Page 59 of She Used to Be Nice
“This feels like college!” Morgan said as she cranked up the music in her living room and began to dance. “I know, I have no rhythm. Don’t tell my mom.”
Avery laughed. Morgan was such an awkward dancer; Gabriela always made fun of her, saying Morgan couldn’t possibly be her Puerto Rican daughter. Morgan used to do a handstand and twerk against the wall in their dorm room, and—God help her—her limbs were just out of control. The girl was all pointy elbows and scrawny knees.
Avery’s laughter immediately stopped when Noah came into the living room and gave Charlie one of those stupid dude-hugs, with Blair following right behind.
“You know Blair, if you moved here, we could hang like this all the time,” Charlie said.
“I know.” Blair pouted stupidly. “I’ve been thinking about it. Just to be closer to Noah.”
She kissed Noah’s cheek. Avery flinched. Noah and Blair were officially together. Her Instagram was filled with repulsive couple photos accompanied by cringeworthy pun captions: a picture of her and Noah eating pizza with the captionYou stole a pizza my heart(ugh); a picture of them on a dock in Maine, captionedMy Maine squeeze(ewww); a picture of them holding kittens at the Humane Society, captionedHe’s my purr-son(gag). Eventually Avery couldn’t sign onto Instagram without getting assaulted by the posts, so she had to mute Blair entirely. Real life, sadly, didn’t have a touch screen.
Just five more months until the wedding,she thought.And then you’ll never have to see these people again.
“It’s hard with our busy schedules to find weekends to visit,” Noah said. “I was gonna go to a conference in San Francisco this weekend for Meow Monthly, but I decided to stay, or else I wouldn’t see her for so long.”
“Speaking of, any news onShark Tank?” Morgan asked.
“Not yet,” Noah said. “But you’ll all know as soon as it’s confirmed.”
Charlie gave him an enthusiastic high five. “So sick, dude.”
Avery chugged her screwdriver in an effort to wipe the smear of disgust from her face. Then Charlie grabbed a handful of shot glasses and set them down on the coffee table in the living room, shouting at everyone to take one. Perfect timing.
Everyone threw their drinks back, reacting with varying levels of gagging. Morgan disappeared into the kitchen after she was done to grab a chaser and refill the snack bowls. Blair kept sputtering the loudest.
“Charlie, my gosh, was that raspberry Rubinoff?” she choked out.
“Yeah, it is …” Charlie sounded intrigued. “Why?”
Blair kept coughing before stopping abruptly to wipe her mouth. “I made a vow to myself that I’d never drink it again.”
“Why not?” Noah asked.
Blair sunk into the couch and crossed her ankles. “No reason.”
“Awww, come on! There’s gotta be a story there,” Charlie egged her on.
“Tell us, tell us, tell us!” Noah chanted.
“Okay!” Blair cleared her throat. “I … okay. Fine. I drank too much one night at school and hooked up with that guy with the mohawk.”
Noah burst out laughing. “Wait, you hooked up with that kid? The one who walked around listening to heavy metal on full blast with no headphones?”
“That guy was in my history class! He was weird as shit!” Charlie smacked his leg, howling with laughter. “That’s hilarious.”
“Trust me, I regret it,” Blair said, sounding mortified.
Noah looped his arm around Blair’s shoulders affectionately. “It’s not a big deal, babe.”
“Yeah, inyouropinion,” Blair replied. “ButIam embarrassed.”
“You’re being dramatic. It’s fine.”
Then Noah took a beat. Looked right at Avery.
And as she gulped down the rest of her drink, he added, “We’ve all had stupid drunken hookups.”
The acidity of Avery’s screwdriver did nothing to disintegrate the tightness in her chest.
