Page 34 of The Summer of ’98

“Whoa.”

“Don’t you just love it?” she clasped her hands and bounced, her ringlets were in a bun right on top of her head, a few coils framing her face. “Is that not the best thing in the freaking world? I spent all night doing it. I’m almost tempted to do the rest of the room. Can you imagine? The whole room just John Stamos.”

“It’s like a shrine.”

“Duh. You wanna help me?”

I had nothing else to do. “Okay. How do you have so many posters, though?”

“Did I tell you what my mom does?” Cass asked as she began dragging a box out from under her bed. “I mean, aside from drinking.”

“Does she work for a magazine?”

Cass lifted the box lid and there were stacks of Seventeen, Teen People, Teen Beat, and Cosmo Girl. “She wishes. No, but she does work for the freight company that oversees and manages the distribution of almost every magazine and newspaper in Colorado. They also have to collect old copies that are left at the end of each month. I get some of them.”

“That’s pretty cool,” I said, sitting down on her neon-orange and pink comforter and folding my legs just as she had. “You’ve been preparing for this moment, then?”

“You know it. First, we cut out any and every picture of John that we can find. Which isn’t hard because he’s literally the main feature, like, every single month. I would kill to have his babies.”

I took the pair of scissors that she handed me. It was quiet for a minute until she stood up and switched the radio on. Cass’s room was cute. Vibrant. There was a lot of neon orange—her set of drawers under the window, her mirror frame on the back of the door. She had bright-pink curtains and a fluffy green rug underneath her inflatable armchair.

“Your room is cute,” I said.

“Thanks. Tiff doesn’t like it. Says it gives her a headache. Tiff is my best friend. She’s in Florida all summer.”

“Oh cool. Do you have a big group of girlfriends?”

She pursed her lips and shrugged. “Not really, but kind of. I’ve always been close to Leroy and Eric, so I hang out with them, and they’re, like, popular jocks, so they have a lot of girls hanging around. I get along with the girls at parties and stuff, but I wouldn’t invite them for a sleepover. You know?”

“Yeah.” I dropped a cutout that I’d finished and moved on to the next one. “I get that. I have a couple of close friends at home. Amber being the closest. Which reminds me that I haven’t talked to her in a while. I should call her.”

“You can use the phone if you want?”

“What, right now?”

Cass nodded, focused on her careful cutting.

“Oh, no. That’s all right. The charges would be huge since it’s out of state.”

“I don’t pay the phone bill. Doesn’t bother me,” she said. “Better here than at Eleanor’s. We like Eleanor, don’t charge long-distance calls to her phone bill.”

My laugh was amused but dismissive, which Cass must have noticed because she shook her head, stood up, and left the room, returning a few moments later with a handheld. “Call your bestie.”

“Okay, fine.” I took it and dialed, putting it on speaker so Cass was included in our conversation. That felt rude. Amber answered her own private line in a few short rings.

“Hello?”

“Hey, it’s me.”

“Hi!” she said, excitement in her tone. “What’s going on? How’s Colorado?”

“Gooooood,” I stretched it out and put the phone on the carpet between Cass and me. “You’re on speaker, by the way. Cass is here. She’s friends with Leroy and his brother, Noah.”

“Hello!” Cass sang.

“Hey, nice to sort of meet you,” Amber laughed. “What’s going on?”

“Not much,” I said. “I’ve been getting to know Leroy’s friends and family, watching his football practices, and I went to a party on my first night here. That’s where I met Cass.”

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