“No, Mar, I didn’t get fired. But thank you so much for that vote of confidence.”

“Always. So, where are we going?”

Blair smiled. This was why Marisol was her best friend and had been ever since their first day of middle school. “Let’s do Ralph’s.”

Ralph’s was a run-down bar in town that rarely had people in it, which was why it was Blair and Marisol’s favorite place to go. Now that they were both old enough to drink alcohol, they liked it even better than when all they could do was drink soda and eat a bunch of fried food that normally made them sick. Ralph, the owner, namesake, and quite possibly the only employee, always joked that they were the ones keeping him in business and Blair was starting to believe it might be true.

“Perfect. Meet in fifteen?”

“Works for me.”

Ralph’s was less than ten minutes from Erin’s house, so Blair arrived before Marisol and took their usual spot at the bar. Ralph waved to her and immediately got to work making their drinks.

Ralph set the drinks down in front of Blair at the same time the door to the bar opened. “You’re way too good to us, Ralph,” Marisol said from behind her.

“I have to be. You’re the two who keep me in business,” Ralph said with a wink.

Blair stood from her bar stool and turned around to greet her best friend. Marisol was still wearing the shirt from the camp she was working at that summer to get some extra money before starting her speech therapy program in the fall, so Blair assumed she must also be coming right from work.

“You look nice,” Blair said as she caught sight of the big ketchup stain splattered in the middle of Marisol’s shirt. She was only half joking, because even covered in food, Marisol always  looked good. With her dark skin and long curly black hair, she was breathtaking. If she were a stranger in a bar, Blair would definitely hit on her. Instead, she was her very straight best friend who had become like a sister to her.

Marisol rolled her eyes and playfully pushed Blair’s shoulder. “Shut up. One of the campers is already obsessed with me and asked to eat her hot dog while sitting on my lap, hence the ketchup.”

“ Kids , right?” Blair asked with a laugh, finally feeling like she could somewhat understand what people were getting at when they said that.

“Speaking of kids,” Marisol sat down on the barstool and turned to face Blair, “how was your first day on the job?”

Blair took a big sip of her beer, then set it back down on the bar. “First of all, kids are feral.” She picked up her drink again and took another large gulp. “Second of all, I’m fucked.”