So there was jealousy there, and since she had no idea how to combat it, Lauren never addressed it. But it got worse when Lauren started dating Josh. And hey. Josh was perfect and beautiful and everything a person could ever want in a partner. Lauren understood. She believed every woman and gay man on earth would want Josh as a husband. Sarah had a tendency to fall in love fast and hard, and then be dropped. Lauren had asked her to be her bridesmaid, the only one other than Jen. And Sarah had smiled grimly through all wedding stuff, but Lauren knew she was envious.

But whatever competitiveness Sarah had felt melted at Lauren’s diagnosis, and truly, she couldn’t have been a better friend. She came over at least twice a week, and they went out if Lauren felt up to it. Most importantly, Sarah treated Lauren like a normal person. Unlike, say, Mean Debi, who seemed to think that having a sick friend gave her some sort of special status on social media, because she posted about Lauren constantly. Thoughts and prayers to one of my dearest friends, who is bravely battling IFP. Not that Mean Debi ever did anything helpful or kind, mind you. She couldn’t even get the initials of Lauren’s disease right.

Whatever. Sarah had really come through, and she was fun and pretty and hardworking. It would be nice, she thought, to look down from heaven and see the person she loved best in the world married to her oldest friend. It would be great. It would be lovely.

Pebbles whined, cocking her head to look up at her mistress. “Nothing to see here,” she whispered. The dog jumped up on her lap and licked away her tears.

14

Joshua

Month four

June