While I tended to run a pretty tight ship in every other area of my life, my car—for all that I loved it—was continually in a state of complete disarray. It was actually strategic, to contain all my mess to my very old car. While I hadn’t done anything overtly embarrassing like leave out the special collector’s edition of Power Jam magazine that Ros had bought me for my birthday, there were still plenty of other minor things to fret over: a Porky Pig mask Touchstone had left in the car, along with several red noses; bits and pieces of old Halloween costumes that just lived in the back seat now; swimming goggles that Buckets had chewed on but that still kind of worked if you didn’t mind a slight leak in the left eye; the empty In-N-Out bags, the sticky coffee rings around the cupholder. Surely this wasn’t the situation my parents were referring to when they insisted I keep my car clean, but maybe I would have listened to them if they’d dangled the ultimate threat: One day, a handsome television star is going to be in your passenger seat, and you know he’s going to judge the state of your cupholders.

“I know you’re probably used to limos, or whatever,” I said.

“Is that… a plastic cutlass?”

“We were pirates for Halloween,” I said, as though Halloween were last week and not eight months ago. The cutlasses I’d left in the back seat for impromptu sword fights with Ros and Touch, but the rest of the pirate costumes were hanging in my closet, along with the flamingo costumes and the ones from the year we’d gone as an avocado (Ros and I were the halves, and Touch was the pit). I couldn’t get rid of any of them; I was too proud.

“Who’s ‘we’?” he asked.

“Oh. Me and my friends.” I could’ve left it there, but something compelled me to keep talking. “They’re actually here with me this summer. Touchstone—his name’s Andrew—he’s part of the Young People’s Company. Ros works at the Hidden Fern, the plant store in town. Sorry—is this—this must be totally uninteresting to you.”

“What? No, the opposite. They’re here with you? I’m jealous.”

“You’re jealous of me?”

“The summer with your two best friends? Totally. There’s no one in my life like that. Take a left up at that weird-looking tree.”

“You don’t have friends? What about the cast? What about you and Ronnie?”

“Ronnie and I broke up.”

“Oh. Shit. I’m sorry.”

“We haven’t announced it yet. Don’t tell anyone, please.”

“I won’t,” I said. “Is it awkward on the show?”