I blush. "I'm really sorry I'm late." I quickly fill them in on my two meetings and Liz roars when I tell her about the song TJ had me sing. My bad mood vanishes. It feels good to see Liz, even if we do have company.

"Oh, Kates, that's priceless! You must be ready to kill your mom."

"I was, but she feels pretty guilty," I admit. "She even gave me her credit card to go shopping."

"Then she definitely feels guilty." Liz laughs.

I glance at Mikayla. I probably shouldn't say too much more about my mom or about work in front of her. I know Liz likes Mikayla, but I don't know this girl. I've learned the hard way that I need to be careful who I say things in front of. "I guess the card will come in handy," I say. "I have to get a new clutch for the Vanity Fair Oscar party."

Liz's jaw drops. "You're joking! How did you score an invitation?"

"Laney got me in," I say giddily. "Austin has a scrimmage out of town so I was hoping you'd be my plus-one. What do you say?"

Liz grimaces. "Oh, Kates, I can't. I'm going to be on the east coast. Daddy is taking me to look at a few backup schools. He doesn't want me to pin all my hopes on NYU. Mikayla offered to check them out with me since she'll be back at NYU by then."

"I know finding backup schools are important," I say gingerly, trying not to be too self-conscious, even though I know Mikayla's eyes are on me, "but isn't there plenty of time for that? Do you have to go to New York that weekend? Lizzie, we've wanted to go to the Vanity Fair party since we were twelve!"

"I know," Liz says regretfully, "but Dad already took the weekend off to go with me and Mikayla cleared her schedule. I can't cancel. I'll go with you next year." She gives me a small smile.

"Sure." I try not to look too upset. If there was one thing I thought Liz would say yes to, it was this party. Suddenly I feel like the girl I'm sitting across from is a stranger. We hardly talk anymore and she's planning trips and making summer plans without me. What's happened to us?

The silence is awkward. I decide to change the subject. "So tell me more about how you two met."

Mikayla's face lights up and she and Liz look at each other and giggle. "I was windsurfing and Liz walked over and said she'd never windsurfed before and she wanted to try it. The resort only had one board, so we had to take turns." Mikayla's green eyes are wide. "I didn't tell Liz I learned how to windsurf that morning so I was just as bad as she was."

Liz laughs. "The two of us kept falling off and bashing our knees. We were so bruised up after an hour that we gave up and went to the spa instead."