at Duke and was currently driving south to be here in time for my birthday party.
I texted her, requesting an ETA.
Driving down the Atlanta Highway. *insert B-52 lyrics*
She was ridiculous, but I was glad that she was finally here.
Cole had been needling me all day about coming over to his place early for birthday shenanigans. It didn’t matter that we’d celebrated his birthday yesterday downtown. Half the football team had drunkenly shown up and gotten him so plastered that he’d blacked out the second I got him into his bed.
It was still surprising to me that our birthdays were so close. His on the fourth of May and mine on the fifth. I’d always hated having my birthday on Cinco de Mayo until college when it was apparently the coolest shit ever, and Cole had promptly declared that he was throwing a joint birthday party. Then he’d planned two anyway. Having two birthday parties after claiming we were only having one was perfectly Cole.
HERE! HERE! HERE!!!!!
I dashed out of my dorm room and down into the Brumby lobby. Marley had hiked up the hill and opened the lobby door when I got out of the elevator. We collided in the middle, laughing and practically near to tears. This was the longest either of us had ever gone without the other. I’d seen her at Christmas, and it was too long to go.
“I missed you!” Marley said.
“So much,” I told her. “Let’s never do this again.”
“Deal.” She finally released me. “So, when do I get to meet him?”
“Cole has been asking the same thing.”
“Well, it’s not fair that Josie was here the weekend y’all met,” Marley said. She brushed strands of her curly, dark hair out of her face and adjusted the large backpack on her back. It was likely all she’d brought with her for the day that she was staying with me before she returned to Savannah for the summer. If I knew my best friend at all, the rest of stuff was neatly arranged in boxes in the trunk of her giant SUV. Likely labeled, dated, and color-coordinated. “I mean, she’s been rubbing it in that she got those pictures of y’all at the game.”
“She sold them to a newspaper,” I groaned, dragging her deeper into the dorm.
“I know! That’s so Josie.”
“Isn’t it?”
We hurried back upstairs, chatting animatedly about everything and nothing.
I’d known Marley since second grade when we were both in Mrs. Jackson’s class. Marley complimented my Lisa Frank shirt, I gushed over her scrunchie, and then we promptly got in trouble for talking too much. We’d been inseparable ever since.
After we both got dressed, I texted Cole to let him know we were on our way and then took my beat-up Hyundai north of the dorms to the light-blue house where Cole lived with his two roommates. I knocked twice on the front door and then let myself inside. The party wouldn’t start for another hour and wouldn’t really get going until later, but already, there were a handful of people present, sitting around, watching TV, and pregaming with beers.
I pulled Marley in behind me. We hurried past one of Cole’s roommates, Barry, and continued into the kitchen. Cole turned at our presence, and a smile split his face.
“Finally,” he said, scooping me up and kissing me.
“I did text you.”
He patted his pockets. “I don’t know where my phone is.”
“You’re always losing it.”
He shrugged. “Doesn’t matter now. You’re here.” He turned to my best friend. “And you must be Marley.”
“I am,” she said, extending her hand for him to shake.
He took it. “So good to finally meet you. Lila talks about you nonstop.”
“Funny. I was going to say the same thing about you.”
He grinned as his gaze shifted back to me. “You talk about me nonstop?”
“You’re my new, shiny toy,” I told him with a wink.
“And what does that say about me?” Marley asked.
“You’re the Woody to his Buzz Lightyear.”
“I don’t know whether or not to be offended by that.”
“You’re forever, babe,” I told her, slinging an arm over her shoulders. “Now, we have two birthdays to celebrate.”
“Yes, what can I get you?” Cole said. “Beer, wine, margaritas?”
“Margaritas,” Marley and I said in unison.
Cole blended together the drinks, and we took them into the living room to watch SportsCenter. I’d seen the baseball highlight plays already. Apparently, it was a casualty of spending a lot of time with Cole. More and more sports.
“So,” Marley said as she sank into a chair. She tucked her legs up