Page 120 of 16 Forever

“Yo, shut up!” Bodhi says. I realize he’s talking into his headset microphone. “I need another minute!” He shakes his head. “Sorry, Carter. Amir and Robbie are whining at me. I should go in a sec. You can join us if you want!”

“Thanks,” I say. “But I was actually thinking...”

“Yeah?”

“I might take that job at Scoops.”

Bodhi screams with joy so loudly, the sound glitches out for a second.

August.

Maggie

“My dad got choked up while we were at the fricking Container Store,” Shana says, turning us onto Route 81.

“Yikes,” Ember says. They’re sitting shotgun with their hand out the window, feeling the breeze on this humid afternoon. “That’s sweet, though.”

“It wasn’t, it was disturbing,” Shana says. “He’s, like, standing there holding a shower caddy and silently convulsing. I’m like, ‘Dad, what is happening?’ He’s like, ‘I’m fine, I’m fine.’ I’m like, ‘Are you? You’re silently convulsing.’ And he’s like, ‘I just can’t believe my little girl is going to college,’ and I’m like, ‘Can we talk about this literally any other time but now?’”

I laugh from the back seat. The three of us have been doing drives like this all summer—roaming around with no specific destination, cracking each other up, singing along to MUNA at the top of our lungs—and I love it. Nothing’s been better at getting my mind off you-know-who.

But soon this, too, will be done. Ember leaves for Berklee College of Music at the end of this week, then Shana’s off to the University of Michigan two days after that, and then the next day, I go to Delaware.

“I’m kind of scared,” Ember says. “To go.”

“Kind of?” Shana says. “I’mterrified.”

“Same,” I say. I always feel like a child when I’m sitting back here, like Shana and Ember are my parents and I’m trying to gettheir approval. But Iamterrified to go to college. Also excited. And sad. Like Shana’s dad. “We’re still gonna talk and stuff, though, right?”

“Hell yeah, we will,” Shana says. “Lots of talk and lots of stuff.”

“Teela thinks I’m gonna kiss someone else as soon as I get there,” Ember says.

“Will you?” I ask.

“I don’tthinkso,” Ember says. “I mean, that’s not my plan. I want to stay together with her.”

“Tell Teela she must be thinking ofme,” Shana says. “I’m gonna kisseverybody.”

“That sounds unhygienic,” I say.

Shana shrugs. “Possibly.”

I look out the window and see that we’re turning into the parking lot of the Old Valley Shopping Center.

“Why are we here?” I ask, trying not to panic. “You need more earbuds from Tech Haven?”

“Nope,” Shana says. “I thought maybe we could get some... ice cream.” She looks back at me with a devilish grin.

“Oh god, what? No.” Scoops ’n’ Sprinkles is in this shopping center. And apparently Carter works there again.

“I’m sorry, Maggie, my dear,” Shana says as stores blur by and we get closer to the place I must avoid. “But you have been a wreck about this all summer. Don’t you think you could use some proper closure? See him one last time before you go?”

“Shane, he hates me,” I say. “So, no, I don’t think that’s necessary.”

“He doesn’thateyou,” Shana says. “There’s no way.”

“Agreed,” Ember says.