She clicked out of the app, put her phone down and closed her eyes, summoning Peri to her, like she could astral-project her way into the room. She put her hands on either side of her face and in the dark, tried to rearrange it, pulled at her lips, pinched her cheeks, rammed her fist against the bridge of her nose.

Soon, when the lightest pink was streaming through the curtains, she fell asleep. Peri still hadn’t responded.

Odilie woke up to a tickle, a hot breath in her nostrils that almost made her sneeze. There was a weight in the bed next to her; she could feel the mattress’s imbalance even before she opened her eyes. When she did, she saw wisps of shiny brown hair on the pillow next to her, lips parted, blowing currents of air her way. She blinked, dreaming, knowing the vision would dissipate.

But it didn’t.

“Morning, sunshine.” A lock of her own hair curled by a magenta-red nail, the bedroom bulbous, warped, like she was looking at it through the wrong end of a telescope. “You left me there, all alone.” A pout, dewy as grass at dawn.

Odilie blinked, her voice arching out like a hissing cat, rough from having slept. “You left me.” She rolled over, petulantly, like a child, clutching the comforter to her.

She felt a hand on her spine, tracing little invisible rings on her skin, the shift in the bed as Peri moved closer, cupped Odilie’s ear. “You weren’t talking to the other girls, Odie. I need them, you see. Their boyfriends and their fathers, they’re all potential investors for my boyfriend’s company. I was only up at the house a moment and when I came down to the beach you were gone. I thought you could handle things without me there.” Her voice, so soft in Odilie’s ear, oozed dismay, the low notes like vanilla extract splashed into sweet batter.

Odilie turned back over, nose to nose with Peri. She felt the glisten of tears, the telltale tug in her nasal cavity that she was about to cry. “Why are you hanging out with me? I don’t have a boyfriend who can invest in your boyfriend’s company. Why waste your time with me?”