I gesture for Amaya to come inside and close the door behind her, still shaking with sobs. “Wait, Amaya, I’ve been sick. I don’t want to get you sick.”
She spears me with a look. “Like that’s what I care about right now? You could spit your germs in my slushie, and I still wouldn’t leave you.”
Her devotion brings a fresh wave of tears pouring down my cheeks. We sit down on the couch, propping her phone up on the coffee table so we can see Lana. I wave at the phone. “Hi, Beef.”
Lana’s face is stricken. “Ugh, I hate that I’m not there in person. I looked into flights but there was nothing leaving until late this afternoon. I wouldn’t even make it to Brooklyn until tomorrow.”
I burst into tears again. “You’re the best. You’re both the best. I have the best friends. Why am I being this way when I have you two?”
By now, I’m almost hyperventilating. Amaya lightly rubs my back and hands me a slushie cup. “Here. Take a few sips.”
I obey orders, and somehow the slushie works its magic. I hum appreciation. “There’s nothing a slushie can’t fix, right?” I joke. Our college motto makes me feel a tiny bit more like my normal self.
“I’m totally jealous,” Lana says with an exaggerated sigh.
“Not gonna lie—it’s been way too long since I’ve had one of these,” Amaya says, offering me a smile before she takes a sip from her cup. She pretends to tip her cup over. “Don’t worry, we’ll pour one out for you, Lana.”
“Don’t you dare!” Lana says. “Don’t waste a single drop of that precious frozen liquid.”
Lana’s video screen is interrupted by Mateo walking in behind her. She swivels to look at him, and I hear her gasp. She turns back to the screen with a Styrofoam cup in hand.
“He brought me a slushie,” Lana says, stars in her eyes.
“I couldn’t let you miss out on the central feature of a good slushie chat,” Mateo says, grinning at her. “Even if it’s nowhere near as good as a Brooklyn original.”
“True, but it’s absolutely the thought that counts,” Lana says, kissing him on the cheek. I smile at them, feeling genuinely delighted by their love.
Mateo turns to look at me in the screen. “Teegan, do you need me to fly out there and rough someone up for you?”
A laugh bursts out of my throat. Mateo is the sweetest, gooiest cinnamon roll of a guy there ever was. He was always the one pulling his teammates away from fights on the soccer field, not the one participating in them. “I have a hard time picturing you roughing anyone up, Mateo.”
He smiles in response, but then his face takes on a serious tone. “Maybe so, but I’d do anything for the Beefs.”
Lana looks at him like he’s the embodiment of every fantasy. She reaches up to turn his face toward her and kisses him on the lips, for a not-short amount of time.
“Okay, okay, Lana, that’s enough! Focus!” Amaya huffs next to me, rolling her eyes. I smile. Even my present broken heart could never begrudge Lana and Mateo their connection.
“I can’t help it if him being protective of my people is irresistibly attractive,” Lana says after breaking off their kiss. She whispers in Mateo’s ear, making him smile, before giving him another quick peck on the cheek.
Mateo looks back at me and says, “Don’t forget about my offer. I’m on call if you need me.”
I chuckle, amazed that anything resembling a laugh could come out of me right now. “Thanks, Mateo. I’ll keep that in mind.” He salutes and then walks away.
After watching him leave, Lana turns back to the screen and cuts to the chase. “Okay, Beef, you’ve had time to calm down. Explain.”
I blow out a breath through the hair on my cheek. “It’s Brooks.”
“Yeah, we guessed that much,” Amaya says next to me. “But you’ve made it sound like he wasn’t a big deal. This reaction feels like something is a big deal.”
“I may have under-exaggerated our relationship a tiny bit,” I admit but fall quiet again, lost in memories that I don’t want to remember. Everything I packaged up so tightly and left to rot in the recesses of my subconscious is being yanked back to the light again, and I’m afraid of what will come crawling out.
Lana’s voice is gentle. “Just tell us when you’re ready, Teegs.”
There’s no way around this.I take a deep breath.
“Brooks and I met my freshman year and started dating at the beginning of my sophomore year of high school. He was a junior at the time. He was on the basketball team, and I was on the dance team. We were the stereotypical high school ‘it’ couple, but our love was so genuine. So real.”
I pause, emotion clogging my vocal cords. “I know it sounds so cliché, so dumb considering we were only teenagers, but he was my soulmate. His energy clicked with mine in this flawless way that I don’t even know how to explain. Brooks was my best, best friend. And the sweetest boyfriend. We were perfect together, brought out the best in each other. We had so much fun together every day. I know I was young, and probably starry-eyed and immature, but I was positive that he was my person. My forever. And he felt that way too. Or, at least, it seemed like he did.”
