Shola: I know. You’re lucky to have me

Me: I am

Shola: I’m going to miss you next year. Is it too early to get weepy about graduation?

Me: We have nine months!

Shola: I’ve already graduated in my mind tho. Putting my apps in

Me: Noooo college talk

Shola: Okay, only Levi talk

Me: Thank you. Did I tell you he’s afraid of cats?

Shola: You did not

Me: Did I tell you I think I’m in love?

Shola: You are the worst

Me: I am but you love me anyway

Shola: We can’t help who we love, my friend

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Now

Hudson poses for the paparazzi on the lawn. He puts his hands on his waist and looks off into the distance like Superman, and he follows that up by arching his back and holding up a pretend microphone, Mamma Mia! style. Paloma rushes outside and wrangles him into the house to get him away from the hungry camera clicks.

He’s done his damage already, though.

Here’s what the gossip sites will say: we’re not taking this seriously, we assume we’re above the law, this is another example of our gross entitlement and privilege.

If Hudson has a superpower, it’s that he can always manage to make everything worse. I always feel the need to at least partially cleave myself from Hudson, to use that isolating half. I tell myself that I wouldn’t attach this qualifier if I liked him, but it’s hard to like addicts. My dad claims that when I was little, I was Hudson obsessed, that as a toddler I followed him everywhere. Now I can’t imagine choosing to be in the same room as him.

“Are you kidding me? Do not talk to the media. Do not make silly poses. Do not give them anything,” my father says.

“Come on. I was having a little fun.” Hudson sticks out his tongue at Isla. He and Isla have always gotten along, even though they couldn’t be more opposite. She’s a consummate rule follower. Once Isla and I were the only people in a movie theater, and still she made us sit in our assigned seats. Hudson, on the other hand, ingests illegal substances for breakfast.

But Isla never uses the word half, even though it’s accurate. And when she won her class’s academic award last fall, she invited Hudson to the ceremony, even at the risk of him showing up high and embarrassing us. In the end, he didn’t come, which is the way it is with Hudson—we all know better than to count on him for anything—and still I could sense Isla’s disappointment.