“So, you’ve been texting each other?” Via called, slicing the melon on her cutting board just a tiny bit more forcefully than she usually did.

“A little. Will you read it out loud?” Fin called back.

Via sighed. “Can’t you take a bath at your place?”

At least twice a week, Via woke up in the morning to find her best friend luxuriating in her tub.

“You know my bathtub leaks. Read the text!”

Via gritted her teeth and unlocked Fin’s phone, her heart softening. Fin used the same pin code as she did. 1885. Their address at Jetty’s house. It wasn’t fair to be snippy with Fin just because she was getting texts from Sebastian. There was absolutely no reason to get weird.

“He says, ‘Serafine, I’m so, so sorry to text this close to when we’re supposed to meet, but my son came down with strep yesterday. I’m not comfortable leaving him until he’s feeling better. Can we reschedule?’” Via set the phone down and kept carefully cutting melon. So, apparently they’d made breakfast plans together. “That’s true, by the way. He had to race Matty to the doctor straight from softball yesterday.”

“Text back, ‘Feel like company? Via and I could bring by some breakfast for you.’”

“I’m not texting that!” Via slid the melon into the bowl and started dicing mango.

“Why?” Fin shouted back, her voice echoing from the bathroom and down the hall. Via’s neighbors probably hated when Fin came over for bath time.

“It’s pushy. I’m sure he doesn’t want guests over right now, and I wasn’t invited along on your...date in the first place. It would be so weird for me to show up.”

“Look, Violetta, either we can take the long way, and I can slowly convince you that it’s fine, or you can just trust your psychic friend that this is all going to be just fine, okay? Text him.”

Via didn’t respond, but she did send the text. Fin could be a pain in the ass, but she was usually right about these things.

It was less than a minute before Fin’s phone vibrated again. Via picked it up and cleared her throat. “He says, ‘Actually, that would be great. I have two friends over to see Matty, and neither of the bums thought to bring anything to eat. Is that too many people to feed?’”

“Text back, ‘Be there in forty-five minutes with breakfast in hand. Feel free to kick us out whenever you want.’”

Via chuckled and sent the text and then picked up her own phone, just as a new text from Evan popped up. She clicked out of the message without reading it and went into her text strand with Seb from last night. She smiled at it. He was funny.

Hey, Fin tells me we’re coming over. Does Matty need anything in particular that we could pick up on the way?

She clicked back and read the text from Evan. He was visiting his parents upstate and obviously very bored. Just got a new high score on QuizUp! She could think of exactly zero things to say back to that.