I shriek and do a little dance on the bed, and she holds the phone farther away to escape my excited sounds.
I find my laptop under the mess of clothes and wake it from sleep mode. "I'm emailing you the information now. I know how your parents are so they can totally call mine, and they'll answer all their questions. We have to buy the tickets quickly though, but we're going to Cuba!"
I'm so preoccupied with forwarding her all the information that I don't realize she's quiet until she clears her throat.
"Um, Faye? I don't think I can come."
"What?" I dive for my phone and hold it as close to my face as possible to see her better. "Why can't you come?"
Lori chews on her bottom lip. I know that look, and I clench the phone tighter in my hand.
"My parents just finished telling me how this summer is for studying, working, and volunteering only."
"So?" I exclaim. Lori's parents have such a tight hold on her, it makes me appreciate my mom and dad's relaxed take on parenting even more. Lori's lucky I'm around to force her to get out occasionally, or she'd be locked in a tower, wilting away studying until she's thirty. "It's a week, not the whole summer!"
Lori frowns and looks away from the camera. "I don't know, Faye. I really want to come . . . I'll try to talk to them."
This can't be happening. The stars have aligned to allow us to go on this trip, and I cannot allow Lori's superstrict parents to ruin it!
"I'll come over and convince them. I'll get my dad to come as well. That worked last time when we went to Niagara for the weekend. You have to come, Lori. At least look at the emails I sent you."
She sets her phone on her bed and gets up, and I hear her shuffle around her room. Once she's back, she props her phone on what I assume is her computer screen so I can still see her. "Before I bring it up to my parents, are you sure Adam's letting us come? Or did he just say 'maybe' and you interpreted it as 'pack your bags'?"
"Lori. We're g-o-i-n-g." I spell the word out for her. "He had a bunch of conditions, but I have the confirmed itinerary in my hands as we speak." I flap the stapled pages in front of the camera before pressing it to my nose and audibly inhaling. I sigh in contentment. "Smells like suntan oil and the ocean."
She laughs, her mood lightening. "You're ridiculous. What were the conditions?"
"Oh, I wasn't really paying attention. I'm sure it was the usual 'don't embarrass me, I don't want to see you the whole trip' blah blah blah." I fall back to lie on my bed. "Kellan's coming."
It's an effort to not start daydreaming about Kellan Reyes.
"Obviously Kellan's going." She hesitates. "Does he know you're going?"
Kellan is Adam's best friend, who I'm always around since Adam's friends are always over. Though I've known Dylan the longest, Kellan is my favorite. Kellan and I even hang out without Adam all the time, and it's in a totally non-datey way even when it's just the two of us. But when Adam has his friends over and if he's in a good mood—which is rare—he lets me hang out with them. I'm naturally flirty and flirt with everyone, and so does Kellan, so Adam thinks he has nothing to worry about.
Key word: thinks.
Because a few weeks ago, I slept with Kellan.
Twice.
Adam doesn't know, and never will, since Kellan and I swore to never tell anyone. Well, anyone except Lori obviously. She's my best friend, so when I say, I won't tell anyone, what I really mean is Lori and I won't tell anyone.