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“Nah,” Elise finally answers. “My boo, Brian, and I are going to hang out.”
“Brian? Your boo?” I ask, my tone incredulous as I give the frat bro a once-over. His arms are around her waist in a familiar fashion, as if they’ve been dating for years. I don’t know how some people move so quickly in relationships. I’m the sort of girl who doesn’t even kiss until the second date. Elise has only known “her boo” for five minutes, and they’re already acting like a loved-up couple. Ridiculous.
“Don’t hate, appreciate, big sis.” Elise grins, rushes over to give me a quick hug, and kisses me on the cheek. “See you in the morning.” She then looks over at Lila. “Thanks for the invite. Don’t feel bad about wasting my time.”
“What?” Lila looks confused, but Elise doesn’t bother to explain. She’s already back with Brian, and they’re holding hands and whispering sweet nothings to each other. “What was she talking about?” Lila asks me, and I put on my most innocent expression. Which is hard to do because I do not have a poker face and am not a good actress.
“Not sure.”
“How did I waste her time?”
“Is that what she said?” I cock my head to the side. “I thought she said, wasting her wine… I think she spilled it or something.”
“Oh, okay.” Lila’s not convinced, but she’s not too bothered about it either. “Oh look, it’s Hank.” She waves to the tall, skinny actor from the stage who had talked about the vortex. “Hey, Hank, you coming for a drink?”
“Does the vortex suck?” he asks in a supercilious voice that tells me he takes himself far too seriously. Not as much as your play did, I think to myself, and I have to suppress the laugh bubbling up inside of me as I think of Elise’s comment. I’m going to hell, and if I do, I’m taking Elise with me.
“It sucks and sucks,” Lila says, beaming at him, and I suddenly wonder if she has a crush on him. She can’t have a crush on him, can she? And she can’t seriously be repeating those lines as if they were a work of literary genius. “To be or not be, a rose by any other name, shoots, even E.T. phone home, were more quotable lines.” The vortex sucks was not going to go down in the history books as one of the greatest lines ever written.
“So, what do you think, Zara?” Lila asks me, and I realize I’ve completely spaced out on what she said. She doesn’t seem to realize, though, because she’s sneaking furtive glances at Hank, who seems to be sneaking furtive glances of his reflection in the phone in his hand.
“Um, sure,” I say, hoping my answer makes sense. I don’t want to explain I missed what she said because I was mentally dissing her play.
“The Owl and the Pussy Cat, it is. It’s the bar that all the stars go to,” she says excitedly and I hope that she doesn’t think our mere presence there will make her a star. “Shall we tell the others?” she asks Hank, who is now standing in the weird contorted position he was in on the stage with his eyes closed.
“The vortex sucks,” he says loudly and distinctly. “The vortex sucks and sucks,” he shouts, and I wonder if I’ve fallen asleep and am in a nightmare. What the hell is going on?
“He’s practicing his delivery,” Lila states matter-of-factly, with a proud smile, and I nod in understanding. I suddenly realize I was wrong earlier—very, very wrong. One drink is not going to be enough.
Today is the shittiest of Wednesdays. I’ve lost my job. Sat through one of the worst plays I’ve ever seen in my life. Agreed to go to a bar with my best friend and her obnoxious costar. And I still have to figure out some way to find money to cover rent for the next few months because I generously offered to pay all the bills so my sister and best friend could follow their dreams.
I deserve to have a night of fun because I know when I wake up tomorrow, all the worries and stress will still be there.
2
Jackson
February 1st
“Ziggy’s buying a Ferrari.” Ethan looks up from his phone, a bemused expression on his face. “Says that we can join him Upstate later this month if we want to go for a ride.”
“Pass.” I lean back and shake my head, thinking of how much I don’t want to go for a ride with our college dorm roommate, Ziggy Vanderfilt. “I thought he was headed to the Hamptons for the rest of the year?”
“I don’t know.” Ethan shrugs. “Speaking of the Hamptons, I told Sarah we could go for a week in a couple of months. She’s going to bring her friends Isabel and Ella if you want to join.”
“You’re going the Hamptons?” I look at him in surprise. “I thought you hated the Hamptons.”
“I don’t hate the Hamptons; I just hate how pretentious it is.” He laughs and gives me a knowing look. “You’re the one that hates it.”
“I spent too many summers there. Been there, done that, thrown away the key sort of thing.”
“You might have more fun if you’re with us.”
“Is this a setup?” I raise an eyebrow and lean forward on his desk. I press my lips together and frown slightly. “Please tell me you’re not trying to set me up with Sarah’s best friend Isabel?”
Ethan stares back at me, his lips twitching slightly, and I let out a deep sigh.
“Ethan, I’m not interested in being set up. Isabel is a good-looking girl.” I pause as I think of the pretty blonde with the big blue eyes for a moment. If Isabel were not Ethan’s girlfriend’s best friend, I might have gone on a date with her for fun, but fun is all I was after. And the last thing I need is to complicate the friend circle of my best friend’s future wife. “But?—”
