I glanced back at my laptop, tapping my fingers nervously on my desk. The guilt was there, even though I didn’t act on it.
“Willa?” Flor stared at me in an expectant way. “Can you believe Ava is doing this to me?”
“Yeah. It’s . . . wrong.”
“Wrong?” Her beautiful eyes blinked. “It’s more than wrong. It goes against girl code. We might not be best friends, but we’re tight.”
“There should be an official girl-code manual given out the first day of freshman year,” Jenna declared. “It would make girls think twice before they betray their friends. At least there wouldn’t be any confusion.” She stabbed a finger in the air. “You break girl code and everyone knows you’re a traitor.”
“For real.” Flor fell back on the bed beside Jenna and took a Twizzler from the bag Jenna held out to her. A moment of silence fell.
I turned back to my laptop, looking at the long-neglected math problem but failing to see it.
The Twizzler bag crinkled as they continued to eat.
The numbers blurred and danced. I side-eyed the window of Zach’s room. There were no blinds. Just curtains, and they were drawn, revealing a neat sliver of his navy blue bedspread. His mom always made his bed for him. She doted on him—even though he valiantly resisted her efforts.
Somewhere inside my house my sister’s child started crying.
“Chloe!” Mom’s voice rang out from downstairs.
I squeezed the bridge of my nose. My sister didn’t answer, but I didn’t expect she would. She was conveniently in the shower. She’d been in the bathroom for two hours. Ever since my brother-in-law dumped Chloe for another woman and she moved back home, she’d been spending a lot of time in the shower. I think she thought no one could hear her crying over the running water. The water bill was getting out of hand, if the increase of ramen on the menu was any indication.
“That’s it,” Flor suddenly announced. She sat up, waving a floppy Twizzler, her face alight with inspiration. “We need to write it.”
“Write what?” I asked.
She waved her hand in a little circle. “An official girl-code manual. We’ll write one and distribute it. Just like Jenna said.” A militant gleam entered her eyes. “All the Avas of the world will know their betrayals aren’t okay, and everyone will see them for the backstabbers they really are.”
“Yeah.” Jenna propped herself up on her elbows. “Right on.”
I stared at them both, my stomach twisting into knots. They were serious.
“Quick.” Flor motioned to my laptop. “Start a file in Google Docs. That way we can edit and add to it as we go.”
Stifling a sigh, I opened up a document and titled it: The Official Guide to Girl Code. Staring at those words on the screen, I felt a strange sense of foreboding sweep over me, and those knots just twisted tighter.
Flor leaned over my shoulder. “Nice. All right. I think we can all agree on the first rule.” For a moment I didn’t move, simply gazed at the blank screen, my fingers poised over the keyboard. The toddler was full-on wailing now, and I knew I should get up and go hold her. Mom was too tense. It was like Mia could sense that and cried harder.
“Come on, Willa,” Jenna pressured. “Type.”
Nodding, I started typing.
Flor cast a heavy shadow over me as she read my words aloud. “‘Girl Code Number One: Never date a friend’s ex or a guy your friend is really into.’”
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About the Author
Photo by Country Park Portraits
SOPHIE JORDAN grew up in the Texas Hill Country where she wove fantasies of dragons, warriors, and princesses. A former high school English teacher, she’s a New York Times, USA Today, and international best-selling author of over thirty novels. She now lives in Houston with her family.
Visit her online at sophiejordan.net
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