“Yeah. No, everything’s fine. I just wanted to say … Well, I’m really glad you said that thing the other night about being over Leo because, um …”

“Phoebe, you were so right. Even though things are not so great with Drew right now, I know that Leo is not who I should be with. I mean, there is so much more out there. Like people who can talk and laugh and — no, wait, I interrupted. Sorry. What were you saying?”

“Well, it’s just …” Another deep breath. “I’ve seen him a lot at Murphy’s the past few nights and … I kinda know that he has feelings for another girl,” she said.

“Wow!” Okay, not what I wanted to hear but I had other men to think about, right? Still, I felt my chest tighten. “How did you find that out?”

“Because he told me.”

“Well, whatever. That’s good, I guess. Do you know who it is? Is it that girl Dana? I think she got a nose job. Or is it Emma Parker, the girl from Central?”

Silence.

And it took me a few seconds, but then I knew exactly who that girl was. My words hung in the air. My mouth was still open, and my breath was really fast and loud.

“It’s me,” Phoebe mumbled. It was the softest voice, barely above a whisper. But it didn’t matter. I didn’t need her to be any louder.

“Sam?”

“Yeah?”

“I don’t want to do anything about it unless you are really over him. I mean, he told me the other night at Dave’s, and I told him I had to think about it, because I wanted to talk to you first, but then it didn’t feel right to tell you over the phone, you know? So I just tried to ignore it until you came home. But then tonight he was, like, ‘Well, what do you think?’ and I didn’t know what to say because I like him, you know we both liked him, but I would never ever do anything to jeopardize our friendship, but then the other night you said you were completely over him and then you said it again tonight, but … okay, that’s it.”

It felt like all the air had been knocked out of me. “Did you … kiss?” I asked. I knew it was immature. But I didn’t care.

“Well, no,” she said. “I mean, sort of, but —”

That was more than I needed to know, actually.

“What do you mean, sort of?! You can’t sort of kiss someone, Phoebe! Just like you can’t sort of be someone’s best friend! Which, I guess, is what you’ve been doing!”

“No, Sam! That’s not true! You are my best friend! You always have been! That’s why —”

I opened the sliding door and stepped outside so I could really scream now. It was freezing out here, but I didn’t care. I was sweating, and I could feel the blood pulsing behind my eyes.

“Yeah, well, you know what, Phoebe? Best friends don’t do things like this! They don’t go behind backs and start kissing people and lying to them over the phone —”

“I didn’t lie, Sam!”

“No! You don’t get to talk right now, Phoebe! This is my turn to talk and you’d better sit down because you know when I get going it’s gonna be a long night! I can’t believe this is happening! I can’t believe you would think that was okay! I trusted you! I told you everything!”

The tears started leaking out. More like gushing, actually. And I didn’t try to stop them. I was so mad and hurt and lost and alone. Everyone was abandoning me. First my dad, then stupid Drew, and now my best friend in the whole world. I think Phoebe was crying, too. I couldn’t really tell. But when I finally caught my breath, I could hear her making those gulpy hiccuping sounds and sniffling a lot.

“I’m gonna go,” I whimpered.

“No, wait! Sam, I’m gonna tell him I can’t see him anymore. I swear. I didn’t mean to —”

“You do whatever you want, Phoebe,” I said and closed my phone.

I pulled my sweater in tighter around me. My fingers were numb from the cold and I looked up into the sky. That wide-open infinite sky. But now I didn’t know what to ask for anymore.

The next day, I knew I looked like a train wreck — my nose and eyes were red and swollen and I had those little splotches on my cheeks that I get after a long bawl. Ashley didn’t say anything, though, she just grabbed my hand as I was picking up my skis and said, “Hey, friend. What should we do today?”

It was her last day in West Lake. Emily was still stuck in bed, and Ashley said she wanted to go on as many trails as she could before the day was through. I told her I could show her Pine Bluffs. She was game. The whole way up, she told me stories about these chickens on her farm called Lucy and Desi. They always fought with each other and pecked at each other’s feathers until they had big bald spots. And she had a dog named Echo who was part German shepherd and blind in one eye and always tried to push all the furniture into one corner of the living room.

By the time we got to the top, I wasn’t exactly laughing, but I was feeling a little lighter. And I was glad I hadn’t stayed at the inn sulking.

We did Pine Bluffs.

“Woo-hoo!” Ashley yelled.

“Woo-hoo,” I answered, even though it sounded pretty weak.

Then we tried Mountain Vista Trail, which had amazing mountain vistas (duh). And one called Western Ridge, which I guess was on the west side of the mountain range. To be honest, I wasn’t looking that much at the views today. I was concentrating more on yelling and yodeling with Ashley the whole way down. And I was going pretty fast now. I leaned lower and really caught some speed.

“Tote fabu!” she drawled at the bottom of our fourth run of the morning. “Man, I could use some grub!”

“Me, too.” I knew there was a good chance that I would see Drew at the chalet, but I had to face him sometime, right? I still wasn’t sure what I was going to say, but I would cross that bridge when I came to it.

I picked out a slice of pizza and a cup of chicken noodle soup and put down my tray of food next to Ashley’s. She had gotten a meatball sub and a side of mozzarella sticks. Yeah, I liked this girl. We got each other. Dad, Kathy, and Jeremy found us. Jeremy’s face was bright red and his freckles looked like they were on fire. He had gone snowboarding in some canyon out past the Basin.

“Greatest morning ever!” he announced, his mouth full of chicken Parmesan. I rolled my eyes at Ashley and we both laughed. All during lunch we chatted about food, school, life in Texas. Ashley was charming the pants off Dad. I could tell he was glad to see I had made a good friend out here. She told us she was from a little town called Lubbock. Her dad was a farmer and she had four older brothers. Her mom was a secretary at their church.

“What church do y’all go to?” she asked.

I saw Jeremy laugh into his sandwich.

“Actually, we’re Jewish,” I said.

“That is awesome! We have a couple of Jewish kids in my school. Ari Nussbaum and Peter — something. They read a lot! Do y’all read a lot, too?”

Now I laughed. So did Dad and Kathy. To a total stranger, I bet it looked like we were one big happy family. I wasn’t about to explain.

After lunch, Ashley and I headed back out to the slopes.

“See you suckers later,” said Jeremy. Aaron was waiting for him with some of their new buddies from snowboarding class.

“Usual time? At the chalet?” asked Dad.

“Sure,” I said.

“Ashley, it was a pleasure. Hope to see you later.”

“Thanks, Mr. and Mrs. Levy. You take care now,” she said with her endearing smile.

Yeah. Keep the mouth shut, Levy. Not worth it.

I watched Dad and Kathy take hands and head off to the cross-country trails. Then Ashley and I got in line for the lift. Ashley was talking about how sweet my family was, and how it was so funny that the cheese here tasted different than the cheese in Texas, but that made sense, didn’t it? Because it was different milk or at least different cows, right? And I think I said sure, but to be honest, I was having trouble concentrating now because a few feet behind us I could hear, “No, you’re doing great, doll. You just have to remember —”