“I wish I could come out and get you, darling, but I can’t very well send David to go see Guns N’ Roses on his own when I’m the one who gave him the tickets,” Kimmie’s mother told her over the phone. “You understand, right? I booked you on a red-eye that leaves tonight at eleven P.M. Daddy will pick you up at the airport. You were supposed to be with him for your first week back, but now that your Stepmonster broke her face, you’ll be here with me instead.”

Kimmie stood in the front office of Desert Vista talking to Danielle. She hadn’t officially been discharged, so she didn’t have her phone back yet. “Mom, can’t you get me a hotel room and I’ll just hang out here until Dad can fly out and get me? I hate red-eyes.”

“Everyone hates red-eyes, Kimmie,” her mother replied with an unwavering tone. “But I upgraded you to first class so I think you’ll survive. Text me later from the airport. Love you.”

Kimmie handed the phone receiver back to the secretary and went to pack. She finished in a hurry, dropping her one suitcase off at the front office and letting them know she’d be back in the evening to catch a cab to the airport. She had already said her good-byes to Natalia and Nick the night before, but now that she had six free hours to kill she had something she wanted to do. The other night when she and Natalia cruised the low-rent mall, Natalia had seen a black leather motorcycle jacket she loved in a store window. She was so taken with it, she had pressed her whole body against the windowpane and made out with the glass, leaving smeary wet tongue prints on it. “If you love it, just buy it,” Kimmie had told her.

“Yeah, like I could ever afford a jacket like that,” Natalia said. “Please, that baby’s gotta be at least two hundo, if not more. That’s more money than all my clothes combined.”

Kimmie wanted to buy the jacket for her friend right then and there. Two hundo was so not a big deal in Kimmie’s world, Lolly spent more than that on eyelash extensions every month, but she wasn’t sure if Natalia would take offense or not. Natalia’s moods and opinions seemed to fluctuate by the minute. The jacket was three hundred and twenty dollars and Kimmie charged two of them to her father’s credit card, one for Natalia, the other for herself. The leather jacket wasn’t exactly Kimmie’s taste, but she knew Natalia would wear it all the time, so she wanted one to remember her friend by.