No Boy Summer by Amy Spalding

Author:Amy Spalding
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Abrams
Published: 2023-02-02T00:00:00+00:00

I wake up on Sunday morning to an invite to breakfast tacos from the group text, and since I spent literally all of Saturday with Penny, I accept. I don’t even feel guilty when I explain where I’m going when she sees me getting ready. OK, I feel a little guilty, especially after that discussion about friendship yesterday, but I say goodbye and walk over anyway. We somehow all arrive within a couple minutes of one another, and since it’s not unreasonably early, the line’s already down the block. Standing here with my new friends, though, I don’t mind the wait. The wait’s part of hanging out.

“So Lyds convinced me that I should definitely ask Lucas to the summer street fest,” Margaret tells everyone, and I elbow her.

“I don’t think I had to convince you too hard.”

“Thank god we got a boy expert for the group,” Ava says. “It’s been pretty bleak.”

“I don’t like to think of myself as a boy expert,” I say.

“Sorry, person expert,” Margaret says.

“Hmmmph,” Su Jin says. “I mean, you’re in whatever scenario with Fran, who breaks hearts indiscriminately. That makes me feel like you might not be an expert with all genders.”

“Harsh,” Tara says, as Margaret shrieks. The hipster couple ahead of us in line shoots us looks for being loud and annoying, and I know we should care, but even in sort of getting insulted, I’m having way too much fun.

“Speaking of Fran,” Su Jin starts.

“Wait, Ava, what are you wearing?” Tara interrupts.

Margaret reaches around me and pretends to make my glasses shoot off of my face in Ava’s direction. “Wha-what?”

“Vintage Del Taco uniform shirt, I believe,” Su Jin says.

“Oh, this?” Ava laughs, striking a pose. She’s wearing it with a little bandana tied like a scarf, and I can’t deny she looks great. “Yeah, fast food but make it fashion, right?”

“You are a constant gift,” Margaret tells her, and squishes her into a hug. “I don’t know what we’re going to do when we’re all in different cities, guys.”

“I’m trying not to think about it,” Tara says. “Especially since I’ll still be here, and all of you will be spread out over the whole country.”

“Lyds will be close,” Margaret says, because Tara’s going to USC, and Tara and I say, at the exact same time, “Well, sort of.”

“Actually,” I say, as our group is first in line and Su Jin steps up to order first, “USC might be on my college list for next year. So I might have some questions for you.”

“Yeah, just text, I’m happy to help,” Tara says. “And once I’m on campus in September, you can drive down and I can show you around, too. It’d be cool if you ended up there next year. Are you thinking of their theater program?”

“Yeah, maybe,” I say, holding my smile down as much as I can. “What about you?”

Tara shrugs, flipping her mane of hair out of her eyes. “Still figuring it out, public policy or urban studies or sociology, whatever hopefully lets me do some good for people in this city who need it.

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