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back.”
    Cassidy took the bag and headed down the hall toward the recycling bins. When she got there, she noticed a familiar figure lobbing an empty Coke can into the paper bin.
    “Hey, Joe,” she said, picking up the can and handing it back to him. “Good toss, but you may want to check what you’re shooting for first.”
    “Oh, hey, Cass.” Joe smiled when he saw her, but he looked tired or maybe sad. His yellow Pacific Sunwear shirt seemed to sag off his shoulders as he tossed the empty Coke into the correct bin.
    “Everything okay?” Cassidy asked. “You’re not pissed at me for bailing on you at the party, are you?”
    “No, it’s not that,” Joe said.
    “What’s wrong?” Cassidy asked. “I haven’t seen you this down since Casper died.” She got a little choked up when she thought of their sixth-grade rabbit. It was the first funeral she’d ever gone to.
    “I’m just bummed,” he said. “It’s my last night in town and my best friend—make that former best friend—
    ditched me to go see that new horror movie.”
    Cassidy wrinkled her nose. “That one about the crazy puppeteer?” Eric was dying to see it too.
    “Puppets can be really scary,” Joe said, smiling for the first time. “I was always terrified of Miss Piggy. She had such a temper.”
    Cassidy’s phone buzzed in her back pocket, interrupting her laughter. It was Eric, texting to see if she wanted to see the movie.
    NOT REALLY , she texted back.
    Her phone rang a moment later.
    “Are you sure?” Eric asked. “I heard it’s up for Best Movie. At the MTV Movie Awards.”
    “As prestigious as that sounds, I think I’ll pass.”
    Cassidy laughed. “Actually, you should go. I just ran into Joe and he doesn’t want to see it either, so I can hang out with him.”
    “Are you sure?” Eric’s voice was tinged with concern.
    “I could skip the movie if you want to do something else instead.”
    “That’s cool. I’ll catch up with you later.”
    “Okay …” Eric still seemed reluctant to get off the phone. “So what are you and Joe going to do, anyway?”
    There was that strange suspiciousness again. Eric was being so inquisitive, and the tone in his voice was eerily overbearing. He never seemed to care this much what she was up to when she was hanging out with Larissa. It seemed like he had some problem with Joe, which was ridiculous. He was brother material, not stud material.
    “Probably just chill at his place. I haven’t seen his mom in forever, and if I remember right, she makes amazing brownies.”
    “Sounds cool,” Eric said, relaxing at the mention of parental involvement. “I’ll call you as soon as the movie’s out, okay?”
    “Great.” Cassidy stayed on the line for a moment longer, half hoping for an accidental “love ya,” but Eric just hung up. She shrugged and shut her phone, giving Joe the thumbs-up. “Hope it’s okay that I invited myself over!”
    “Hey, I’m glad,” said Joe. “What about Larissa?
    Should we ask her to come along?”
    Cassidy glanced over her shoulder and spied Larissa immersed in an outdated InStyle magazine, her mouth hanging open and her eyes fixated on the pages. Streams of paper were still pouring out of her locker.
    “She’ll be here all night,” she replied. “Let’s go.”

    * * *
    The tree house was just as Cassidy had remembered it.

    She could still smell the pungent scent of the shellac Joe’s dad had used to seal the roof from rain, and the sample carpet squares from Home Depot they’d sat on to avoid getting splinters in their butts were still tacked to the floors. She remembered watching the shadows lengthen over his backyard as they made up “secrets”
    about their teachers and giggled over a hidden stash of junk food. And now here they were again, sitting Indian style on a square of faded maroon carpet, drinking birch beer and gorging themselves on Cadbury Creme Eggs, Lays salt-and-vinegar potato chips, and a big roll of Pillsbury raw cookie