Cassie liked that Erin included the emoji, like it wouldn’t have been obvious she was joking otherwise. It was how she always teased: gently. It was too damn sweet, and made Cassie feel way too rude for her most of the time.
Cassie went through the pros and cons of aeronautical versus astronautical specialties. Every time she thought she’d figured out which was right for her, she’d come up with another pro for the other one.
Cassie [11:34 AM]
I wanna make things that go fast. That’s all I know for sure
Erin [11:35 AM]
You’ll figure it out and kick ass in whatever you decide
Cassie grinned. She appreciated people who didn’t underestimate her.
Cassie [11:35 AM]
What about you?
Erin lit up when she talked about the free clinic that was opening that fall. They’d just gotten the final approvals, but Erin couldn’t shake the feeling that this dream was gonna get pulled away from her at the last minute.
Not all their conversation topics were so heavy though. Sometimes Erin would just complain about patients, or Cassie about classes. Cassie liked to send selfies from the gym, pre-workout, so she was in her sports bra and tight pants but wasn’t sweaty yet. Selfies from the shop, though, came after she’d finished working but before she cleaned up—Erin liked her a little dirty. They talked about vacations they wanted to take—Cassie had never left the eastern time zone, so she wasn’t particularly picky. Erin wanted to go anywhere warm.
Erin [4:51 PM]
I went snorkeling in the Bahamas once. It was amazing, but I’d love to go scuba diving
Cassie [4:51 PM]
Oh hell no
Erin [4:52 PM]
???
Cassie [4:52 PM]
The ocean is terrifying!!!!! Why do you willingly want to go into its depths?
Erin [4:52 PM]
From the woman who wants to go to space
Cassie [4:52 PM]
Okay, first of all, I’m not going to space, I’m just going to make things that do. And second, the ocean is way scarier than space!
Erin [4:53 PM]
Absolutely not. Black holes? Possible alien life-forms?
Cassie [4:53 PM]
You wanna talk about aliens? Have you seen some of the organisms that live in the deep ocean? Space is mostly nothing. We don’t even know what is in the ocean
Erin [4:53 PM]
You’re ridiculous.
Cassie [4:53 PM]
You’re the one who wants to go scuba diving
Erin never asked about Parker. Cassie couldn’t have told her anything even if she had.
The next Monday, after a weekend without hearing from Parker even once, Cassie decided to be the one to skip breakfast. She had class, so she still had to get up, but she didn’t have to eat in the dining hall. Lonely Reese’s Puffs in her apartment was a pathetic breakfast, but it worked.
Acacia [Today 8:15 AM]
Where are you?
Cassie lied.
Cassie [8:20 AM]
Just woke up sry. Gonna eat here so I can make class on time
Acacia [8:20 AM]
We both know you take .5 seconds to get ready for class. You got time for breakfast
Cassie [8:21 AM]
It’s cool. I’ll catch you at lunch or something
Cassie didn’t ask if Parker was there. It didn’t matter. She didn’t care. Her Reese’s Puffs were delicious, however pathetic, and there was no conspicuously empty seat at her apartment counter, the way there’d been in the cafeteria the past two weeks.
Erin [Today 8:25 AM]
Good morning
Cassie’s mood lifted. She held her phone up at an angle, snapped a quick selfie of her eating cereal. Except she almost missed her mouth and ended up with milk dripping down her chin. She sent the pic anyway. It wasn’t a great picture, but she’d noticed that while Erin usually sent photos of her coffee mug, or some other inanimate object, every time Cassie sent a selfie, Erin sent one back.
Sure enough, two minutes later, she got a shot of Erin in light green V-neck scrubs at work, wisps of hair already coming out of her ponytail and one eyebrow raised. She was so fucking hot.
Erin [8:28 AM]
I thought you were good at eating.
Sharing a bad selfie was definitely worth that picture of Erin. Cassie wanted to climb right through the phone and kiss that crooked smile.
Cassie [8:28 AM]
Don’t act like you don’t know that’s true
Erin sent back a smirking emoji that made Cassie grin. She ended up late to class.
* * *
When Parker’s name appeared on her phone, Cassie almost didn’t believe it.
CUNT CREW
Parker [Today 3:42 PM]
It’s been too long since we’ve had a movie night. Cassie you should come over after dinner
It was the first group text in a week. Cassie didn’t even have to scroll that far to find her message asking if she’d never see Parker again.
Here she was, pretending nothing was wrong. Like Cassie had been overreacting the past two weeks. Cassie could admit she wasn’t necessarily the best at understanding how friendships worked, but she knew Parker had disappeared on her. Maybe this was her olive branch.
Cassie didn’t like doubting herself. So, whatever. A movie night sounded fun. It didn’t mean they were best friends or anything. Whatever Parker was feeling mattered less to Cassie than what movie they watched.
After dinner, Cassie stood outside Acacia and Parker’s room. A white board hung on the door. Block letters reading DAMN THE MAN, SAVE THE EMPIRE, took up most of it, but there were little embellishments. An unsigned “XO” in the upper left corner, a stick figure skeleton in a casket at the bottom left saying, “I’m so glad I went to college.” Cassie used to leave a different drawing every week. She always did it when Parker and Acacia were in class and never owned up to it afterward. Maybe it was obvious it was her now that she’d missed two weeks in a row. Then again, Parker probably didn’t even notice, too busy with Sam.
Last month, Cassie would’ve walked right in. Last month, Parker and Acacia would’ve been at dinner with her, probably. This month, she looked at the whiteboard and knocked twice.
“It’s open!” When Cassie went inside, Acacia threw her hands up at her. “What the fuck? You knock now?”
Cassie shrugged. At her desk, Parker didn’t look up from her phone. Cassie could let it go, but she decided to be petty instead.
“Hi, Parker,” she said pointedly.
“Hey, what’s up?” Parker said it like everything was normal, like it hadn’t been more than a week since they’d seen each other. She was still on her phone.
“We haven’t gotten Disney+ on your newest email address, have we?” Acacia asked.
Cassie and Acacia had been making new emails to utilize every free trial available over and over again since they were in middle school. They used Mama Webb’s Netflix and Emerson had just subscribed to HBO Max, but for things like Disney+ and Showtime, Cassie and Acacia needed [email protected]—or were they on 143?
“I don’t think so,” Cassie said.
Parker finally set her phone down. She looked at Acacia. “What do you want to watch?”
“Wanna do something really old? Like Aladdin?”
“Talk about old. That was my mom’s favorite movie as a kid.”