The latter put the baking tray in the oven and hurried to the sink, avoiding our scrutinizing glances.

Mia turned to us. “Is it true that he had a fight with Julian?”

Larissa looked at me with a grin, then at Mia. “I even have photos to prove it.”

Mia shook her head in bewilderment, and we all laughed.

“Could you please not be so loud, Mady? I have to study.”

We turned to the doorway where Ezra, Mady's handsome brother, was standing.

He held index cards in one hand, made his way past us, waving hello, and refilled his water bottle at the fridge before turning back to his sister.

“You can't be a spoilsport for one night?” Mady snorted and opened the fridge. “Beer?”

“Are you serious, Mady?” He looked at her scrutinizingly, and she immediately put the bottle back. Then he looked at us. “You drink alcohol?”

“Ugh, no,” Mady laughed.

He didn't know that she had welcomed us with champagne, but I hadn't drunk it because I felt like a walking corpse. Larissa finished her glass.

“Come on, let's go upstairs.” Mady looked at us promptly and reached for the sodas. “The cookies need a bit more anyway.”

“No alcohol, Mady!” Ezra called after us, but we were already upstairs.

Mady just rolled her eyes and pulled another bottle of champagne out from behind her back two seconds later, whereupon Larissa patted her appreciatively on her shoulder.

“You lied to your brother?” I asked Mady, knowing she was nineteen and therefore old enough to drink in British Columbia.

I looked around her spacious room. The first thing I noticed was the colors. White bed linen with pastel green roses, which were also on the curtains. Pastel green and white cushions, a white carpet that stretched halfway across the room and a closet full of band posters by Imagine Dragons and Cigarettes After Sex. Mady also had a bookcase full to the brim, next to which a huge gray plush wolf leaned against a mirror. On her dresser was her jewelry and other hair bands.

“God, Bayla,” laughed Larissa, who must have misunderstood my comment, and pushed me into the soft beanbag from which I would certainly never get up again because it was soft and cozy as hell. “We want to have fun. We're not fifteen anymore.”

“Um...” Mia laughed sheepishly, earning a grin from Larissa. “You're not getting anything either, Mia.”

Mia just rolled her eyes and I offered her the divine beanbag because my urge to look at Mady's books was stronger than my aching limbs.

I realized that Mady mainly read thrillers, which I didn't expect from her.

“This is champagne.” Mady held up the bottle and looked at Mia. “And I won't forbid you anything.” She gave us a crooked grin and her eyes sparkled. “I'm not your brother.”

She tried to open the bottle, but was unsuccessful.

Larissa finally snatched it from her and a few seconds later I flinched as the cork flew to the ceiling with a loud bang and then into the monster plush toy. Larissa and Mia laughed loudly and Mady filled the glasses.

Larissa turned on Mady's jukebox.

“Larissa! Ezra wanted to learn,” I admonished her, feeling like the spoilsport, but at least Larissa turned down Ban All the Music by Nothing But Thieves.

“Ezra's from the last century,” Mady laughed and handed Mia her glass. She shook her head.

“I'm not going to drink anything. It's enough that my father has a drinking problem.”

Larissa and I looked at each other in surprise, and she turned the music down a little more.

“He's got it under control again, but he always sits in front of the bottle and stares at it like it could get him out of Blairville.”

Mia sounded like she really needed to talk about it. I wondered if she communicated in this open way with Julian. The two of them had seemed very familiar at dinner.

Larissa came over to Mia and sat down cross-legged in front of the two girls. “Shit, Mia, I'm sorry...”

I sat down on the windowsill.

Mia just smiled, as if she could just shrug it all off at the age of fifteen and looked at Mady. “Never mind. I've got my Sunshine Girl.”

Mady smiled, but her smile seemed surprised and artificial.

“Why does everyone call you that?” I asked.

First Julian, then a few guys in the campus bar and now Mia.

Mady's cheeks had turned red, and she started to laugh nervously. “Long story.”

Larissa looked at her challengingly. “We have time.”

After some hesitation, Mady finally began to tell.

“Nash called me that even before we got together.” Oh, no. What if I had touched the wrong topic? “Before we got together, I wasn't doing very well. My parents died in a plane crash when I was sixteen.”

I had definitely touched the wrong topic.

“I'm sorry about that, Mady...” I tried to salvage it somehow. “You don't have to go on...”

Mady, however, smiled gently, though I wasn't sure if it was genuine.

“It's all right. We're at it once.” She took the black emerald colored hairband out of her hair. “Nash approached me at some point. He said I was the girl who had always smiled so much. The sunshine girl in the schoolyard.” I had been expecting something else typical of Nash, something condescending, but the story took a surprising turn. “I hadn't managed to talk about it up to that point, but somehow it worked with him. I did tell him about the accident at that moment.” The corners of her mouth moved slowly upwards, and this time it felt real. Just like the tears that gleamed in her eyes. “He invited me to Lola's Diner and, somehow, we met up more often, talked a lot, did things. He was there for me, even though he wasn't feeling well himself. And he helped me smile again... Until he broke up with me out of nowhere.” That must have hit home. “He used to be so different compared to now...”

Mady fell silent, and I could see her fighting back tears. But then she quickly reached for her glass.

“But whatever.” She raised it. “Here's to a future without toxic relationships.”

Larissa quickly raised her glass.

I knew she could sing a song about such things.

“Now, it's your turn,” Mady looked at me with a challenging look. “Have you ever had a boyfriend or girlfriend, Bay?”

Old memories came flooding back, but I hadn't felt the pain for a long time.