Page 4 of A Real Goode Time

“It would be much easier if my stupid pride would let me just call Lex for a plane ticket. Shit, I think her fiancé has his own jet. He could pick me up in style. Butnooo, I have to be all miss independent and shit.” I groaned. “I don’t know how to make it make sense to you guys…or even to myself. I just…I have to do it on my own.”

“I guess just look at it as, like, a spirit journey or something,” Jillie suggested.

“I’m not Native American,” I pointed out.

“Maybe it’s a gap year then,” Leighton said.

“What? A gap year fromnotgoing to college?”

“Okay, well, whatever. You’re doing it the stupid way, and we’ve done everything we can as your friends to get you to be smart about this. But I ran away from home at sixteen and I made it all right. Jillie was homeless for a whole year, and she’s okay. So I suppose you’ll probably be fine. Just check in every night at nine, no excuses.”

“I promise,” I said.

“Have you told Max?” Jillie asked, a few minutes later.

I groaned. “Shit. No, I haven’t.”

“Are you going to?”

“I dunno, I probably should, but I haven’t seen him for a couple of weeks,” I said.

“Are you ever going to sleep with him?” Leighton said.

“No, but I bet he wishes I would.”

Jillie rolled to lay on her side, head propped on her hand. “Why won’t you?”

I shrugged. “It was never going to be Max. I’ve known him since second grade. I know we, like, mess around, but it’s…I want to say platonic, but that’s not quite right. It’s fun. It’s messing around. But I’m not sleeping with him. If I was going to, I would have done it a long time ago.”

“That’s a weird situation, I have to say.” Leighton rolled onto her belly and stared at me. “So, random question.”

I laughed, because her random questions when stoned were usually good ones. “Okay, shoot.”

“So, would you ever say you and Max were dating?”

“No. No way.”

“And you never will?”

“Nope.”

She smirked at me. “So if I were to admit that I think he’s cute, and that I have little crush on him…what would you say?”

“Ley, are you serious?”

“You’re leaving.” She shrugged. “I’d never do anything with him if you said it would bother you. I just think he’s cute.”

“Heiscute,” I said. I considered her questions. “But he’s my best friend. Not in the same way you guys are my best friends. It’s different. He’s myoldestfriend, I guess that’s more accurate. But…if you were to date him, you’d sleep with him. And that would be kind of weird.”

“Why?”

“Because we’d both have intimate knowledge of his penis,” I said.

“You said you’ve never slept with him,” Jillie pointed out.

“No, I haven’t. But we mess around. All but sex, basically. Usually just…hands. And sometimes mouths. That’s it.”

“You’ve gone down on him?” Leighton asked, sitting up to face me.