Clare hesitated for only a second. Kaylee was drunk and not thinking clearly. In this moment, with everyone celebrating, Kaylee wasn’t considering that Clare wasn’t actually going anywhere. “Yes,” Clare recovered, not wanting to spoil the good time by being depressed over her own circumstances. “Here’s to all that,” she added and took a huge swallow from her drink, which now mostly tasted like juice. Her head felt soft, her limbs loose. The night was warm, and people were having fun. Adam had been right to make her come. So what if it was Heather Roberts’s house? Clare hadn’t even seen her once since she’d been here.

A new song started up over the speakers. A familiar, heavy beat that the whole party recognized wove through the crowd of people outside and in. A collective roar went up into the night as they all hollered their joy into the air and began chanting the verses every single one of them knew by heart.

With one long swallow, Clare finished her drink and allowed herself to get pulled by Kaylee into the fray of a group dance forming at the bottom of the porch steps. With a wide stance, her spine swayed and her hips rocked—Clare’s body loosened more with every verse. Arms were in the air. People jumped, while others screamed the lyrics; in front of her, Kaylee had the biggest open-mouth smile, her perfect white teeth framed by her deep coral lips that flashed various shades of blue under the colored strobe lights. Clare felt Kaylee grab the empty cup from her hand and watched as she shook it in front of Clare’s face; she was going to go get them some more drinks.

That first drink was so strong that Clare was already fuzzy headed and just over the line of drunk, but she didn’t care. She grinned and nodded at Kaylee, who gave her a silly face and a thumbs-up before turning toward the wide porch steps.

Clare loved Kaylee—just like a sister. Maybe even more than her actual sister. After Adam, she was the closest person to a best friend Clare had. It was easy, so easy, to see how their lives would eventually play out. Clare and Adam, Kaylee and someone she married. Weddings and homes. Christmases and Easters. Kids of their own. Always a big family, always together.

When Clare and Adam did get married, Kaylee would be Clare’s maid of honor. She would be the godmother of all their kids.