Page 21 of Try Hard
“But it is something,” she said, lighting up. I could only imagine how much she must love getting gossip out of her clients while they were on the tattoo table and feeling talkative. Sure, some people went quiet while they got tattooed, but I could imagine how much she must love the chatty ones.
I shook my head noncommittally. “I’m just… expecting a text.”
That felt too loaded. I’d tried to find a casual word but they’d all escaped me. I washoping fora text, dreaming of one, desperately praying to gods I didn’t believe in for a message, but that was all far too desperate to own up to.
“Who’s the text from?” she asked eagerly, clambering awkwardly over the footboard to sit cross legged on the bed.
“Ha, well. That’s the funny part. Do you remember Ophelia Pendrick from school?”
She stared at me like she couldn’t believe me, waiting a moment too long before she answered. “Oh, yeah, Fia, my peer mentor, the only person who believed in me in that place?”
“Hey! I believed in you!”
“I know that. You get what I’m saying.” She shook her head. “Yes, I remember Fia.”
Fia.It was odd. Soph must have referred to her like that over the years but I’d always just thought of her as Ophelia. Perhaps because I hadn’t had the pleasure of knowing her like Soph had? She’d never toldmeto call her Fia, so I wasn’t… what? Allowed? In with her?
In fairness, she still hadn’t told me to call her that. Her dad had, though, and she’d been right there, so I was counting it as a win. Even if I couldn’t quite suppress the stab of jealousy at Soph having been on the inside with her decades before I had.
I shook it off.
“Great,” I said, aiming for neutral, as if I hadn’t been fully aware that she remembered Fia and believed her to be a huge force behind her career. I was being so weird today. “Well, she happened to be there this morning.”
Soph let out an unexpected laugh, quick and sharp. “Fiawas plane spotting.”
“Mm, yeah.”
“Fia Pendrick?Are you sure?”
“No, Soph. I hallucinated a whole woman and just based her off someone we used to go to school with. Yes, I’m sure.”
She let out a whistle. “Definitely didn’t have her pegged as one of Dad’s weird plane buddies.”
“They’re not weird,” I protested, more concerned with defending Fia than the rest of them.
“They willingly choose to get up early on a Saturday. That’s weird.”
I relaxed. “Lots of people do that.”
“Yeah, and they’re all weird.”
“You just think anyone who isn’t you is weird.”
She laughed. “I don’t generally think Fia is weird.”
Something tensed in my stomach. “Do you… see her?”
“No.” She shook her head, monitoring me more closely than I wanted her to. “Not at all. I didn’t even think she still lived here, which is why I’m surprised she’s part of that group.”
“Oh. She’s not. Generally. She was just there today, like I was. She’s… visiting.”
“Oh.” Soph relaxed, adjusting her position to lie down on the bed, looking up at the ceiling. “Yeah, that makes more sense. She was always too cool for group events.”
The corners of my mouth turned up involuntarily. I’d long had that read on her too. However, after speaking to her today, I wondered whether Fia had any idea that she came off that cool?
“People change, you know?” I pointed out, unsure why. “She could be a totally different person now.”
Soph scoffed. “Please, people who are that awesome as teenagers don’t lose that spark later in life. She wasn’t cool likepeaked in high school.”
