Page 59 of Poinsettia Lane

“About that aspirin?” Frankie’s voice is still muffled, and very cranky.

Everly doesn’t blame them if they’re feeling even half as bad as she is right now. She’s absolutely never drinking again.

Everly heaves herself out of bed, stumbling to the bathroom with her eyes closed and hands outstretched in front of her, then fumbling in the medicine cabinet until she finds the right bottle. She shakes a few pills into her hand and dips her mouth under the faucet to suck upsome water like a classless heathen, then brings the other two to Frankie, shooting them a glare when they tell her to shhh.

She wasn’t even being loud.

Clearly, the alcohol was too much for both of them last night. Everly doesn’t have the foggiest idea how they ended up in her bedroom, but it’s better than waking up on the patio or couch. Hopefully Frankie isn’t too stiff from the floor.

“Do you want me to call you a ride?” Everly whispers, picking her phone up again. She taps the screen, then remembers it’s not turning on and flings it back down. “Dead. Never mind, you’re your own.”

Everly turns back to the bathroom and strips out of her pajamas. By the time she steps out of the steamy shower and brushes the cottony gunk from her mouth, the aspirin has kicked in and she’s feeling marginally better. She pulls on her robe after hesitating for a split second when reaching for it, trying her best not to think about Asim wearing it, and wanders downstairs for some tea. She hears the guest shower running, and Frankie walks out in a pair of her sweats a few minutes later.

“Coffee," they mutter, then flop onto a barstool at the counter and lay their head on their forearms.

Everly starts the coffee machine, having already prepared it in anticipation of the request. Frankie is the only reason she even has one; they can’t function without their morning fix. Now would be a very bad time to not give Frankie their coffee.

When they’ve both recovered a bit and nibbled on some food, a slice of plain wheat bread for Everly, not even toasted, and cold, leftover pizza for Frankie, her friend breaks the silence.

“I know why I got hammered last night. Pretty sure I ranted to you about it for at least an hour. But why the hell did you drink so much?”

Everly knew it was coming. She still doesn’t want to acknowledge it, though. Steam from her mug curls in front of her face as she takes a fortifying breath.

“I haven’t heard from Asim.”

“What does that even mean," Frankie says it as a statement rather than a question, their voice muffled bythe hoodie sleeve from laying their head back down on their arms.

“I mean, he stopped texting me. He was short with me for a couple days, and then once the landscaping was done, he just ghosted me. I haven’t heard anything since.”

“Wait, for real?” Frankie picks their head up and looks at her directly for the first time all morning.

“Yeah. For real.” Everly flattens her lips, eyes on her finger tracing the fine lines in the marble countertop in front of her. They look like cracks. It looks how her heart feels. “I don’t know what happened. Things were good. Great, I thought.”

“Nothing happened?”

“Nothing happened.”

“But… you two totally hit it off. I could tell. You didn’t talk to me for days. That has never happened, and then when I did see you… You were happy. Like. Happy, happy.” Frankie’s brows are furrowed.

Everly doesn’t reply. She doesn’t have anything to say. She was happy. She was really happy, and she fell for him. Hard.

“Is this real.” Again, Frankie says it as a statement rather than a question, almost accusatory.

“Yes,” Everly sighs, “unfortunately, this is very real.”

Frankie looks away and squints their eyes, staring into the distance. They sit in silence for an eternity, and Everly can no longer hold back the swirling thoughts.

She wonders if she did something to turn him off. She thinks back to all the time they spent together, inspecting every moment for a mistake, a misstep, something she said or did, or didn’t say or do that she should have. She even has the thought that it was because they didn’t sleep together, but she dismisses that one. That was entirely on him, not her. He was the one putting the brakes on when Everly was ready to strip him naked in the desert. That’s when the most mortifying thought so far crosses her mind. Maybe he didn’t want to sleep with her, or maybe he felt pressured. Now she’s wondering if she made him uncomfortable or if he thought she expected or wanted certain things he wasn’t willing or able to give. As the chaos starts to spin out ofcontrol, Frankie interrupts her inner turmoil.

“Nah. I don’t believe it," Frankie says. It takes Everly a moment to catch up. She thinks for a second she had said her thoughts out loud, but then realizes Frankie is referring back to their earlier conversation. “Something must have happened.”

“Nothing happened. I’ve been spinning every moment over and over in my head, and I can’t find anything. Nothing happened, Frankie.”

“Not between you two,” her friend says, exasperated Everly isn’t somehow on the same wavelength as them. “I bet something happened on his end. Maybe a family thing, isn’t he close with his family? Or something, there has to besomething.” Their words taper off, and Everly cocks her head.

She hadn’t thought of that possibility. She can’t think of anything she did wrong, so maybe shedidn’tdo anything wrong. Enormous relief fills her lungs for the first time in days.

Maybe it’s not her fault.

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