I raised a finger at him. “Swear to God, Lee, this never happens again. You can talk to me about any of this, you know that, but don’t be like you were last night.”
“Cross my heart.”
I stood up, and Lee was hugging me tight, practically tackling me, before I was even standing straight. All the weeks of not really seeing him and all the tension that had built up between us evaporated, and he clung to me just as tightly as I clung to him. He sniffed.
“Are you smelling my hair?”
“No, I’m trying not to cry.”
I laughed, burying my head in his shoulder in return. I was still kind of mad, but at least he’d talked to me. And he was sorry. That counted for something.
Besides, if you couldn’t forgive your best friend when they were trying not to cry, could you really consider yourselves best friends?
“Did you have a good time at the party at least?” I asked him when we finally broke apart. “Aside from pissing all of us off?”
“It wasn’t my finest hour. I broke a vase, missed my curfew, and almost ruined my friendship with you. And I threw up on someone’s car.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah…and I’m sorry I ruined your night, too. I know you left early because of me.”
“Did Levi tell you that?”
Lee nodded, then changed the subject, clearly done with talking about himself now. “You two seem like pretty good friends. It’s good. You know, as long as he’s not trying to take my position as best friend, then it’s good,” he added with an imitation of the impish grin that made him look much more like the Lee I knew. “I just mean, because I haven’t been spending time with you and because Noah’s not here, and it’s good that you’ve got someone. I worry about you sometimes, Shelly. Like, Rachel’s got drama club, but you’re like…”
“Not talented enough to join in with any extracurriculars like drama club?”
“That’s not what I was gonna say.”
“True, though.”
“You could join track. Maybe not volleyball, but you’d be decent at track.”
“Sure, maybe. Wouldn’t hurt to put something else on my college application.”
Lee rolled his eyes. “You and those goddamn college applications. Speaking of…Look, Brown isn’t just about Rachel. It’s where my dad went, too. And you could apply. Your grades are even better than mine. We could all go to Brown.”
“Maybe.”
“And I’m not…I’m not picking her, you know? I don’t mean to, anyway. But all the guys said how she must find it weird, with me being so close with you, and that I should make more of an effort with Rachel, and…”
“Did Warren tell you that?”
Lee pulled a face.
“Warren is single and an idiot. But…I get it.” I hated to admit it, but I did get why he was worried about that. “If you don’t fix that, though, Lee, I will. I’ll make a damn roster for you if I have to. We’ll share custody of you on the weekends. I’ll see you every Tuesday night.”
He laughed. “I’ll figure it out.”
Then there was a shout up the staircase: “Kids! Dinner’s on the table!” And the conversation was over. But another one started up just as quickly, less serious and more like old times, both of us joking and teasing each other, and his arm bumped against mine as we walked downstairs.
It was good to have Lee back.