Page 20 of Tell Me It’s Right

Marti’s video appears on screen below mine, a green skincare mask covering her face. She narrows her eyes. “Qué gracioso, el burro hablando de orejas.”

Alison looks to me for a translation.

I shrug. “She called you a donkey.”

“A donkey?”

Marti smiles innocently. “Only literally.”

A loud yell sounds in the background of someone’s video, drowning out whatever Marti was poised to say next. Trish’s expression falls into a scowl, and she freezes in the middle ofFrench braiding one half of her hair, which she has apparently dyed back to neon pink since we’ve been gone. The black stint didn’t really suit her. It’s a miracle she has any hair left with how often she changes her mind. “That’s my lovely new roommate. Be right back.” Her video cuts off again.

“Gracie, where are you?” Marti leans closer to the screen, squinting. “It looks…dark?”

“Oh.” I laugh and rustle around in my blankets until I find my headphones, shooting a glance at the stairs. Leo and Keava are watching a movie in the living room, so they shouldn’t be able to hear me down here, but just in case, I shove them in my ears. “Still settling in. The…uh…old light fixtures here broke, like, right after I moved in, and I haven’t installed anything new yet.”

“That blows,” says Alison, whose face slowly shifts into a mischievous grin. “Why not have that newboyfriendcome over and help you?”

“Boyfriend?” Marti demands. “Why have I not heard about this?”

I glare at Alison. “I never saidboyfriend.”

“You said you were seeing someone—same difference!”

I shoot a look at the stairs again.

“Did you meet him at work?” Marti asks. “How’s that going anyway? What’s the magazine you’re working for called?”

“Okay, okay, I’m back.” Trish’s video reappears, saving me. She huffs as she falls into her bed, now holding a gigantic orange cat. “The new roommate and Gregory aren’t exactly…well acquainted yet.”

I swallow hard, hoping Marti will drop it. It’s my own fault. I don’t know why I’m bothering to keep up with the charade anymore. At first it started off with a few white lies over text.Oh yeah, I’m dating. The job hunt is going well. Oh, you’re apartment hunting? Me too!With all of them landing jobs in their fields withindaysof graduating—not to mention theirever-exciting love lives that involve a new prospect every other week and new apartments in new cities—I just couldn’t tell them the truth.

That not a single company has been interested in me. I’ve barely talked to a boy since college. And if it weren’t for Leo, I’d be living with my parents right now.

And, I guess, if it weren’t for Liam, I’d still be unemployed.

They’re out doing everything you’re supposed to do when you graduate college, and I’m here sitting alone in a basement.

I never intended to keep up the lies for long. Just keep them vague enough until Ididfind something, and then they wouldn’t be lies anymore.

That was weeks ago.

Every day that I don’t come clean, I feel like I’m digging myself farther and farther into this damn hole, and I’m starting to think they’ll nevernotbe lies. I’m going to be single and pity-employed by my brother’s best friend for the rest of my life, and maybe if Leo is feeling generous, he’ll let me turn his basement into an oasis for shelter cats so I can fulfill my destiny as a lonely, crazy cat lady where I’ll pick up knitting and watching game shows in the afternoon?—

“Helloooo. Earth to Gracie.”

I blink back to the laptop to find all three of my friends staring at me.

“Did you hear me?” asks Marti, sans face mask. She must have gone to wash it off while I wasn’t paying attention.

“She was contemplating the end of the world,” says Trish.

“Isaid,I have news!” says Marti. “And speaking of the end of the world, Gracie,You, Me, and the End of the Worldis getting a movie.”

“What?” I all but shriek.

“I don’t know what that is,” singsongs Alison.

“I think it’s a book,” offers Trish.

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