I almost started to laugh. “Sorry. I don’t know what got into me.”
His eyes kept darting toward my house, probably expecting my father to come storming out at any minute wielding a baseball bat. Once he finally realized the coast was clear, he gave me a quick kiss and then said goodnight.
*
The next day, I went for a long swim before calling Lisa to see if she wanted to go microwave shopping. It was the last thing I needed to buy for my dorm room, and I didn’t feel like being alone. After the toll on my emotions the night before-mopey to heartbroken to sexual deviant-I could have used a good dose of my best friend right about then.
She answered, sounding cheerier than I’d heard her in a long time. She’d been such a mess the past weeks, Pick’s impending cross-country move never far from her mind, and it was nice to hear a bit of the old Lisa in her voice.
“What’s with you today, Snow White? You sound like you’re ready to shit rainbows over there.”
She actually laughed, and I didn’t realize how long it had been since I heard her do that. “Just having a good day, I guess.”
“Well, that’s good. Glad to hear it!” If she’d found something that day to finally be happy about, I wasn’t about to start asking a million questions why. So, I just launched into one of our favorite topics. “Hey listen, I don’t know if I should get the white or the stainless microwave. Did we decide on our kitchen design yet? Because I know I’m pushing on this, but I’d still really love to do a fifties look. Black and white floor tiles, teal walls. Ooh, hey. Maybe we can find one of those awesome formica tables, you know, with the steel chairs and vinyl seats? Wouldn’t that look so cool?”
Lisa didn’t respond right away and I thought the phone had disconnected during my ramble.
“Hellooo. You still there?”
She took a deep breath and then dropped the bomb. “I’m going with him to California, Layla.”
Before the words could even form some sense in my brain, she launched into a sprawling diatribe. “I know it seems crazy, Layla. Believe me, I know it’s like, ridiculous, right? I just... I just think that it can be like an adventure, you know? Like I can go start over in some brand new place and be whoever I want to be. And I’ll be there with Pick! We won’t have to say goodbye.”
I blurted out without thinking, “But we will!”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. She was moving to California with Pickford Redy? Did she just actually say that? She was leaving me? Lisa, the one person I could always count on to be by my side. The one person who needed me just as much as I needed her. I guessed she decided she needed Pick more.
The reality of what she was trying to tell me started to sink in, liquid fire boiling through my veins.
My voice got infinitely louder at that point as I dove right in, trying to find some sense in what was happening. “What about New York, Lisa? What about our plans?”
“Layla, I know and I’m sorry. I knew this was going to be hard for you.”
Hard for me? Try impossible. Was she serious?
“You’re barely eighteen! You’re going to be one of those trashy girls that shacks up with her pimply boyfriend in some trailer somewhere and has twelve kids before the age of twenty! What are you thinking?”
Lisa tried making a joke. “Pick doesn’t have pimples.”
I ignored her attempt at levity and just continued my tirade. “What about your life, Lis? You’re gonna follow him all the way out to the west coast and just completely give up your dreams for his? How can you just blow off F.I.T.? You’ve only been talking about going there forever. How can he ask that of you?”
“He didn’t ask. He wants me to enroll in the fashion program at the Hollywood Arts Institute.”
“But it’s not New York! It’s not the same thing!”
“Layla, I don’t know how to make you understand. I want to go. I know that seems hurtful right now and I know all you can see is how I’m screwing up our plans, but someday I hope you’ll be able to forgive me. I’m hoping you’ll understand. One day, when you find that one person you know you’re supposed to be with, you’ll do whatever you have to do in order to be with him.”
“So that’s what you’re doing? Being with your one and only true love, Pickford Redy? Really, Lisa?”
I knew I was putting some extra snotty into my voice, and at that moment, I didn’t really care. She deserved it. How could she do this to me?