BooksBarbecue
Back When We Were Friends
Chapters (52)
  1. Cover
  2. Praise
  3. Dedication
  4. About the Author
  5. 31
  6. 14
  7. 31
  8. 14
  9. 31
  10. 14
  11. 31
  12. 14
  13. 31
  14. 15
  15. 31
  16. 16
  17. 32
  18. 16
  19. 32
  20. 17
  21. 32
  22. 17
  23. 32
  24. 17
  25. 32
  26. 17
  27. 32
  28. 18
  29. 32
  30. 18
  31. 32
  32. 18
  33. 32
  34. 18
  35. 32
  36. 18
  37. 32
  38. 18
  39. 32
  40. 18
  41. 32
  42. 18
  43. 32
  44. 18
  45. 32
  46. 32
  47. 33
  48. 33
  49. 33
  50. Acknowledgments
  51. Discussion Questions
  52. Booklist

So, it was great to know I was still pathetic and unfanciable at college too. I was at my first college party, hosted by this girl Georgina, and couldn’t believe my bucket hat wasn’t having the desired effect of total sexual magnetism. I sat with my back to the wall, nursing a bottle of beer I didn’t like the taste of, watching a collection of my peers lie on top of each other in various corners of the party, tongue kissing. Yet, not me. Never me. Not even with my new hat. This was not how college was supposed to go. A groan echoed out to my right over the thrash metal, and I wasn’t sure where to look. All around me were displays of public sexual experimentation, just not involving me. I wore a long-sleeved fishnet top to blend my scars, over a clingy vest top, with poker straight hair and loads of eye makeup. And I didn’t look half bad, you know. But try telling that to all the boys determinedly sexually rejecting me.

“Shall we go to the kitchen?” Jade, my new college friend, whispered. “It’s starting to get weird in here.”

“Yes!”

We tiptoed around the moving lumps into the empty kitchen where the music level made conversation possible. The place was littered with empties from earlier. One can was on its side, dripping beer onto Georgina’s parents’ laminate floor. Jade ignored the mess and opened another bottle of beer, handing me one too.

“Thank God you came with me,” she said, wiping her mouth.

“I don’t get it,” I replied. “Like, one minute it was a normal party and then everyone decided just to...rub on each other.”

Jade laughed. “Rub on each other. I love it.”

I smiled at her, letting a new bond form. Jade had been a surprisingly welcome addition to my college experiment. Coincidently, we’d gone to the same Brownies as kids and been super close. This September, after eagerly counting down to the start of college, Jessica and I were pretty overwhelmed when we’d rocked up on orientation day. There were just so many people we didn’t know. We stood around, wondering who the hell to talk to, and how, and contemplating, briefly, if instead we should’ve stayed in the sanctuary of our old school’s sixth form. Then Jade’s familiar-but-older face had found us, and she broke into a smile, pushing through the strange crowd to get to me.

“Oh my, Fern. It’s been forever! How are you? Someone I know. Amazing.”