I throw up my hands. “Whatever. It’s done. I don’t want to argue.”
She drops my bag and dress on the trunk of my car. “Fine.”
I slip the dress over my head and hand her the towel from around my waist before digging my keys out of my purse. “I’ll talk to you later.” I walk to the driver’s-side door, but she’s still standing there.
“Wait,” she says. “Come inside.”
I sigh through my nose.
“Oh, quit your sighin’. I need your help.”
In Ellen’s room, I sit down on the floor with my legs crossed. “Lemme hold Jake.”
She locks her bedroom door and walks straight to her closet. “Next time. He’s shedding.”
Like any other sane person, I’d always had a healthy fear of snakes, but then, when we were eleven, El’s parents separated for a little bit, and she absolutely lost her shit. To appease her, Mr. Dryver promised her a pet. What he did not expect was for his daughter to ask for a snake.
When she first got Jake, an albino corn snake, he was no longer than a pencil, but I still refused to come over to her house. I couldn’t even bear the thought of being under the same roof as him. But then El had her twelfth birthday, and I couldn’t miss it. Lucy took me to the pet store so I could see the snakes and she even arranged for me to hold one. When I chickened out, she held the snake instead. I could see her hands shaking, but it still calmed me.
Now I can sit for hours while we watch movies, with Jake weaving in and out of our hands like he’s stitching us together.
Ellen pulls a Sweet 16 shopping bag from the depths of her closet. “I need your help deciding.”
I pop up on my knees as she empties lace bras and matching panties all over her bed.
“For Tim.” She plops down on the edge of her mattress. “I want to look good.”
I hold up a sheer pair of purple underwear by my pinkie. “You bought all this stuff at work?”
“Callie helped me pick out some of it, but I need you to narrow it down so I can return the rest.”
“Oh.” I want to ask her if she told Callie that this was for her first time. We sift through the pile. Pink, white, black, red. Even green. Of course she told her. I know I’m making this into something more than it is. I don’t have the monopoly on Ellen-Tim sex conversations, but it feels like a betrayal.
“Okay,” I say, “white is out. You’re a virgin, which is cool. I mean it wouldn’t be uncool if you weren’t, but what I’m saying is you don’t need to look like something that shouldn’t be defiled. I mean, the whole point is to get defiled, right?”
“Right.” Her voice is definitive as she plucks out the white bra and pantie. “Should I have gotten, like, legit lingerie?”
I shake my head. “I think this is definitely the way to go. It says, ‘I’m ready to have sex’ without putting too much pressure on Tim.”
“I would die without you. Just straight up cease to exist.”
A smile grows on my face. “The black is too intimidating. I mean, it’s super fucking hot, but maybe save it for later.”
She stuffs it into the bottom drawer of her nightstand.
“I like the green, but it’s not quite right.” I bypass nude, red, purple, and blue. “This.” I swipe my hand across her bed, pushing aside every other set except for a tan-and-blush-striped set. “It says ‘summertime virgin, but not for long.’”
El smacks my arm and then reaches for it. The whole thing is trimmed in lace with little pearl buttons as accents. She holds the set close to her chest and slides down on the floor next to me. I turn around and sink to the ground.
She rests her head on my shoulder. I love how we smell after the pool. Like chlorine and sweat. The scent of summer. “Tonight. We’re gonna do it tonight,” she says.
SIX
After leaving Ellen’s, I am drained and the idea of taking fast-food orders all night feels impossible.