I crossed my arms, waiting for her to say Ally was right or that she, too, thought Jake was in love with me. Thankfully, she did neither of those things. Instead, she pointed at my bag and held out her hand.

“Come on,” she said. “Please don’t make me go through this alone. You’re much better at dealing with her than I am.”

I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. I looked at Bianca, her eyes pleading, and realized how selfish I was being. Bianca canceled her date with Tim because she was worried about Ally. And me? I was ready to leave her because I was sick of her mood swings. I wasn’t sorry for saying she was self-absorbed, but I started to feel guilty about being a bad friend.

Bianca was right. Ally needed us. Both of us.

“Fine.” I handed her my bag. “But I want no more mention of Jake.”

“I’ll do my best,” she said as we headed back to Ally’s room.

“And we shouldn’t have a pity party without party favors.”

“Agreed. Or at least cake.”

Chapter Thirty-One

Though Ally insisted she still couldn’t eat anything, Bianca and I managed to get her out of the house to meet my mom for brunch the next morning. Dr. Griffin had gone to San Diego to visit his daughter Jessica at school, so Mom was happy to take us out. We arrived at the Lakeridge Country Club just after ten o’clock, and I nudged Bianca when we were seated at a table next to the girl we’d seen with Dante earlier that week. She shuddered, and I laughed.

Most of the Westgate kids’ parents were Lakeridge members, so I could almost always count on running into someone I knew. As a result, I avoided the club as much as possible. But Bianca and I agreed Ally needed to get out, and since Ally loved to people watch, Lakeridge was the best place to go.

Ally put down her menu. “I don’t know why you guys brought me here. Can’t I just go back home and hide under my blankets?”

“Absolutely not,” I said. “We’re here so you can socialize.” I hooked a thumb toward my mother who was making the rounds and stopping at just about every table to chat. “My mom can show you how it’s done if you’ve forgotten.”

“I don’t want to socialize,” Ally said after a mournful glance in her direction. She lowered her head onto the table. “I’d rather be left alone to contemplate my bottomless cup of a life.”

“A bottomless cup doesn’t sound like a bad thing,” Bianca said. “Doesn’t that mean it’ll never be empty?”

She lifted her head and looked at us with sad eyes. “But neither will it ever be full.”

Bianca and I exchanged glances. We were used to Ally’s melodrama, but she’d just crossed into a whole other zone. I bit my lip to keep from laughing.

“I’m hungry,” Bianca said from behind her menu. “I think I want that egg white frittata I had last time.”

“How can you possibly think about food when my heart is aching?” Ally said with a sniff.

“Maybe because my stomach’s empty?”

Ally let out a dramatic sigh. “It can’t possibly be as empty as the hollow corners of my shattered heart.”

I furrowed my brow, puzzled. “If your heart is shattered, how can it still have corners?”

She raised her head enough to glare at me. “It’s a metaphor!”

“Well, it’s not a very good one.”

Bianca set down her menu, a small smile playing on her lips. We avoided eye contact to keep from giggling.

Ally let out another sigh as she slumped back in her seat. “You guys just don’t understand.”

On any other day, I would’ve just brushed aside Ally’s theatrics as a plea for attention, but I started to wonder how seriously her breakup with Hunter affected her. It had been four days since she found him with Kyle, and she hadn’t returned to her usual sunny self. I wasn’t sure if it was the loss of Hunter or the end of the relationship she was mourning.

Maybe it was both.

“Sierra’s moving to Miami,” my mom announced to no one in particular when she returned to the table. “I hope they can find a decent tennis instructor to take her place. The girl before her was terrible.”

“I didn’t like her, anyway,” I said. “I thought she was full of herself.”

“She was a perfectly good teacher.” Mom sat down beside me. “You just didn’t want to work as hard as she made you.” She glanced across the table. I was certain she was going to bark at Ally and tell her to sit up straight, but instead she said, “Ally, honey, are you okay?”

Bianca shook her head and answered for her. “Rough breakup.”

“Oh no.” Mom clucked sympathetically and said, “The first ones are always the worst, too. How long were you guys together?”

Ally sniffed. “Twelve days from when he first asked me out.” She put her head back on the table.

“How long has she been like this?” Mom asked while Bianca rubbed Ally’s shoulders to comfort her.

“Since Wednesday. She, uh, walked in on him kissing someone else.”

“My costar,” Ally mumbled. “Kyle.”

My mom pursed her lips and made a sour face. “Ouch.” She unfolded her napkin and placed it in her lap. “Well, those magazines at the grocery store all say it takes about half the time you were together to get over him. So, Ally, dear, go ahead and have a good cry. You should be okay in about two days.”

Ally lifted her head and sniffed again. “Is that true?”

“Probably not,” Mom said with a shake of her head. “But it sounds good, doesn’t it?”

That earned a weak smile from Ally, and she straightened in her seat. Maybe brunch with my mom wasn’t such a bad idea. After all, Mom had some experience with broken hearts. I was sure she knew how to mend them.

“Ally, when was the last time you ate something?” she asked as the server left with our orders. Ally had insisted she didn’t want anything, but I’d asked for a yogurt parfait for her, anyway.

“My mom made me eat a piece of toast yesterday morning,” she said. “I’m too depressed to eat.”

“I wish I had that problem,” Clover said behind me. “When I get depressed, I turn into the human garbage disposal.”

I turned to find her hovering near our table. She was pushing the club’s dress code that day, wearing a chambray dress with brown cowboy boots and a white cardigan. I forced a smile, but it probably looked more like a sneer. I wish it was more genuine, like Bianca’s, but it was my best effort. Clover’s presence irritated me for reasons I couldn’t explain.

“Hi!” Bianca wiggled a few fingers in greeting. “How’s it going?”

Clover lifted a shoulder. “It’s going. I saw you guys come in.” She put a hand on the back of my chair and extended the other to my mother. “You must be Talia’s mom,” she said. “I’m Clover.”

“Oh, you’re Malcolm Davies’s daughter,” Mom said, rising to shake her hand. “I didn’t realize you and Talia were friends.” She looked at me with a raised eyebrow. I toyed with the tea bag seeping in my cup and pretended not to notice.

“She and Jake are super close,” Bianca said. I kicked her under the table and shot her a murderous look when she kicked back.

Mom didn’t seem to notice. She offered Clover her seat and said, “Would you like to join us? I’m sure I can get Jason to bring another chair.” At this, she lifted her chin and raised her hand.

“No, thank you,” Clover said, stopping my mother. She gestured behind her. “My dad and I are about ready to leave. I just wanted to stop by and say hi.” She turned to Ally. “I heard you and Hunter broke up,” she said. “I’m sorry.”

“Thanks,” Ally said with a small smile.

Clover looked down at me. “Have you talked to Jake about next Friday?”

“What’s next Friday?” I glanced at my friends to see if they knew what she was talking about, but they both shrugged.

“The open mic night,” she said. “At the Bookish Bean?”

I winced, remembering I’d said I’d consider talking to him about performing.

“No,” I said. “But that’s not really his thing.” You ought to know this, I wanted to add, but instead I said, “Why is this so important to you, anyway?”