Page 68 of Betting on the Best Friend
I swat at her. “Joey has done a good job of turning you into a hugger, so well done to you, Ava, but get off of me. Saying it sweetly doesn’t mean you get to be rude.”
Ava only squeezes harder. “Not rude. Scientific observation.”
“Go away,” I say, but I reach up to hug her back.
“Push and pull,” Sami mutters, and she has that look in her eye. The songwriting look. “Push and pull, you say up is down, but I didn’t ask for a party clown.”
Madison pats Sami’s arm. “Maybe not your best?”
“Also rude,” I tell her. “I’m not a clown.”
But she’s already pulled out her phone, and we all know she’s tapping it into her notes to work on later.
“Somebody talk,” I order. “Why don’t any of you want me to date Charlie?”
Madison sighs. “He’s our favorite too. We figured a breakup would be messy, and it is.”
Ava returns to the sofa with a nod. “Basically.”
“Why would you assume we would break up? And more importantly, this isn’t a break up. This is . . . a rough patch.”
“You know what we mean,” Madison says. “It’s notnota breakup, either, and—”
“It’s not a breakup!”
“—we want custody of both of you, so it’s awkward,” she continues like I didn’t interrupt. “But we’ll figure out how to deal with it.”
“I thought you were all here to supportme,” I protest.
“That’s what I meant.” But her face doesn’t mean it, so I throw a pillow at it.
“The point is,” Ava says, “you’re sad and it makes us unhappy, and we want to know how to help.”
“That.” Sami snaps and points at Ava without looking up from her phone then goes back to mumbling. “Don’t need a clown because I wear a crown, but as gesture I’ll make you court jester . . .”
We all look at each other, and Madison grimaces. We all decide to leave it alone. Sami would never let that make it off her phone.
I burrow into the armchair. “I need to be distracted. That’s the main thing. Take me back as your third wheel. Invite me to everything all the time.”
Ava says, “You need a hobby. It’s bad when you have too much free time.”
Sami looks up. “So bad. Rearrange-everyone-else’s-lives bad.”
“World-domination bad,” Madison adds.
“Dramatic much?” I ask.
“NO,” they all say.
I’ve never had an impromptu choir performance hurt my feelings so much.
“We better keep going with the dating bet,” Madison says, turning to the other two. “That’ll keep her busy.”
I grunt. The whole idea has lost the minor appeal it ever had.
“You just want to win,” Sami says.
“No, Madi has a point.” Ava enters the debate about me to which I’m not invited. “It’s one of the easiest ways to keep her busy, and if we find her the right guy, that’s a great distraction.”
