Page 31 of One Last Time

“Girl! We’ve missed you!”

“You saw me, like,daysago at graduation.”

Olivia giggled, hiccupping, and I realized they were already a little tipsy—which probably explained the hugging.

Faith, meanwhile, was looking around with wide eyes and saying, “Oh my God, Elle, this place is…it’s so…quaint?”

“Cozy,” Olivia supplied.

Faith nodded. “Totally charming. But you guys have it all to yourselves! That’s so killer.”

“Yo, Liv, you want your shoes back or what?”

The three of us looked to see Jon Fletcher, a guy from the football team, climbing up the porch. He had someone with him I didn’t recognize. He waved a pair of bright pink sandals with cork wedges from the end of his finger, a case of beer tucked under his other arm.

“Ooh! Oh yeah!” Olivia turned to take them off him, throwing herself onto the creaking porch bench to pull them back on. “They’re cute as hell, but myGodare they impossible to walk in,” she told me, teetering as she got up and almost falling into Faith with another giggle.

“Hey, Elle.” His hand now free, Jon greeted me with a high five and a grin. He glanced past me, raising his hand in a wave. “Lee! Hey, man!”

“Fletcher!” Lee yelled back. He slung his arm around my shoulders, and a little beer sloshed out of his open can. “Good to see you.”

“Oh, hey, this”—Jon stepped back, nodding at the guy beside him—“this is our new buddy, Ashton. Hope you don’t mind we brought him along.”

“This place is packed,” I said, smiling at the new guy. “What’s one more?”

There was somethingweirdabout Ashton, though, and I couldn’t put my finger on it until the four of them came inside and he ended up standing next to Lee.

They lookedfreakishlyalike. Although, where Lee was dark-haired, Ashton was a sandy blond. He was skinnier, too.

He was wearing jeans, a green hoodie, and a Berkeley cap.

Which Lee had just noticed, too. He pointed at it and said, “Good to meet you, buddy. I’m Lee. So, you a Berkeley guy?”

“Just finished my freshman year,” Ashton told him with a wide grin and bright eyes.

There was an uncanny resemblance when they smiled like that. They had the same kind of zeal in their expression.

“Dude! No way!” Lee exclaimed, grabbing his shoulder. “I start in the fall. I have, like, a million questions.”

Immediately, I got a pang somewhere in my chest. Something horribly like jealousy. My own welcoming smile stiffened into a grimace.

Ashton laughed, oblivious to my reaction. “Fire away.”

“C’mon, we’ll get you a beer.” Lee drew him to the kitchen and I stood there, stomach sinking, feeling forgotten. Just a little bit.

No. No, this was a good thing. If I was ditching Lee to give up on our joint dream of Berkeley to go to Harvard instead, it was good that Lee had found someone he’d know at Berkeley. This was a good thing. A brilliant thing. I was excited for him to make a new friend.

(Was this how Lee felt when I told him about Harvard?)

The door opened again, commotion outside, and it was a welcome distraction.

Oliver, Cam, Dixon, and Warren all piled indoors, laughing at some joke. They spotted me instantly, shouting my name. Cam pulled me into a hug and Warren proffered a bottle of wine.

“Compliments of my big sister,” he said.

“Ooh! Classy! Thank you.”

I moved to take it but he pulled it back. “No, no. It’s not for you.” He thought for a second, already working to get it open. “Okay, Evans. You can share it. But only because I like you. And because I need you to open it for me.”