There was only one problem: Olivia. June probably wouldn’t have minded her tagging along. But there was one thought sort of fizzing around near the back of my skull, in the place reserved for worst and most wicked of the lot: that maybe I didn’t want her to come after all.

I didn’t think of myself as that much of an ass, so I called her.

‘Hellooo,’ Olivia said à la Dory from Finding Nemo. ‘What’s up?’

‘Hey, so, June just called me.’

She gasped in a way that was so fucking annoying I wanted to scream. ‘Interesting. Do tell.’

‘Heath has this party tonight, I guess –’

‘I’ve heard about that! Do you remember when Alice Hannigan got pregnant? Pretty sure that’s where the baby was conceived.’

‘Oh, fantastic. Listen – June asked me if I wanted to come.’

‘Oh.’

‘Yeah.’

‘Does that mean you’re, you’re going? To the thing? That’s what you’re saying. Right?’

‘Well, yeah. I wanted to. But you could come with me if you want.’

‘Eh. I don’t think so. Miles is coming and I don’t really think that’s our kind of thing.’

‘OK. I mean, if you wanted, I don’t have to stay all the way until midnight. You know? I could still come to yours. Just later.’

Olivia was quiet for a moment. ‘Before midnight, though?’

‘Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Is that OK?’

‘Yeah, that’s OK. I’ll see you then. Ugh,’ she said, ‘my little girl is growing up.’

June pulled into the driveway one minute early. Everything was as if she were just picking me up for school, but today, I figured, was different; today, anything could happen, and something about that made my brainstem sizzle.

‘Happy New Year!’ June seemed hyper; she hummed along to the Bombay Bicycle Club song that played over the speakers. Something about her sparkled; she wore dark red lipstick and thin eyeliner and a beanie that made her hair look even bigger than normal because of how it protruded from underneath.

‘You’re in a good mood.’

‘What? I was excited to see you.’

My skin tingled.

She kept eye contact while putting the car in reverse, a mischievous sort of smirk on her face, then broke it to check her blind spot. ‘That’s the part where you’re supposed to say that you were excited to see me too.’

‘Is it?’ I had made the joke unintentionally; it really wasn’t a witty retort, I was just too nervous to say anything besides that. June laughed and replaced the lyrics to the song she was singing with ‘You’re an asshole’.

‘How are you?’ she asked. ‘How’s break been?’