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Jacinda and I look at each other, the corners of our lips curling even more before we break into a short laugh.
She offers me one of the red cups. I take it. “Well, that’s new,” she says after they’re far down the street.
“Delta Xi scavenger hunts or Alex openly hitting on you?” I quip as I take a sip. Not quite Princess Punch, but just fruity enough to be delicious.
“You and Connor.”
I nearly choke, but I swallow it down. “I don’t know what you mean.”
She tilts her head to one side. “Come on. That wouldn’t have been nearly as weird otherwise.”
I press my lips together.
Jacinda shifts beside me, angling herself to sit along the porch banister. “Look, Dana, I don’t want Connor to be this… shroud over us for the next four years. Possibly more.”
“I don’t either,” I say, meaning it.
“Then, do you think we can push past this weird part now and…” She shrugs her shoulders. “Just be friends? Like we used to be.”
“Were we ever friends?”
“There was a week there in Ms. Calendar’s fourth grade class where we came pretty close, I thought,” she jokes.
I smile. Hard not to. And as much as I’d hate to admit it, Jacinda is likable. Always has been. Anyone would be glad to call her a friend. “Did you really give your panties to Emerson Floyd?” I ask.
She scoffs. “No.”
I laugh. “No?”
“He asked, but…” She shakes her head. “What can I say? I’ll always be Team Heartbreaker, I guess.”
“Yeah. Me, too.”
Jacinda takes a sip from her drink as she waits, her eyes sparkling with patient curiosity.
“Yes,” I say, swallowing hard. “It’s all very new.”
She smiles, warm and genuine. “And your brothers are cool with it?” she asks, surprised.
“Well…” I hesitate to say more.
But I don’t have to.
“They don’t know?!” Jacinda asks, her jaw dropping.
I look down.
“Damn, Kirby.” She laughs. “I came out here for gossip. Not tea fit for the King!”
I exhale nervously. “Please don’t say anything. To anyone.”
“Hey, this is a house of secrets. I’m bound by sisterhood here.”
“Thank you.”
“But I hope you know what you’re doing.”
“Oh, I don’t,” I say. “I really don’t.”
