Lolly’s mind now drifted to Steven, who was also unusually reserved, but he had been acting weird ever since Valentine’s Day and Lolly was growing used to it. At first, she pestered him to talk to her and tell her what was wrong. He kept insisting that nothing was wrong, he was just distracted by his heavy course load and his dad was cracking the whip about getting serious about his P.G. applications. (It had been decided by his father that Steven needed one more year to shore up his transcript to get into an Ivy, especially with the blowback from the Varsity Blues scandal.) Lolly wasn’t sure whether to believe him or not, but he told her he was going to increase his tutoring sessions with Dustin from three times a week to five, which seemed to back up his story. This bummed Lolly out because the other two afternoons of the week they usually spent together going to SoulCycle or catching a movie.

She worried that perhaps “Brad” was back in the picture, but when she asked Steven point-blank about it, he swore up and down that he had never texted or seen her again. He even offered up his phone so that Lolly could see for herself, and though she knew she should refuse and tell him that she trusted him, she didn’t. She took his phone and read all through his texts and emails, discovering only that boys were super-boring texters. She had noticed that his text strand with Dustin was only a day or two long, but when she asked Steven about it, he said he had accidentally deleted it. This sounded plausible to Lolly, knowing that out of all of Steven’s friends, Dustin was the least likely to be a troublemaker. Lolly was happy that Steven and Dustin were becoming closer of late. Dustin was a good influence on him, and she knew that Dustin was fond of her, which made her feel good.

“Steven?” Lolly asked. “Did you invite Dustin?”

“I did,” Steven replied, eyes on the road. He was driving up to Bea’s house while Anna was in charge of driving home, the logic being that Steven would be hungover in the morning, as he always was after a big party.

“Well? Is he coming?” Lolly asked, annoyed at the one-sided conversation, though she would never dare to snip at him with his sister in the car.

“He was supposed to be driving up with his brother tonight, but he texted me this morning and said something came up and he couldn’t make it.”

“I wonder if something happened with Nicholas?” Lolly mused. “I hope not, Dustin told me the other day that he’s been clean for almost three months now.”

“You should tell Dustin to take the train,” Anna piped up from the backseat. “I like Dustin; he’s a good egg.”

“That’s what I always say!” Lolly exclaimed, happily.