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“Sorry,” Sha
Mrs. Appleby shook her head and stepped aside to let us pass. “She’s in her room.”
We thanked her and crept over to Chloe’s door. She still had the white placard with the painted ballet toe-shoe on it and the words “Chloe’s Room” written in pink script. Sha
For a second, we just froze. I looked at Faith. She looked at Sha
“Surprise!”
Chloe dropped the book. “You guys! What are you doing here?”
“We brought snacks!” Faith a
“And movies!” Sha
Chloe pushed herself up from her chair with both hands, the book forgotten. “I can’t believe this!” she said, eyeing the booty we’d splayed across her bed. When she looked at us, her eyes were shining. “It’s just like old times.”
“That’s kind of the point,” Faith told her, rolling her eyes in an amused way. She walked around to Chloe’s side of the four-poster bed. “Now get up there so I can start your toes. I bet your feet are gnarly.”
“I’m not sure, actually. I haven’t seen them in a while,” Chloe said, struggling her way onto her bed.
Sha
“Pink or red?” Faith asked, settling herself in at Chloe’s feet and opening her nail kit. Inside, a dozen shades of polish were lined up neatly on tiny shelves, while the bottom well was filled with cotton balls, swabs, tweezers, cuticle pushers, clippers, and files.
“Got anything with glitter?” Chloe asked, craning her neck to see. “This baby’s go
“Got it.” Faith lifted a bottle of hot pink polish with glitter. “But first, we work on these heels. Because ew.”
Chloe blushed and I tried to refrain from smacking Faith upside the head.
“Want a present?” Sha
“What do you think?” Chloe asked, reaching into the chip bag.
Sha
“Perfect after a pedicure,” I said, handing her a lemonade.
“You got 17 Again?” Chloe asked, her mouth dropping as Zac Efron appeared on the menu screen.
“A classic,” I conceded.
“It’s my favorite,” Chloe said.
Sha
The movie started up and Chloe looked down at her belly, where she’d laid out her new socks, and at the bottle of lemonade in her hand, while Faith rubbed peppermint lotion on her feet.
“You guys?” Chloe said, her voice cracking.
My heart froze. Please don’t let her cry. The whole point of this night was to cheer her up, not to make her cry.
“Yeah?” Sha
“Is it lame that this is the best night I’ve had in months?” Chloe asked.
The rest of us laughed. “Don’t get ahead of yourself,” I said. “We could still disappoint you.”
Chloe leaned back into her pillows and let out a contented sigh. “Yeah, I just don’t think that’s possible.”
ally
“I’m so bummed. This is the second year in a row I’m going to be dateless for Valentine’s Day,” Faith lamented, spearing a bright red tomato in the center of her salad, her head held up by her free hand.
“Remember when we used to do Guys Suck Day?” A
“Omigod, yeah. That was so much fun,” Faith said.
I looked back and forth between the two of them and held my breath. A
“What’s Guys Suck Day?” Sha
A
“Oh, nothing,” Faith said, grabbing for her soda.
“It was stupid,” A
“Does it involve hating on guys on Valentine’s Day?” Sha
Faith cleared her throat and looked down, rubbing her hands together under the table as she glanced around for a change of topic. Her eyes finally fell on Jake, who sat at the end of the table, catty-corner from her and me, scarfing his own double burger.
“What about you, Jake? What are you guys doing for V-Day this weekend?” she asked.
Jake didn’t answer. He was too busy glaring toward the food line, his latest bite of burger bulging inside his right cheek. I tilted my head and leaned out into the aisle to see what he was looking at and spotted Chloe and Will. My heart sunk. Of course.
“I haven’t even thought about Valentine’s Day,” I said, filling the awkward silence. “I just want to get through the game tonight.”
“Nervous ’cause your new coach is coming?” Sha
I glanced sideways at Jake. He was still glaring.
“Well, that and it is the Valley game,” I replied. “We must beat them down.”
“I heard that,” Sha
“Great. Basketball. Rah, rah, rah,” Faith said facetiously. “But no one has answered my question.” Everyone looked at Jake. There was no indication that he even knew any of us were there, let alone talking.
“Ja-ake!” Faith sang. She reached out and snapped her thin fingers in front of his face.
“What?” A couple of sesame seeds flew out of his mouth and she grimaced.
“I said, what are you guys doing for Valentine’s Day?” Faith asked again.
I held my breath, curious to hear his answer. Chloe and Will started to make their way down the aisle. He held their shared tray with one hand and clutched her fingers with the other.
“Oh, um—”
Just that one second of hesitation made my stomach flip.
“We don’t have a plan,” I interjected, feeling embarrassed.
“No. We do,” he said, putting his burger down on his tray. He dusted his fingers and reached for his soda cup. “We have plans, you just don’t know what they are.”
“Really?” I said, shocked. Jake hadn’t mentioned Valentine’s Day once, and I’d started to think that he was too wrapped up in his anti-Chloe obsession to plan anything. Plus things hadn’t been great between us lately, with his moodiness and my irritation over the way he’d been treating Chloe. I figured maybe he wasn’t interested. “You pla