Are You Happy?

Riley and I took our time at the mall, picking out her new bedding and curtains. It was nice to spend time with another girl, as opposed to Levi and Ashton. I realized cutting off my friends wasn't protecting them from my demise, it hurt them. I had known Riley's dad was sick, but I had no idea he passed away just before graduation. I felt awful about missing the funeral and not being there for her. When I lost Emily, I broke down. I wouldn't let anyone help, tried to minimize the collateral damage by imploding. She handled grief a lot better than I had. He dad had only been gone a couple months and she was out here shopping for college, moving on with her life like the rest of the world.

"So what have you been up to?" she asked, flipping through the Pottery Barn catalog while we took a break in the food court.

"Not much. Still working at Darby's. Taking a gap year," I admitted.

"Nothing wrong with that. I probably would have too after everything, but I already got my student loans set for the year. Your parents are gone for the summer?"

"Yeah, they'll be back in couple weeks. Cancun this year, there's some art thing my mom wanted to check out," I told her.

"Right! I forgot your mom was a dealer! I remember you guys always had these secret paintings wrapped up in your spare room. We would try to peel back the paper and look but she always caught us." We were cracking up at the memories. My mom used to work for the Worcester Art Museum. She'd travel all around buying pieces at auction for the museum. When my dad switched jobs and started working more hours, she had to cut back. There was a big blowout, but eventually they came to a compromise - they would travel, together, in the summer and she'd keep her regular office hours at the museum during the school year.

"So you've just been hanging with Levi? How's that been?" she asked with a chuckle. He and I used to fight like cats and dogs, but we've been doing a lot better these last few years.

"It's been good actually. I haven't seen too much of him though. We've both been working a lot, you know. I've uh, been spending a lot of time with Ashton actually," I told her. I didn't remember him so I wasn't sure if she would either.

"Ooooh, new boy? What happened with Jason?"

"It's kind of complicated," I told her about Ashton, who he was, how we met.

"oh my god," she said, listening to everything. "how has he been? you guys just friends or are you..?" she trailed off.

"He's really good actually. He's sweet. He's grown up," I shrugged my shoulders, not really knowing what to say, "We're just friends."

"What does Jason think about all this?"

"Jason isn't really part of the picture anymore. I ended things last weekend," she just nodded without speaking. I guess it was obvious to everyone how wrong we were for each other. "It's Ashton."

"Ooh, he's cute!" she said, looking at the picture on my ringing phone, "you should invite him to join us."

"I don't know if he'd want to shop with us."

"Then we'll do something else, but you better answer before he hangs up," she laughed.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Dollface. You busy?"

"I'm at the mall with a friend, but we were just about to head out. What's up?"

"I got somehow roped into hosting a birthday party for one of the guys from the shop," he said with a sigh, "And I was hoping you would come. I know you don't really know anyone, but I want to introduce you to some friends. And I'm no host so I need help," he laughed, "It's just a small thing, you know? Cookout in his backyard," I could tell he was getting flustered trying to explain himself so I cut him off.

"Yeah, I'll be there."

"Really? Okay, great,"

"Is it okay if I bring Riley?"

"Oh, uh, yeah, yeah. No problem".