“I’m sorry he hurt your feelings, Kimmie, but that guy is so not worth all this misery.” Lolly handed Kimmie a Kleenex to wipe her runny nose. “Are all your tears really just for him?”

“What does that mean?” Kimmie asked. “Just say it, Lolly.”

Lolly took a deep breath, careful to keep her voice calm and nonjudgmental, theorizing that perhaps part of Kimmie’s misery stemmed from a second boy besides Vronsky. She knew from Steven that Dustin had planned to ask Kimmie out on the night of Jaylen’s party, but his end goal had been to ask Kimmie to his senior prom, which despite being a tad cliché, she found endearing. Dustin left the club so early that night that she and Steven both assumed something had happened between him and Kimmie. It had only occurred to Lolly in the last day or two that perhaps part of Kimmie’s misery was wrapped up in the fact that she had rejected Dustin’s advances for Vronsky, only to get dissed by Vronsky immediately afterward. This one-two punch of bad timing was enough to knock anyone on their ass. Perhaps Kimmie was rueful over her lost opportunity with Dustin, who wasn’t as babe-a-licious as Vronsky but was vastly superior in intellect and character.

Kimmie listened to her sister’s theory with interest, surprised that Lolly had spent so much time pondering her well-being. Lolly usually spent all her free time thinking of how to make herself look better and which perfumes would make her smell better for her dumb boyfriend. Kimmie wondered if there was a scent that stopped your boyfriend from cheating. “Hey, can I ask you another question?” Kimmie asked.

“Sure,” Lolly said. “Go ahead.”

“What happened on Valentine’s Day? You came home so early that night.”

It was now Lolly’s turn in the hot seat, and she wasn’t pleased one bit. Lolly wanted to tell Kimmie it was none of her business, but she knew that she couldn’t. She had agreed to answer any question, so she had to stay true to her word. “Let the record show I know you’re changing the subject because you don’t want to admit I’m right about the Dustin thing.” Lolly sat up and fluffed her pillow for a moment, stalling as she decided whether to tell her sister the truth. She hadn’t even told Miley and Hannah the real story, but she thought perhaps she should take her own advice and air her problems. “Okay, Steven rented us a room at the St. Regis for Valentine’s Day so we could have a super romantic night together. But when I got there, he wasn’t feeling well. I was disappointed, but what could I do, you know? We rented a movie on pay-per-view, ate room service, and just cuddled and stuff.” Lolly stopped, not really wanting to recount the rest of her story.