Nessa laughed.

They spotted the right entrance.

“Guys!” they heard a voice call out from a few yards away.

Amina bounded toward them. “Wow! The snow!” she said, clearly still a bit nervous around them. Weather talk always meant someone was nervous.

“Want a noisemaker?” Erin held one out.

“Ooh, yes, please.” Amina took it.

“Don’t forget me!” Nessa put out her palm.

And as Sophie came on the intercom to say, “Guys? Is it you?” they all blew into the speaker, so loudly that probably the whole neighborhood could hear them.

51

SOPHIE

Her mom had cleaned the place like a fiend, and Sophie understood. But when her mom started dusting the lampshades, it was Sophie’s duty to stop her.

“Mom. Enough. Go take a nap or something!”

When the girls arrived, Sophie twirled as they entered. “My newest creation!”

She’d made a black dress out of a nightgown from the thrift store, an Audrey Hepburn thing, but with a frill on the bottom and trimmings of lace around the sleeves. She looked fantastic. Her muscles showed in it, but she was trying not to mind. It was hard. But she was trying.

“Awesome!” Nessa high-fived her.

“You are seriously talented,” Lara declared, and looked at her from all sides. “Well done!”

“Hannah begged to come see Bella, but she’s not allowed to stay up until midnight,” Eve told her. “You look so cool,” she added.

Sophie motioned Eve toward her and Bella’s bedroom and pointed inside. Bella lay spread out in her clothes on her bed, fast asleep.

“They’ll have to hang out sometime,” Sophie whispered. “You look awesome, by the way.” Sophie’s hand shot to cover her mouth, and she added, “Not that it matters what you wear!” She had a new rule for herself to make people’s looks one of the last things she ever pointed out. But Eve did look awesome. She wore her old black jeans like she used to, but her top, a lavender sweater, fit her just right.

“You look like”—Sophie thought for a moment to find the right word—“you.”

“Popcorn time!” Sophie’s mom yelled from the kitchen.

After an hour or so of sitting on the couch, half watching the lead-up to the ball drop, and chatting nonstop about the past three months, Sophie heard the buzzer.

She jumped up. “Got it!”

She opened the door a crack and watched him walk down the hallway toward her, his nose nearly purple from the cold.

“Hey. Don’t worry, you’re welcome here,” she made sure to tell him before he came in. “Join us!” She heard herself sound chirpier than ever. So embarrassing. But she was happy, she supposed. Maybe being happy made people chirpy.

“More friends?” she heard her mom say. “Where have you been hiding these people?”

Sophie shrugged and looked around at her very full apartment.

52

EVE

Winston stood in the doorway. She had known he would come, but it still felt strange to see him. She hadn’t seen him since he’d told her what he’d done, and she didn’t know if he would look different to her after that.