Page 26 of Just Friends Forever
Lyla looks at me, her eyes lit up with humor. “Really?”
“Hey”—I point my spoon at Stevie—“I did that hairstylebeforeBieber.”
“He always says that.” Stevie gives a playful eye roll. “I almost told Justin that when I met him, you know.”
“Good!” I say. “Tell him he’s lucky I haven’t sued him.”
“You can’t trademark a hairstyle, Troy.”
“You’ve met Justin Bieber?” Lyla asks.
Stevie rubs her lips together like she’s regretting what she said. “Just once. Anyway, back to science class. We make the Oobleck, and I’m stirring it up. It gets firm when you put pressure on it, but I hadn’t gotten the hang of it yet. So, I stirred too forcefully and flicked some into Troy’s hair.”
“Oh, no,” Lyla says with wide eyes. “Not the hair.”
“Some?” I say incredulously. “It was a massive glob. The size of a football.”
“It wasnotthat much,” Stevie says. “But, as you can imagine, he almost lost his mind. I still remember the look on his face.” She meets my eyes, her own full of amused nostalgia. “It took a second for it to register. Then he felt his hair and booked it out of the classroom.”
“I had to do damage control,” I defend.
“I felt terrible, of course,” Stevie continues, “so I ran after him and found him at the drinking fountain, splashing water desperately onto his hair.”
“What was I supposed to do? The bathroom was blocked off for cleaning.”
“So,” Stevie says, “I spent the next ten minutes helping him get Oobleck out of his hair.” The edge of her mouth creeps up into a half-smile as she looks at me, and my heart rushes—just a little vestige of a bygone era. “I thought he was a crazy person until I got to know him better and realized his hair was his most prized possession.”
“Still true,” Lyla says. “And what did you think ofher?”
I study Stevie for a second. So much about her is the same as it was the day I met her. She’s taller, her face is slimmer, and she’s got more confidence. But those blue eyes haven’t changed a bit.
I thought she was the nicest, most beautiful person on the planet. “I thought she was trying to sabotage my first real shot at popularity.”
“Oh, come on,” Stevie says. “You did just fine in that department.”
“No thanks to your Oobleck attack.”
Shaking her head, she uses her spoon to crack the Magic Shell and take another bite. “It’s a miracle we became best friends after a beginning like that. You can see he still hasn’t forgiven me. But enough about that. How didyoutwo meet?”
I tense slightly. Stevie thinks Lyla is my official, bona fide girlfriend. I’m almost certain that’s why she agreed to come stay here in the first place, and I’m not eager to clarify the situation just now. It would complicate things between Stevie and meandLyla and me.
Lyla looks up at me and smiles. “We matched on a dating app.”
“A twenty-first century classic,” I say, trying not to listen to the voice in my head saying how lame our meeting sounds. It’s even lamer if you know the whole story, which no one does. For the last few years, I’ve gone through cycles of dating a lot, then not dating at all. I happened to be entering a new date-a-lot phase. Lyla was one of four girls I matched with that day. She was the first one who had an opening in her schedule.
She snuggles into me, and I try to lean into it even though it feels… weird. It should be normal to be close with the girl I’m dating in front of my best friend, especially since Stevie’s smiling at us.
“Well, I’m so glad you did,” she says. “And so happy to be able to meet you, Lyla.”
“Likewise, and I can tell Troy is completely thrilled to be hanging out with you again.” Her hand flies to my knee as she straightens. “Hey! This is perfect.” She turns toward Stevie. “You have lots of Hollywood connections, right?”
Stevie opens her mouth but doesn’t respond.
“Troy’s hoping to make it big in the real estate industry. Maybe you could connect him with some big clients.” She turns to me. “Can you imagine if you helped Justin Bieber buy a house? The commission on that place…”
Every organ is squirming inside me right now.
Stevie looks at me, the smile she’s wearing barely hanging on. She looks almost… betrayed. And a little tired.
