She waved her iPhone at Kendra.
“And he posted them on his TikTok! I’m like a TikTok trend now. If you hashtag toxic friend, I’m the first person who comes up. And you know the worst part? I wouldn’t even care if it was like, a sex video or something. Like, whatever, people have sex. What I do instead of sex is be a great friend. But now I’m famous for being a toxic friend. He hit me right where it hurts the most, that prick.”
Wow. The world had changed a lot since Kendra had her last teenage drama moment. How the hell was she supposed to handle toxic friend accusations and viral videos? What happened to baby steps? What would Carly do? What would Jason do?
Face it, she was on her own.
Cut the drama, girl, she told herself. She just needs a friend right now.
“Kinda seems like he proved your point,” she said. “You’d have to be a dick to post videos of your girlfriend’s friend.”
“But did I push him into being a dick? That’s what Chloe is saying. That he wouldn’t have been such a dick if I hadn’t given her that ultimatum. She says he loves her and treats her like a princess and I’m like, red flag, red flag.”
“Being treated like a princess is a red flag?”
“It can be,” Holly said seriously. “Because if you step off that pedestal and do something he doesn’t like, he might get nasty. Think about it. Would you rather be treated like a princess or like a respected equal?”
“Can’t it be both?”
“That’s the dream.”
Was it? Kendra’s dream was nothing like that. Her fantasy wasn’t riding in a golden princess carriage waving to a crowd. It was more along the lines of a standing ovation as she accepted an award for Business Genius of the Year. Then a big bouquet of flowers would arrive on stage, courtesy of her man. He was in the front row, applauding just as hard as everyone else, with a secret wink just for her, a hint about everything he wanted to do to her later in the way of celebration.
“Let me ask you something, Holly.”
“Sure. Yeah.” Perking up, she scooted herself higher on the couch cushions. “Do you need advice? Is it about my brother? Because that might take us a while and I should go get us some hot cocoa.”
“Uh, no. I’m good. How did you get to be such an expert on relationships?”
“Oh. Are you being sarcastic? You sound a little sarcastic.” Holly wrapped her arms around her knees in what looked like a defensive move.
“I’m not. I tend to sound sarcastic even when I’m not, so I don’t blame you for thinking that. No, I’m completely serious. I didn’t pay much attention to relationships at your age. That’s why I’m curious.”
Holly blinked as if she’d never heard anything so ridiculous. “Why wouldn’t you? Relationships are the most fascinating thing in the world. I listen to podcasts, YouTube videos from relationship experts. But mostly I just watch my friends go through things. I think I want to be a therapist when I get out of school.”
“You think?”
“Know.” Holly grinned, and stuck her tongue out a little.
“So you’re kind of…practicing on your friends?”
The girl rested her chin on her knees. “I guess you could put it that way. It sounds bad, though. I want to help. But I also want to be right,” she admitted in a small voice. “You’re right, Kendra. I let my ego get in the way. That’s what you’re saying, right?”
“Uh—” She hadn’t exactly said that, but it didn’t sound wrong, either.
“I need more humility. I listened to a podcast about that. I don’t have all the answers. God, thank you so much, Kendra. I think I see where I went wrong. You can’t tell people what to do in their relationships.”
Kendra nodded wisely, even though she was just trying to keep up with Holly’s rapid pace.
“So I take it back. There’s nothing wrong with you and Jason getting into some kind of rebound thing. You have the official Holly seal of approval, and you know, my friends would kill for that.” She mimicked stamping Kendra’s hand, like for a concert. “Go forth and rebound.”
Kendra had to work hard not to burst out laughing. Little did Holly know that they’d already ignored her advice enough to kiss and make out on the dock.
“Thank you,” she said gravely. “But before I can really feel comfortable going forward, what was that advice about Jason?”
Whatever it was, she intended to tease him mercilessly about it.
“Oh. Yes. It’s about his learning disability. It’s holding him back emotionally.”
Kendra’s mouth fell open. His what?
Holly barreled ahead without noticing. “Gretchen wanted him to propose to her, and he tried to buy a ring like three times, but he never did it. And other girls kept showing up, but then they’d move on because he would start talking about Gretchen. I think he was using Gretchen as a shield. And the reason he needed a shield…”
She stopped to take a breath. Kendra realized she was holding hers.
“…was because his learning disability messed him up psychologically. My parents used to treat him like there was something wrong with him, and sure, a learning disability is a challenge, but it can be overcome. They didn’t believe in special ed assessments and stuff like that. They basically just told him to do his best and stop dreaming about becoming a doctor. I think that’s why he doesn’t settle with one person, because he’d have to be honest about his disability. There’s nothing wrong with Jason in any way, he is a top-of-the-line human being, and I’m not just saying that because he’s my brother. Half the time he’s also very annoying. I’m not a big fan of the male gender in general, that whole toxic masculinity thing is very real. But Jason is definitely one of the good ones, I made sure of that. I mean, he’s been my parental figure for the past few years, the least I could do is make sure he doesn’t head down a dick-ish path.”
Kendra bristled. “I’ve never known Jason to be a dick.”
“He’s not. Partially thanks to me,” she added smugly.
“I used to tutor him sometimes. He never told me he had a learning disability.”
Holly clapped a hand across her mouth. “Oh shit,” she said through her spread fingers, before closing them again. “Jason’s going to kill me.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll keep your name out of it,” Kendra told her. “I’ll call you ‘anonymous sources close to the family.’”
Holly groaned and buried her face in a couch cushion. “My biggest flaw,” she moaned. “I get carried away and I don’t know when to stop talking.”
“Honey, why don’t you lighten up on yourself?” Kendra got to her feet and stretched her arms overhead. “You’re seventeen. Of course you don’t have everything figured out. What would you do with the rest of your life if you did?”
“Not helping.”
So much for offering comfort.
“Okay, maybe a little,” Holly murmured as her phone buzzed.
Across the room, Rusty stirred himself off the dog bed. He surged to his feet and ambled toward them with a yawn. Kendra bent down to pet him. “Ready for a walk, big guy?”