Chapters (93)
- Cover
- Dedication
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- Thirty-Nine
- Forty
- Forty-One
- Forty-Two
- Forty-Three
- Forty-Four
- Forty-Five
- Forty-Six
- Forty-Seven
- Forty-Eight
- Forty-Nine
- Fifty
- Fifty-One
- Fifty-Two
- Fifty-Three
- Fifty-Four
- Fifty-Five
- Fifty-Six
- Fifty-Seven
- Fifty-Eight
- Fifty-Nine
- Sixty
- Sixty-One
- Sixty-Two
- Sixty-Three
- Sixty-Four
- Sixty-Five
- Sixty-Six
- Sixty-Seven
- Sixty-Eight
- Sixty-Nine
- Seventy
- Seventy-One
- Seventy-Two
- Seventy-Three
- Seventy-Four
- Seventy-Five
- Seventy-Six
- Seventy-Seven
- Seventy-Eight
- Seventy-Nine
- Eighty
- Eighty-One
- Eighty-Two
- Eighty-Three
- Eighty-Four
- Eighty-Five
- Author’s Note
- Acknowledgments
- About the Author
- Books by Kelly Yang
- Back Ad
- About the Publisher
Jess smiles mischievously and walks over to Emma’s box of condoms. “No, but I did discover these!” She opens the box. “Thank God you finally popped your cherry,” she says. “But seriously, Claire, these are so cheap. I’ll get you some better ones from Japan. The Kimono MicroThins? They won the Oscars of condoms.”
There’s an Oscars of condoms? I chuckle. “Thanks, but they’re not mine,” I say, putting away the box.
Jess looks confused. “What do you mean? You and Jay still haven’t had sex?”
I don’t say anything.
Jess’s jaw drops. “What’s wrong? He can’t get it up?” she presses.
“No! It’s not that!”
“Then what is it?”
“I thought you came here to study,” I say.
Jess plops herself down on my bed. “Claire, you’re dating the hottest guy in school. And he’s crazy for you.” She looks at me and asks gently, “Is it the other girls on his phone?”
That certainly doesn’t help. I walk over and look out the window.
“I know it’s hard, but you’re going to have to trust him. Those girls are in the past.”
Jess’s phone dings, as does mine. We both look down at the urgent message from Nancy.
HELP! My parents saw my Insta!
Jess speeds over to Nancy’s host’s house on the other side of town. Florence meets us at Nancy’s. We find her sitting on her bed next to a fortress of handbags, which she appears to be categorizing with her laptop. She puts down her laptop when she sees us.
“Hey,” we say to her, taking a seat next to her on her bed. Nancy looks up and clutches an LV bag as she cries. “My parents got a VPN to go on Instagram. When they saw my posts, they flipped out. ‘This is what we’re paying forty thousand US dollars plus room and board for?’ they said,” she wails. “They called me an ungrateful piece of American trash!”
Jess tries to calm her down. “Did you explain to your parents it’s all just a way to get followers and when we get enough, we’ll delete all our posts and start fresh? But we’ll still have the followers? We need at least 20k to be influencers!”
Nancy rubs her eyes. “My parents don’t know what that means. They’re not like your guys’ parents.” A tear falls onto her LV bag, and she quickly dries it with her hand. “I don’t come from a lot of money. My parents left me with my grandparents when I was four years old to go to Beijing to work. They took out a billion loans just to send me here.”
Jess, Florence, and I look at each other. “But what about all your clothes? All your bags?”