"Hey, Jocelynne!" Tiffany and Karyn cried in unison as though it had been rehearsed (because it had, in fact, been rehearsed) when they saw their friend in the hallway.
Jocelynne readily accepted both girls' embraces, but then took a step backwards. Something felt odd. "I didn't realize you two were friends."
Tiffany and Karyn exchanged a glance that tried not to be worried. "Of course we're friends," Karyn forced a smile. "Just last Friday all three of us hung out at Denny's until, like, midnight."
"No, that was just you and me," Jocelynne replied. "And besides, Friday was a game day. I wasn't on the squad yet, but Tiffany was."
Karyn swore internally, but maintained her outward smile. There was 3-in-4 chance that would have worked, and Karyn hd landed on the 25% of the wheel that lost. But, Gambler's Fallacy be damned, she tried again. "I can be such an airhead sometimes," she thunked her forehead with a palm. "I must have been thinking of Wednesday."
"When we went over to your place to watch The Princess Bride?" Jocelynne narrowed her eyes. "Sure, Tiffany was there, but how could you confuse that with hanging out at Denny's?"
Karyn's cheeks flushed with embarrassment, but her task was done, she'd primed the pump. Jocelynne now remembered the three of them hanging out, if only just the once. "I guess it's just one of those days," Karyn let out an awkward laugh. "Oh look! It's my class! I'd better get going." And with another nervous laugh she was off, leaving Jocelynne and Tiffany alone together.
"That was weird," Jocelynne muttered to Tiffany. "Last time she got that nervous was she was-- was when you two were planning a surprise birthday party for me and she couldn't keep the secret."
"I remember that," Tiffany grinned, suddenly filling with the memory. "But the party was fun, right?"
"Yeah," Jocelynne sighed, "I guess whatever she's got going on, I'll trust her."
"Besides," Tiffany teased, "she's not the only airhead. How could you forget how many times the three of us have hung out together?"
"It was only the two times."
"Jocelynne," Tiffany deadpanned, much cooler at improvising than Karyn had been. "Karyn and I helped plan your surprise birthday party together. Surely you can remember all the other times we hung out."
"We took Mikey to the batting cages, right?" Jocelynne questioned. "All three of us?"
"Yeah!" Tiffany agreed. "We had to drop the speed down to 40MPH before he could hit one, but he was having fun."
"And when we went to the thrift store--" Jocelynne paused. "No, wait, that one was just me and Karyn. But you joined us at the pool afterwards."
"My bikini was the sexiest of the three of us."
Was that right? Had Jocelynne been wearing a bikini? That was before she'd been a-- the thought faded. "Of course," Jocelynne giggled to her friend, "you always have the sexiest bikini of the three of us." More memories dropping into place like Tetris blocks.
"Don't I ever!" Tiffany was feeling more and more in her element as she, too, recalled trips to the beach and to the water park with Karyn and Jocelynne, the three of them in bikinis that made heads turn (but Tiffany's did always turn the most heads). It was becoming easy for Tiffany to forget that Jocelynne hadn't been her friend, hadn't even been a girl, until a few days ago, and she started chatting like she would with any other girlfriend of hers. "Hey, do you see Tyler over there?"
Tyler Iroas was on the school's basketball team. "Yeah?" Jocelynne gave Tiffany a conspiratorial grin.
"I snuck into the locker room after practice last week and blew him, just for a laugh."
"Tiffany!" Jocelynne looked scandalized, but her expression shifted quickly to something more conspiratorial. "You don't have to remind me. I snuck in with you and blew Robbie Duncan, remember?"
And, very suddenly, Tiffany did remember. She began to feel uneasy. Something wasn't right. Just then Robbie walked by and Jocelynne gave him a wink that was all too familiar to Tiffany.
"Hey, I think I've got to get to class now, too," Tiffany held back a small wave of nausea, a reaction to a reality shift she was not prepared for. "I'll see you at lunch."
