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“Cravings, of course.” She rolls her eyes. The mood feels instantly lighter, and I feel better now. “My turn to ask a question! Is Taylor Swift the only music artist you listen to? Because that’s the only thing that’s played this entire ride.”

“Listen, Taylor’s Folklore album is the best for this kind of foggy fall weather,” I exclaim, throwing my hands up in protest. “What would you turn on, given a situation wherein I give you aux?”

“Definitely Clairo or Noah Kahan, if we’re staying in this weathergenre.”

An easy smile creeps onto her lightened face as she talks about her musical interests. I can’t help but stare.

“Interesting…” I smirk at her jokingly and she laughs again, her laugh just as bellowy as that first day in class.

Her laughter relaxes me. Maybe she was just tired. Maybe I didn’t mess up too badly after all.

“You’re interesting,” Drew says, sounding the most genuine I’ve ever heard someone be.

Her words send jitters through my body, and I shift in my seat in an attempt to hide it. Something about the way she says “you’re” makes me believe she truly means it. But what exactly does she find interesting about me? Does she think of me the way I thought of her the other night at the playground?

Whatever she means by it doesn’t matter, though, because whatever I felt for her then needs to be shut down. It was too intense. Too intense for a girl to think about another girl like that. Girls who are supposed to be friends, or, trying to at least.

******

We pull into the driveway of the cabin, and the ground is damp as I step onto fallen orange and red leaves. The building is a quaint A-frame perched perfectly on top of a hill. There’s still mist in the humid air, giving the wooden log walls of the cabin a darker look.

The interior has the same cozy feel as the exterior did, with frames hung along the walls of cheesy lake quotes and fluffy sherpa blankets laid carefully along the tops of the couches. There’s a kitchen to the left, and a small living room area straight ahead with board games and playing cards stacked haphazardly around the room. Atop the loveseat in the foyer sit two perfectlyfluffed pillows that read, “lake vibes.”Somillennial. I roll my eyes and chuckle to myself.

Drew comes to join me over by the loveseat and scoffs. She must have thought the same as I did.

“Okay, girls, so around the corner, there is the master bedroom. You’ll be staying there. Marissa and I will be in the room upstairs.” Drew’s mother, Anne, guides us to the master bedroom, then leaves to set her bags in the upstairs room with my mother.

They gave us the master bedroom? Don’t the adults usually get the

“Uh, Laine?” Drew nudges my elbow as we walk into the room to set our bags down, interrupting my stream of thoughts.

Of course, the master bedroom has only one bed. Why didn’t that click in my head earlier? Our mothers took the upstairs room because it had two beds.

“You know, that loveseat out there looked really comfy. I don’t mind sleeping there. Let me just set my bags down in here.” Drew scrambles, setting her duffle bag down in the corner of the room.

“No, it’s okay, you stay here. I’ll take the loveseat.” I wave my hand, turning toward the door.

“Wait, no! You’re taller.”

I turn back and stare at her, racking my brain for another excuse. I have none.

“You know what, this bed looks like a king. We can definitely both fit if we stay on our sides. I think there’s even room for a pillow barrier in between.” Drew suggests.

“Oh… right.”

Why, universe? Why??

I walk over to the closet in search of extra pillows, but there is nothing in there except for an extra quilt thatlooks uncharacteristically scratchy for the style of this cabin. Annoyance now clearly showing on my face, I march over to the bed and start shuffling the sheets around. I then go to look underneath the bed, only to find nothing but a dirty dryer ball.

“Hey, hey! Calm down. I don’t think there’ll be any extra pillows under the sheets or the actual bed. If they weren’t in the closet, then there probably aren’t any more besides the two on the bed right now.”

Drew storms over to where I’m standing and rests a hand on my shoulder. “We can go a few nights without a lesbian prevention guard.”

Slight panic ensues inside of me. I don’t know whether I’m freaked out over whether she’s a lesbian, thinks I am, or because I know my mother wouldn’t want that for either of us.

I can tell she senses the panic on my face when she adds, “Relax, I’m joking.”

My heart slows to a steady pace, and my vision unblurs, trying to shake the thought from my head.