, I fell asleep over there.”

“Huh? Like you lay down outside or something?” Lavi was confused.

“Yeah, on top of him.”

Lavi blinked. Then blinked again. “Um...”

Melissa leaned her head back. “I know, I know, it was stupid. I just meant to give him a hug because he’s so sweet but he was laying down and rather than him getting up I figured I could just kind of hug him where he was and then I was kind of lying down and then he just felt ... comfy and I stayed there.” Melissa looked at her friend.

Lavi waited several long seconds as Melissa studied her face. Finally, she whispered, “Melissa Lenoir Milton, either that is the most awesome or most dumb ass thing you have ever done.”

“It was ... we didn’t do anything, I swear.”

Lavi looked at Melissa carefully. “What were you about to say?”

“That it was innocent.”

“Sooooo, it wasn’t?”

Melissa didn’t meet Lavi’s eyes. “Not completely.”

“Holy shit. And?”

“And what?”

“There has to be more.”

“No, that was it. He was listening to me. All he really said was that my feelings weren’t stupid and he held me and he reminded me to start on Steinbeck so we could talk about it.”

“Well I’m not stupid either and somewhere in there is him wanting to dick you.”

“Lavi! Really?”

Lavi defended herself, “Doesn’t he?”

“Uh...” Melissa’s fingers fiddled like she was making an invisible cat’s cradle, “yeah, he does. Definitely. But he acts like it’s just not an option, so he, like, ignores it. But he doesn’t ignore me, at all.” Melissa felt her cheeks turn pink.

Lavi smiled. “You have it bad. Mellie Milton’s first real crush.”

Melissa scrunched up her face, “You make it sound like I’m fawning over him. I just ... I feel comfortable with how I feel if that makes sense and I found out today he feels something too. I just don’t know what exactly.”

“So how do you feel?”

“When I’m with him I feel like a woman. All right, so that sounds stupid and pathetic but it’s not, I swear. It’s hard to explain.”

Lavi smiled and put her hand on her friend’s knee. “No, you’re gorgeous.”

“Huh?”

“You’re in love, you idiot! You’re always gorgeous but now you’re extra. God, you’re ... you.” Lavi slumped her shoulders, smiling sadly.

“I don’t know how to explain it, Lavi,” Melissa said as she put her hand on Lavi’s. “I mean, I have a boyfriend and this guy is twice my age and...”

“Fuck all that. First, you don’t have a boyfriend, you have maternally assigned dates. Second, twice your age may be a problem for others but not for you.”

“Uh...”

Lavi cut off the protest before it could start. “Oh stop it, try that shit on someone who doesn’t know you.”

“All right, all right, busted. You’re not weirded out by it?”

“Babe, there’s nothing you could do that would make me unhappy if it made you happy.” Lavi looked down at the fudge and sighed.

Melissa didn’t have to ask if Lavi meant it. They both knew she did. Lavi looked up to find Melissa staring at her. Their eyes met and they sat for several minutes nibbling on fudge and looking at each other.

Lavi, “What are you thinking?”

“Sometimes I wish I had curly hair like yours.”

Lavi rubbed Melissa’s legs. “I like yours. I don’t want hair like yours, I just like yours.”