After school Kori and I went outside to have a smoke. From where we were sitting we could see everything—the parking lot, the boys playing football, the girls playing cheerleader, the stands of aspens high on the mountain slopes. We were waiting for Mrs. Blakely to pick up Cole so we could bum a ride, but we weren’t optimistic. We hadn’t seen Cole at her locker, and her mom’s Mercedes SUV wasn’t waiting in front of the school. Not surprising, since Cole’s mom is a complete diva. If Mrs. B. has an appointment—nails, hair, Botox, colonic—she picks Cole up early, excusing her from supervised study. So the probability of our walking was always high.

Our backs were pressed against the massive river rock wall of what would soon be the new performing arts auditorium. Kori’s parents generously donated the funds to build it, which is a little insane, since Kori’s mother would never attend an event that didn’t require season tickets, ensuring her the best seats and a no-popcorn policy. And as for Kori’s father, seeing it among his tax deductions would be as close as he would ever be to it. He showed love with very large buildings that doubled as tax write-offs.

In fact, without him, Peak County Medical would be a mere regional clinic and not a full-service facility. I doubt my mother would even have a job. A lot of people wouldn’t. I think Mr. Kitzler likes to have that kind of power. It’s probably good that he’s more concerned about what the community thinks about him than what his own children do. Because with his latest donation, the community thought he was the most supportive father in all of Kismet. Maybe even the world.

It’s no wonder Kori so adamantly dismisses my father fetish— to her it’s all a crock. In a way, neither one of us had a father.

Maybe she was right that day in eighth grade. Maybe we were connected in ways I didn’t understand. And I may never know why she chose to become friends with me. But now our lives were so intertwined I didn’t know where I began or where she ended. I only knew that together we were both whole.

But even as close as we were, she had her secrets. She’d been acting odd all day and I was pretty sure it wasn’t drugs. I wondered again about the IM from the mysterious shaym. Wondered who would think I was her. But I wasn’t ready to ask her about it. Not yet.

Realizing how quiet Kori’d been, I looked over at her and caught her watching the cheerleaders. Her ex middle-school friends.