Chapter 19

Nicole lay in her girlfriend’s bed on a lazy Monday morning. She was glad the summer competitive swim season was over and she could take a week off from waking up at 7 AM to go swim laps all morning. Abby had different plans and had already slipped out of bed to go swim. She was proud of her girlfriend for being so determined and hardworking, but she needed a few days off herself.

She heard a tap at the door and stumbled to her feet. Lacey was working the breakfast shift at the restaurant, so she thought maybe Abby had forgotten her key. She wrapped up in a sheet, sure that no one outside of the group would be knocking on this particular door, and opened it. Sure enough, there was Esmie.

“Hey,” Nicole said, letting the girl in without hesitation and closing the door. She was the least close with Esmie of any girl in the group, but she still felt fond of her. The tiny Mexican girl was nice, smart, and going out with her girlfriend’s brother. She was also very sincere, she was everything Nicole’s former fake friends weren’t. “What’s up, Esmie?”

Esmie was quiet at first as if working up her courage, then said, “Are you busy Nicole?”

“Nope,” Nicole said. Right away she sensed this was important and didn’t want to joke about having a big morning of sleep planned for fear of putting the girl off of whatever she came here to do. “What do you need?”

“Can you keep a secret?”

“To a point,” Nicole said, “I mean, I can’t betray Abby, you know. Or the group.”

“No, it’s not like that,” Esmie said, “It’s just a woman thing.”

“Oh, then sure.”

“Um, I have to see a doctor in town,” Esmie said, standing in the middle of the room. She opened her mouth, then closed it again, and Nicole figured she had lost her courage to say just exactly why she needed to see a doctor. Of course, it wasn’t hard to come up with some theories, but Nicole figured there was no point in pressing the issue.

“Sure, when’s your appointment?”

“In an hour,” Esmie said, looking down. “Sorry ... I should have asked sooner, you probably can’t take me at the drop of a hat like that...” The girl’s tone was worried and desperate.

“I’ll drive fast,” Nicole said, trying to shore Esmie up with some confidence. She dropped the sheet and walked naked over to Abby’s dresser, where she now kept some clothes, but she could wear Abby’s things as well, and her girlfriend didn’t mind the sharing. She didn’t feel like being naked in front of a straight girl was a big deal, but Esmie looked away.

“Oh thank you, Nicole,” Esmie said, “And both other girls are working?”

“Well, yes, Abby’s swimming laps then she has the morning shift at the lake,” Nicole said. Esmie must have timed this, and she now remembered on Saturday the girl had asked what everyone was doing Monday. It seemed innocuous at the time, but she now realized Esmie had been figuring out when only Nicole would be off work. In the past, she’d hated when people bugged her for rides, but now she found herself feeling honored that the youngest member of the group had come to her with this obviously important task.

She got dressed quickly then led Esmie out to the BMW and started driving the two-lane road to town. She put on the radio, some mindless pop station with a crackling reception that improved somewhat as they neared civilization.

“Thanks for not asking,” Esmie said after a long silence.

“Well you said it’s a woman thing,” Nicole said, “I’m a woman. I understand.”

A great number of items fell under the heading of a “woman thing”, but Nicole seriously doubted the girl would be so somber and secretive if she just needed to adjust her birth control prescription or needed a pap smear. Still, she didn’t dream of prodding Esmie for information. She remembered needing to go to the gynecologist before she could drive and having to take Laura’s horrible jokes even though there was in reality little chance Nicole would ever be pregnant. Nicole was prepared to do the whole trip and never ask Esmie what this was about. Esmie was a good person and a friend, Nicole wanted to be a good friend right back to her. She didn’t want to be anything like the Nicole she’d been at the start of the summer.

They drove to town in silence then Esmie gave her the address, but there was only one place it would be in a town this size. Nicole went there herself the odd times she’d needed to see a doctor in summer over the years, so she drove to the edge of town with the newer developments – strip malls, a few office buildings, and an emergency medical clinic. Next to the clinic was a glass three-story medical building.

“Want me to come in?” Nicole said, with as much non-threatening warmth as she could muster.

“Yeah,” Esmie said, “Thanks for doing this.”

“No problem,” Nicole said, “I like helping out the group. I’ve never had friends who actually had my back, so I’m glad to be able to do something useful for one of you guys.”

Esmie smiled and went inside. It was just nine in the morning when they got there, so they sat in the nearly empty waiting room. She thumbed through an old issue of People, reading about how David Crosby had helped Drew Barrymore beat drug addiction.

“Sorry I’m being so quiet,” Esmie said eventually.

“Hey it’s cool, girl,” Nicole said, putting down the magazine, “I know this stuff is stressful.”

“I guess you know what I’m here for,” Esmie said.

“I can guess,” Nicole said, “But it’s your business. It’s your body.”

“Thanks,” Esmie said. “I took one of the home tests and it said I was pregnant.”

Nicole leaned over and took her friend’s hand as they sat on the bland cushioned chairs in the waiting room. Sometimes when a woman tells you she’s pregnant you jump up and down to celebrate with her, but this was not one of those situations. Esmie sounded like she’d announced a terminal diagnosis.

“Those things aren’t 100 percent,” Nicole said, “You know that. That’s why you’re here. The doctor can tell for sure.”

“I know,” Esmie said, “But they’re not 0 percent, or even 50. More like 90 or 95. I probably am pregnant, Nicole. We haven’t been ... using protection.”

Esmie’s voice was sad and defeated, about what Nicole would expect from a 14-year-old girl in this situation. It hardly seemed appropriate to berate her for taking such a foolish risk, and it wouldn’t do any good to lecture the girl about safe sex at this point anyway.

“Well the doctor will give you a clearer picture, and even if you are pregnant, there are options,” Nicole said.

“I’m Catholic though so...” Esmie said, trailing off. “Look, I’ve never been to this doctor before and he’s a dude. I tried to find a lady doctor but...”

“We’re kind of lucky there’s even a gynecologist at all within an hour’s drive,” Nicole said. “I’ve been to him actually, last summer when my period cramps were fucking with my training.”

“Is he a creep?” Esmie asked, and Nicole thought her voice suggested that she’d had experiences with past male doctors that didn’t make this a baseless question.

“I can go back with you if you want,” Nicole said awkwardly. The guy wasn’t as bad as he could be, but she didn’t want Esmie to go alone anyway.

“I’d like that,” Esmie said, just as a nurse called her name. It was a small clinic and so early on a weekday, it was very calm, almost sedate. Up here they must look like an odd couple, the tall blond girl and her tiny brown-skinned friend. Ah well, Nicole thought, more and more she didn’t care what people thought of her hanging out with people who were different. She’d never been as happy as she had been this summer with the group.

The nurse took Esmie’s height, weight, blood pressure, and heart rate, then had her change into a medical gown and wait for the doctor in an examining room.

“God this feels so real,” Esmie said, “I’m sorry I dragged you into this Nicole.”

“Shhh,” she said, sitting on a padded chair and reaching up to hold Esmie’s hand on the examining table. “You need someone here for you and I’m very happy to do it. Even if I don’t know anything about pregnancy ... that’s the one upside of being a lesbian.”

Esmie giggled at that and Nicole was glad she’d been able to break the mood.

“I mean Abby might be able to knock you up, you never know,” Esmie said, “She’s so tough!”

They were both giggling when the doctor came in, some bald middle-aged dude Nicole didn’t particularly like. She thought he seemed to look at her body in the wrong ways, but that was the extent of it. There wasn’t much a woman could do about it.

Today he seemed to be better behaved, maybe because Nicole was an adult now and emitted confidence, or maybe he just had a better manner with more innocent, girly types like Esmie. He had her undress only as much as was needed to run an ultrasound. Nicole was ready to comfort Esmie when the news came, but the doctor kept saying “hmmm” and asking Esmie how sure she was that she’d missed her period.

He looked at her charts again and said he just didn’t see any evidence that her uterus lining was thickening, or that gestation was otherwise beginning. He noted that Esmie was underweight, and delicately asked questions Nicole thought were trying to tease out whether she was anorexic.

“Uhh I’ve just been having a really active summer with my friends, and I work in a concession stand but the smells drive me crazy and ruin my appetite,” she said. Nicole nodded to the doctor, thinking this all sounded believable based on Esmie’s frequent whining about the smell of lettuce, among other things.

The doctor gently told her she needed to put on some weight, five pounds at least to get out of the underweight category, and Esmie blushed but agreed to it.

She got dressed and they made their way out.

“Holy shit, I’m not pregnant,” Esmie said as soon as she closed the door to Nicole’s car. Nicole leaned over and hugged her.

“Congrats, right?”

“Y-yeah, I think,” Esmie said, hugging her friend back. “Can I tell you something, Nicole? Like, you can’t even tell Abby this, ‘cause she’d tell Eric.”

“Uh, okay,” Nicole said. They were sitting in the car in the parking lot, she hadn’t even started the engine yet. She hated keeping secrets from Abby but figured this was an acceptable case. “You have my word.”

Esmie smiled. “In a way, I wanted to be pregnant, because at least it would commit me to a course of action. I couldn’t get an abortion, or put it up for adoption ... I’d have to run off with Eric.”

“Damn,” Nicole said, “That’s heavy. You’re just 14, girl...”

“It’s a little young, but people still do it,” she said, “It could be nice. Eric would be loyal to me, I know. If I was pregnant he’d do what was right.”

“That’s probably more likely to be true with him than with the vast majority of guys. At least from what Abby told me of him, and what I’ve seen of him this summer,” Nicole said, “But that’s a brutal way to live. You’d be 15, raising a baby, depending on Eric’s wages. He’d give up his football career, and you’re a very smart girl. All that just to have a baby? You can have a baby in 5 or 10 years when you’re established.”

Esmie sighed. “But I want to have a baby with a good man eventually, and I might not have this same opportunity in 5 or 10 years,” she said, “Oh I know it sounds foolish. But a lot of people do it, and with much worse guys than Eric. We ... kind of already agreed to do it.”

“Geeze, Esmie,” Nicole said, finding this hard to believe, except Esmie was right, people did do this kind of thing. Even at her posh suburban high school back home some girl did it every year, and it usually ended badly.

“You can’t tell Abby,” Esmie insisted, nearly in a panic now.

“I don’t break my word,” Nicole said, “But ... I have to tell you this is a terrible idea. Abby says Eric is going to play college football, he could be a pro. If you just wait five years you could be living the dream.”

“I doubt even he would wait five years for me,” Esmie said with a sigh. “Well I’m not pregnant, so it’s not a crisis now.”

“Will you at least use condoms? I’ll buy you some on the way home.”

“Okay,” Esmie said, blushing.

“And I’m also going to get you a chocolate milkshake, you skinny thing!”

Esmie giggled now. “Well, if you insist, Nicole ... betcha didn’t think you’d ever buy condoms huh?”

“I know, they’re gonna kick me out of the lesbian club!”

The girls laughed in relief and started running their errands before heading back to Summer Lake. Crisis averted, Nicole thought, and she hoped it was a permanent fix, but there was still a week left of summer.

Nick Sanchez felt like a traitor. He’d spent the afternoon starting to get sound and the light show set up for the big Labor Day weekend extravaganza, the final event at Summer Lake that year that marked the official end of the season, and now was headed back to his room.

As he walked down the windowless dormitory hallway, lit so brightly by those tireless fluorescent bulbs overhead, he thought this place was actually pretty nice. Much better than spending the summer back home in Alabama. All he’d had to do was sell out his friends.

Laura Ballard had been there in the morning supervising his work as he set up the bandshell for the weekend’s big concert featuring triplet sisters who’d had a novelty hit about chewing gum back in 1951, and today were in their late sixties. No doubt it would be a big smash with Summer Lake’s clientele.

Laura had wanted to know all the details about Nicole and Abby, and he’d told her what few he knew. It wasn’t as if they told him their intimate secrets. Unfortunately for Nick, Laura did tell him what was on her mind. She was convinced that Abby had somehow put one over on Nicole and made her be a lesbian, which made little sense as Nicole told them she’d been caught in bed with a girl before she even met Abby. Even more ridiculously, Laura seemed to think Abby was the man in the relationship, and that Abby was literally trying to become a man, which Laura thought was a thing that happened with lesbians.

It was all very stupid, but Nick probably thought things like that himself before he actually knew a lesbian couple. He’d never thought much about lesbians, or gay people in general, he’d just heard this and that and nobody ever seemed to have anything positive to say about them. One of his favorite VHS tapes back home was Eddie Murphy’s comedy special where he talks about “faggots” trying to look at his butt, and Nick laughed hard and never thought too much about it.

Abby and Nicole seemed like any other couple though, they flirted and teased, occasionally they got jealous over nothing, they fought and made up. Nick told Laura everything, which made him feel sick, but it was all stuff that just made them seem like normal, healthy people. Still, it was their private lives and he was telling it to someone they hated.

In return Laura had assured him they were “clearing up” the problems with his paperwork and he was on track to getting his account unfrozen with a nice bonus added on top. Which just made him feel like a dumber version of Judas, selling out his friends to get something that he was owed anyway, but he didn’t know how to get out of this. What was he going to do if they didn’t pay him? Sue the biggest business in the county as an illegal immigrant who was heading back to Alabama in a few days anyway? He couldn’t come back for the hearing, if they even gave him one. When it came down to it, a big corporation could push around a poor teenager if it felt like it. It seemed like some sick joke; Nick had worked so hard to be professional and have the best teenage job at Summer Lake, and what did he get for it but an adult, corporate version of bullying.

It wouldn’t do any good to worry about that though, what’s done was done. He had to get his money or this whole summer was for naught. He’d have to go home and tell his parents, who worked so hard to support him, that he’d worked all summer for nothing. He couldn’t do that. He got to his dorm room door and walked in only to be treated to the sight of his roommate’s naked backside as he dried himself with a towel.

“Ugh,” Nick said, “Can’t you do that in the bathroom?”

“Not really,” Eric said shamelessly, turning to face Nick, “Bathroom’s about the size of a phone booth. Although once, me and your sister managed to...”

“Stop!” Nick said, and Eric laughed. Nick looked away from his roommate’s naked body. “Why’d I have to get a gorilla for a roommate? Hurry up and get dressed.”

“Yeah yeah,” Eric said, tossing the towel and rummaging around in his dresser for underwear. “Anything going on tonight?”

“Lacey’s working the evening shift,” Nick said, kicking off his shoes.

“Esmie too,” Eric said, “What do you wanna do?”

Despite always joking on each other, Nick was quite pleased that he and Eric had become good friends. They had nothing in common, but it was fun to have a friend to mindlessly joke around with about the usual teenage boy stuff, and Eric was a good guy who had his back when it counted. Also, when Esmie wasn’t around, Eric was always up for whatever.

“Let’s go hang out with the lesbians,” Nick said carelessly as he plopped down on his bed.

“Okay,” Eric said, agreeable as ever, and he put on some jeans and a T-shirt for his football team back home. “You don’t need a shower?”

Nick shrugged. “I didn’t break a sweat, mostly I was just mapping out how I’ll set everything up tomorrow. Besides, it’s not like we have to dress up to impress these girls. Wouldn’t do us much good anyhow.”

Eric smirked. “So you think they’re just lesbians for life? They won’t change?”

“Pretty much,” Nick said, “You couldn’t just decide to start liking dick, could you?”

“No way!” Eric said, “But they’re girls...”

Nick shrugged. “If you couldn’t decide to change gender you’re attracted to, why do you think they could?”

“Hmmm yeah, I guess,” Eric said, “This is just way different than how most people talk about it.”

“Well most people are idiots,” Nick said, then got up and put on his sandals as Eric finished dressing.

They walked down the twisting halls, quite familiar with them by now and able to go straight to Abby’s room where Eric pounded on the door with his massive fist, then he put his thumb over the peephole. Nick figured he was trying to mess with them. Not in a mean-spirited way, but like everyone in the group messed with each other for harmless kicks.

Sure enough, the door didn’t open and they heard Abby asking nervously, “Who is it?”

“Joe Friday, Homicide,” Eric said in an exceptionally deep voice, and he replaced his thumb with his Summer Lake employee ID badge.

The door opened then and Abby said, “Ugh, you scared us half to death, you moron!”

Abby was wearing jeans and a white T-shirt as they entered the room.

“Probably because you were in here lesbianing,” Nick said playfully once the door was closed behind them. “Me and Joe Friday here are the Summer Lake vice squad.”

He felt a little guilty saying this, since he essentially was Summer Lake’s vice squad, or at least its hapless lapdog, but he just wanted to banter with his friends like before all this nonsense ruined his summer.

“Oh, well, we weren’t doing anything,” Abby said, standing between them and the bed, where Nicole was still under the sheets. They looked around Abby at Nicole, almost like in a cartoon. “Well we weren’t just now, I mean. We finished up and were getting dressed.”

“Abby! Don’t tell them that!” Nicole said from behind in embarrassment.

“Uhhh,” Nick said, trying to smooth things over, “We can come back later.”

“No just close your eyes while I get dressed, and never mention this again,” Nicole said. Nick and Eric went the extra step of turning around, then when Nicole was dressed they agreed to go to the lounge and cook dinner together.

Nick cooked pasta with meat sauce while Abby made garlic bread and Nicole made salad bowls for each of them. They had the kitchen to themselves since it was still early in the evening, everyone in the group being somewhat in the habit of using the lounge at off-hours to avoid bullies as much as possible.

They thought about eating in Abby’s room but she didn’t want to stink the place up with garlic so they sat at one of the round tables in the lounge.

“So Esmie’s at work?” Nicole asked.

“Yeah,” Eric said, “Hey she said you took her to the doctor on Monday. Thanks.”

“I didn’t know you did that,” Abby said to her girlfriend.

“Oh, yeah, just you know, women stuff,” Nicole said, “You wouldn’t understand.”

Abby punched her arm.

“She’s not pregnant is she?” Nick asked, meaning it as his usual sort of edgy humor.

“No, she isn’t,” Nicole said, looking at him in annoyance.

“Yeah maybe don’t joke about that dude,” Eric said, “She’s your sister.”

“Geeze fine, didn’t realize we’re so PC here,” Nick said defensively.

“At least you guys don’t have to worry about that huh?” Eric said, leaning over the table and looking at the girls as he forked up more pasta, “Being lesbians and all huh?”

“Oh and I’m the offensive one?” Nick whined, mostly to himself.

“Well I dunno, I might be able to knock Nicole up, if we try really hard...” Abby said with a grin.

Nick hoped he wouldn’t have to put this in his report.

“So who’s jumping off Suicide Bluff on Monday?” Eric said casually.

“I am!” Nick said. Everyone just laughed, and he kind of wished it wasn’t so obviously a joke. But then again he hadn’t been able to handle jumping off the quarry and that was half the height of Suicide Bluff.

“I hear this is gonna be the last year,” Nicole said, “Uncle Mitch’s worried about the insurance liability if somebody lands on the rocks and gets paralyzed.”

“What’s he gonna do, have landscaping bulldoze it?” Abby asked.

“Announce that anyone on staff who jumps on the last day of summer will be fired,” Nick suggested.

“Yeah that sounds like a Summer Lake policy,” Eric said with a chuckle.

“I’m gonna jump,” Abby said.

“No you aren’t!” Nicole said, reaching for her hand but then making herself stop. They were still alone in the lounge, but people could come in at any moment.

“Aww come on, I doubt I’ll be back here next year, and apparently our uncle did it back in the day. I want to show our bullies and everyone else what I’m all about.”

“You’ll break your neck, baby,” Nicole said.

Nick hated that he’d have to report this to Laura. He wanted to jump off that cliff for real now, it would be appropriate punishment for his pathetic behavior.

“Nah, I don’t think so,” Eric said, with that sense of humor that was surprising given his usual dumb jock act, “Just her legs, maybe her back. Her neck would probably be fine.”

“Pssh I can’t believe you guys have so little faith in me,” Abby said, “I’ll show you all!”

Everyone had eaten all of their food, even Nick who shared his sister’s weak appetite, and they were chatting energetically as they sat around the table with no sign of the conversation slowing. For the thousandth time Nick thought about how much he was going to miss having such good friends.

Just then a bunch of the popular crowd came in, moving in a pack as always. Gina, Crystal, Brian, Todd, a few additional flunkies. Nick wasn’t particularly worried, fighting in the lounge seemed unlikely, none of these pussies wanted to fight Eric in close quarters, but he figured they were in for some verbal stupidity.

And he was right. “Ewww something smells,” Crystal said.

“Yeah, it smells like lesbians,” Gina said.

“How do you know what lesbians smell like, Gina?” Nicole said, perfectly calm. Nicole hadn’t admitted she was going out with Abby to the broader community of Summer Lake assholes, but everyone seemed to take it as a given. It didn’t matter if they knew it was true or not, they just wanted to abuse their former friend.

“So, like, when you two hang out,” Crystal asked in her Valley Girl twang, “Which one of you cleans and does the cooking, and which one watches sports and scratches her balls?”

“Definitely Abby is the one scratching her balls,” Gina said cruelly. Abby didn’t even look manly, she was somewhat androgynous at best, Nick thought, but that didn’t seem to matter with these idiots.

“We don’t have to put up with this,” Eric said, standing up. Some of the guys looked like they were about to take a charge from a wild animal as they backed up defensively.

“Hey!” Crystal said, clearly relishing her role as the queen of the cool kids now that Nicole had given it up, “You can’t fight us! Laura said you’re all fired if you fight us again.”

“Half of you guys are dead if we fight you again,” Nicole said, standing up. Abby looked concerned, but Nicole continued, “Come on guys, it stinks in here all of the sudden. Let’s go.”

Everyone in the group followed her carefully out of the lounge. Crystal and Gina taunted them some more but it was the usual stupidity, Nick thought, not worth dignifying with a response.

“Ugh, this summer has been such a disaster, except for my time with you guys,” Nicole said once they were out of the lounge.

“Then it hasn’t been a disaster,” Abby said as they walked in a close pack through the hallways.

“Yeah,” Nicole said, “I guess not.”

They decided to hang out in the boy’s room and left a note on Abby’s door for Lacey to come join them when she got off work. Back in his room, Nick put on Pleased to Meet Me by the Replacements and everyone collapsed on the various beds.

“So about the end of this summer,” Nick said, “Are you still going to Stanford, Nicole?”

He cringed at how obvious he’d made it, but no one seemed to suspect that he’d been asking it to dig for information for Laura Ballard. Sadly, his friends thought he actually had integrity.

“Well,” Nicole said, “I thought there was no way in hell I wouldn’t go. I mean, it’s Stanford. But I’ve been living more or less as a dyke for the past month. It’s gonna be so hard to go back to pretending to be some awful straight bitch.”

Abby hugged her excitedly, apparently not having known about this change of heart herself.

“Oh calm down, I’m not sure at all, this is a pretty drastic move. Especially as I’ll get written out of my inheritance for it.”

“I’d take the money personally,” Nick said. It was his honest answer, but he played it like a joke so as not to seem like a total scumbag.

“Me too,” Eric said, “Drive a different Porsche every day of the week.”

Just then Lacey showed up, interrupting the serious talk to tell them about a geezer who’d hit on her at work. Right after her was Esmie, and the whole group was together. Lacey cuddled up with Nick and everything felt very good now.

He almost stopped feeling like a traitor to the group. Almost.

Abby lay back into Nicole’s chest, both of them sprawled out on her brother’s bed. The group was all together and Nick was playing mellow music now. It all felt so good, especially as Nicole had just surprised her by saying she was considering not going to Stanford. That could be very bad; her family would be furious and cause all kinds of problems for Abby and Eric, and maybe even their other friends, but it was still probably the better option for Nicole, Abby thought. Nicole needed to be herself eventually, and going to a place where she had to pretend to be a straight girl for four years seemed like a huge step backward. She might even go back to bullying girls like Abby.

That was all too much to think about now, though. Lacey had gotten them a 12-pack of beer and they were drinking enough to get buzzed. Drinking until you puked was what dumb teenyboppers and frat boys did, Nicole had explained, sophisticated teenagers like themselves could drink socially in moderation. With her mom’s history, Abby had avoided the stuff for the most part, but drinking around all her friends felt safe. Besides, she just had two beers, she didn’t feel like she was losing her mind, she was just calming down and not feeling so stressed for a once.

They were all sitting around enjoying the music and bantering with each other as always when there was a lull in the conversation and Abby had an idea. She jumped to her feet and stood in the middle of the room. “Hey, I wanna dress up like a boy!”

Everyone cracked up at the inexplicable outburst. “Abby, are you drunk? I only let you have two beers,” Nicole said.

“Geeze she’s becoming a bull-dyke before our eyes,” Esmie teased. Nick looked rather uneasy but Abby figured that was just because he was the most conservative of the group.

“Nawww it’s just something fun to do with my friends! You guys are better with clothes and stuff than me, wouldn’t it be better than just sitting around with our thumbs up our butts?” She didn’t usually talk like this and felt like her buzz was showing, but she didn’t feel self-conscious about sharing her weird true thoughts around her friends.

“Yeah it’ll be like a slumber party makeover, but uh, Abby style,” Lacey said, sitting up now.