“What do you think life will be like after we graduate college?” Robin’s gaze trailed from Lily to Mackenzie, then to the cute server she’d been flirting with for the past twenty minutes while they waited for their large pizza, extra cheese. Mackenzie claimed that pepperoni would make her nauseous; Lily thought she was a hypochondriac.

“Well, if you’re Mac, you’ll marry the first guy who asks you.” Lily coughed the name Owen. “Then pop out two-point-four kids, overextend yourself in a mortgage you can’t afford, and live blissfully ignorant in your suburban soccer-mom existence.” Lily nudged Mackenzie’s side, her lips lifted in a playful smile.

“Hey, what’s that supposed to mean?” Mackenzie whined, propping her elbows on the black-and-white-checkered tablecloth. Her ponytail swung back and forth, brushing her narrow shoulders. With her blond hair and blue eyes people often mistook her for a cheerleader, and Mackenzie always huffily corrected them that she was a book nerd. “Don’t be a hater just because I know who I am and what I want, and Owen happens to be the perfect guy for me.”

“Per favore, perfectly narcissistic and controlling, you mean,” Lily scoffed. “You’ve known him for like a minute and you’re already planning a future with him.”

“Whatever. It’s not like I’m marrying him. We’re just seeing where things go.”

“Lily’s right, Mac,” Robin interjected. “We’re only sophomores in college—take a few different guys out for a test run before you settle down.”

Mackenzie rolled her eyes, then followed Robin’s stare. “Speaking of cruising for guys, you gonna ask Cute Waiter Guy out, Robin?”

“I don’t need to. He’ll do the asking, I’ll do the accepting.”

“Wow, you sure are confident,” Mackenzie grumbled.

“She should be,” Lily retorted. “And you should be too, Mac. Hell, we all should be confident. We’re young, we’re hot, we’re amazing. And we don’t need men to be happy, capisce?” Lily aimed the question at Mackenzie, who shrugged it off.

“What about you, Lil—what do you think life will be like after college?” Robin asked.

“We’ve only just begun this. I still have two years left before I need to figure out life after college.” Lily had always lived moment by moment, a trait that Robin yearned for and Mackenzie loathed.

“Have you even picked a major yet? You need to start figuring things out, Lil, because before you know it, we’ll be out in the real world.” Mackenzie, always the realist.

Lily thoughtfully sipped Dr. Pepper from her extra-large Styrofoam cup and sighed. “I want to do something adventurous. With lots of travel. But I don’t ever want to lose touch with you girls. I want us to grow old together.”