The Bestie Card was this thing we made up the summer before sophomore year when Kavya started dating Lucy Braunstein. They met at the Y where Kavya taught swim lessons and they were inseparable. Lucy was Kavya’s first girl kiss, first boob touch, first all kinds of things before she moved away. But in order to experience all those firsts, it meant spending a lot of time with her and less time with me, so the Bestie Card was born. We can lay it on the table when we think we’re being left out of too many things, and it means we have to be included in at least two hangouts per week and make it a point not to make the single friend feel like the odd one out. It was really Kavya’s idea, and proof of what good a friend she is that she thought about me even when she was dating. She didn’t have to lay the Bestie Card on me until after prom last year, the night when Dominic and I had sex and became insufferably inseparable afterward. And to be honest, I didn’t think she’d lay it on me now seeing as how she’s been so off lately. But this might be her way of saying she wants to get back on, and I’m always down for that.

“Understood,” I say. “I’ll figure out something we can all do this week. And you’re totally invited to the bungalow for our next movie night.”

Kavya sucks air between her teeth. “Ooh, you’ve got it bad, don’t you?”

“What?”

“The Magnet.” She says it so profoundly I can hear the capital letters. “That feeling in your chest that physically pulls you, where you can’t not spend time with the person you love.”

I stop walking. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Nobody’s saying the L-word. The whole point of this is because I L-word somebody else. Dominic.”

“All I’m saying is, it seems like you’re spending a lot of time with someone you’re supposedly fake dating.” She says it through a laugh so I know she’s not getting all judgy on me, but I know she’s still serious about what she’s saying.

“Look, you’ve got this all wrong,” I say. “Ross is going home in a few weeks anyway. There’s nothing between us except just helping each other out.”

“Oh, I’m sure that’s what you’re doing,” she says. “Helping each other out.”

“Why is it that you’re always thinking about my sex life?”

“Hey, I just want my boy laid.”

Sometimes she has the most bro-ish delivery of her love.

“Okay, look, why don’t you come along with us after school tomorrow to the Walk of Fame. You can see firsthand there’s nothing real between me and Ross.”