“It’ll be fun!” I say, dodging her question. “Or at the very least memorable. Come on, guys. Before we get any older. Like Val said, thirty is just around the corner!”

Kiara and Val exchange a look. Kiara is practically bouncing up and down at the very prospect of clubbing with the two of us, but Val glances longingly at her PS5 as she says, “You two go ahead. My club days are over.”

“Oh, come on, Valentina!” Kiara says, using her girlfriend’s full first name. She grabs her arm and pulls her toward her. “You can game any night you want. Come out with us! It’s not every day that Gemma wants to go clubbing. Or that we can all go out together!”

I give Val a pleading look. She rolls her eyes and sighs. “Fine, I’ll go out. But I am not dressing up.”

That night, after my friends pregame with some shots of tequila and I drink a glass of sparkling cider, I realize that I don’t have anything to wear to the club. I left most of my clothes at James’s, and I’m probably never going to get them back because I don’t want to talk to him ever again. But even if I still had everything, I doubt the clubbing dresses from my early twenties fit me now—thank you, slower metabolism.

Val’s closer to me in terms of size, but since she doesn’t have any dresses, I end up having to borrow from Kiara. She’s a few inches taller and has a totally different body type than me, but luckily she has a plain, loose-fitting black dress that doesn’t look too bad on me. Meanwhile, Kiara herself wears a stunning white dress that accentuates all her curves, while Val wears an oversized black T-shirt and jeans. Like she warned us, Val doesn’t dress up, but she does style her hair, slicking it back in a way that makes Kiara smile.

When we’re all ready to go, we get a car and head downtown. Even though I didn’t drink any alcohol, the sheer excitement of going to a club for the first time in a while with my friends sends a thrill down my spine. The lights of the city are blindingly bright, and as sirens erupt from a distance, I open the car window to feel the cool, salty San Francisco night air on my face.

That’s the one thing that I like more about San Francisco than back home in Orange County. The air. Although we also have coastal areas in Southern California, up here, the cool air is so crisp and fresh in a way it never gets in Irvine.

As we approach our destination, the streets get more and more crowded with people headed out for a good time. It’s eleven p.m. on a Saturday, and the city is very much alive.