Curvy Girls Can’t Date Best Friends by Kelsie Stelting

Epilogue

Cori

Why waseveryone at this going-away party coupled off? Mom and Dad were having a going away party for Ginger and all of her friends before they left for college. Except Ray—he’d be staying at his family’s ranch and running it like he’d planned to all along.

But everyone here was a couple. There weren’t even any cute guys I could chat up. There were a couple of kids from my class here, like Aiden Hutton, but his girlfriend stood with him. They’d been dating for like three years. And my sister? Ray hadn’t left her side all night.

Callie and Carson were the cutest out of them all. He’d pulled her away from their group of friends and was slow dancing with her in the middle of the grass like no one around them existed.

I sat on a chair around the perimeter of our yard, wishing I hadn’t worn a dress. Maybe if I’d put on some pants, I could go out front and shoot hoops with the kids playing in our driveway goal. But then again, sweaty redhead in summer didn’t exactly say date me to passersby. Even less so to people I knew.

“Hey, cane sugar,” Mom said to me. “Would you go inside and grab some ice? We’re running low.”

“Sure,” I sighed, getting up from my chair. It wasn’t like I had anything better to do.

I passed Aunt Rosie and her new boyfriend, Ben, and walked inside to get a bag of ice for the punch like Mom asked.

I still couldn’t believe Ginger had pulled off the impossible and made our parents come around to seeing things her way. And while she was changing our parents’ firmly held beliefs, I was... well, doing nothing.

I’d had the driest summer in the history of summers, even though I was going into my last year of high school. My friends were having flings, going on vacations, and I’d been working at my parents’ store, stocking shelves alongside a totally hot but completely taken college guy. And when I wasn’t working at the store, I was practicing my shots in the basketball hoop in our driveway.

There had to be a way to make my senior year better. I wanted to have the kind of year Ginger had—great friends, a great guy, and heading off into the sunset to the college of my dreams.

I had at least one of those things—my friends were amazing. That, I was thankful for.

I bent into the freezer and pulled a bag of ice onto the counter top, flipping it and dropping it until the cubes had formed more manageable chunks.

“Hey, Cor,” Ginger said.

I looked over and smiled. “Liking your party?”

“Of course.” She took a drink from her red plastic cup. “You know, other than the punch being hot.”

I rolled my eyes. “Did Mom send you in here to rush me?”

“No,” she said, laughing, and leaned back against the island, resting her elbows on the granite. “I can’t believe I’m leaving tomorrow.”

I couldn’t either. Even though she’d practically started packing her room the day after graduation, it was still hard to believe I’d have the room to myself. That I wouldn’t hear her snoring at night, no matter how many times she tried to deny the fact that she did actually snore.

“Are you excited?” I asked.

She nodded. “Yeah, but it will be different. I’ll be farther away from Ray. Have a new roommate who I don’t even know that I’ll like.”

“Well, we’ve already established that you can’t top me.”

Laughing, she said, “Obviously.”

I picked up the bag and started to head outside, but Ginger put her hand on my shoulder. “Hey, do you mind if we—I mean, if I... Can we talk?”

Half confused, half concerned, I set the bag on the counter. “What’s up?”

She shrugged, getting onto one of the bar stools. She patted the one next to her, and I joined her. “Is this the part where you tell me you’re not actually leaving and I won’t actually have my own room? Because if that’s true, you can’t have it back. You’ll just have to take the couch.”

She rolled her eyes. “You talk a lot.”

“And?”

Her curls fell over her face as she leaned forward, looking at her linked hands on the bar top, then looked back at me. “I don’t know. I’m going out tonight and leaving for college tomorrow, and just in case we don’t get the chance to talk tonight, I wanted to talk.”

My heart constricted with that painful feeling I got when I forgot to avoid thinking of Ginger leaving. “What did you want to talk about?”

“I guess I had a hard time in high school, and I know you’re doing better than me, but it wouldn’t be right to leave without passing on my...wisdom, right?”

I cringed. “This is going to make me cry, isn’t it?”

“Maybe.” She laughed, but her eyes were already shining. “Okay, I’ve narrowed it down to three things I think you need to know.”

“Three? I can handle that.” My eyes were starting to burn too.

“One, you need to hold on to your friends. They can seriously get you through anything.”

“Check.” My friends were everything to me, and they knew it. “Number two?”

“Pick the right guy. Don’t go dating some jerk like Dugan. He might be hot, but it’s totally not worth it.”

“Right,” I said, “like I’d date the guy who bullied you for the last three years.”

She lifted her hands. “Not him, just his type.”

“Sure. Easy,” I replied.

“And three.” She took a breath, blinking quickly. “If you ever need me, if you ever feel alone, if you ever feel like you’re not absolutely beautiful inside and out, call me.” Her voice cracked, even though she smiled. “I’ll always be here for you.”

My throat clogged with emotion, and instead of making a blubbering mess of myself by trying to talk and losing it, I closed the gap between us and held her tight.

“I love you,” I said. “And I promise, I’ll do my senior year right.”

* * *

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