“It’s a spin-off of The Cosby Show,” I say. “So it’s like Cosby’s daughter goes off to an HBCU, Hillman, but it was Lisa Bonet, and she got pregnant with Zoë Kravitz and they got rid of Lisa and focused on Dwayne and Whitley and—”

“Wait, Cosby?” Brie wrinkles her nose. “He’s horrible and—”

“I know, I know,” I sigh. “But he’s not in the show and all our faves are problematic.”

Ralph raises a brow. “He’s your fave?”

“No, no.” I shake my head. “This show is my fave, but there are obviously things wrong with it. There’s something wrong with everything. Come on, put on the first episode.”

We hover around the computer screen, passing snacks. Ralph complains about the lack of napkins, and Brie fawns over Lisa Bonet (same, obviously). Around the third episode, my phone starts buzzing. Most people have stopped calling by now, so I grab it, frowning at the caller ID. Lydia.

I drop the phone next to my knee as Jack glances over.

“Everything okay?” he whispers. I nod, grabbing at the Oreos. It took this long for me to get my mind off things, or at least push them to the back of my brain. I’m not letting Lydia ruin that.

The thing is, Lydia makes it her mission to wear me down. I kid you not; she calls me almost twenty times. I stare down at the stupid screen. It goes dark for a moment before it lights up again. Even seeing her contact picture makes my heart clench. Part of me wants to talk to her, but the other part can only think of her silence when Claudia yelled at me.

Screw it. I accept the call, holding the phone to my ear.

“Simone?” There’s noise in the background, like she’s in a cafeteria or restaurant. “Simone, are you okay?”

The sound of her voice brings tears to my eyes. I missed her, but I didn’t realize I would start crying before I even saw her again. I’ve missed her voice and her hugs and her worried eyebrows. Everything that’s happened is already so close to spilling out of me, but I hold it in, hurrying into the bathroom and locking the door.

“Yeah, I’m okay.” My voice is wobbly when I hold the phone back to my ear. “I just—a lot of stuff has happened.”

That’s the understatement of the year.

“I hope you’re all right. We’ve been so worried. Claudia—” She stops, clearing her throat. “Can you meet us somewhere? So we can talk?”

“Oh.” I bite my lip. I’m actually having something close to fun with my Group friends. Who knew that could happen? “I’m actually hanging out with a couple people, so I can’t. But that’s the whole problem, right?”

“What do you mean?”