Devi sipped her water and shrugged. “I’ll miss you, but you’re a text away, and seriously, your grandmother’s house is, like, ten minutes from mine, tops. We’ll see each other all the time. I get why you’re upset, but I don’t think it’ll be a big deal, and at least you’ll get to avoid Mr. Brown’s onion breath. I am not looking forward to AP Calc, dude.”

My mother, who’d made herself absent upon Devi’s appearance, yelled from the bathroom, “She’s smart. Listen to her, Sara.”

“Yeah, yeah, I will.”

I frowned. It wasn’t that I wanted to wallow in self-pity. It was just—

Okay, yes, I wanted to wallow, and no one was letting me. Devi made it worse-slash-better by saying, “Just think, no Skank One or Two. You’ll be Aaron free, bay-bee.”

That wasn’t something I’d considered, and I perked up at the thought of not having to see him or his dingleberry of a girlfriend every time they walked down the hallway, twined together like snakes. And hey, new school meant new people. New people meant more options for dating. I’d had fun with Jack the night before. Kissing Jennifer before that had also been fun.

Maybe there’d be a thousand Jacks and Jennifers at Stonington. Maybe I could reinvent myself as an AP sex goddess who just so happened to have the world’s biggest butt.

“Maybe it won’t be bad,” I admitted. “It’s a bigger school. More people. I’ve known everyone in this town since kindergarten and it’s getting old. New blood is good.”

“You’ll be fine,” Devi said. “I’m even a little jealous.”

“I’m gonna miss you this summer,” I blurted, watching her pick up her plate and bring it to the sink to rinse it. “How long are you at your grandparents’ for?”

“The end of time, it feels like. The last week of July.”

“We’re moving in August, so we’ll get a little hangout time.”

“...you’re moving ten minutes away from me, in the opposite direction of the ten minutes away from me that you are now. You’re not going to Mordor, Sara.” She smirked and stretched, and catching a waft of her own pit smell, winced. “I need a shower.” I watched as she swooped down to grab her overnight bag from where I’d dumped it the night before. She was comfortable enough being in my apartment that she padded for the bathroom without needing help, stopping by the linen closet to grab herself a towel and facecloth. I heard the squeal of the door as she pushed it open. Right before she disappeared to rinse, she called my name.

“Yeah?”

“It’s gonna be fine. Promise.”