Grad school. That was how she’d been thinking about it lately, instead of Caltech. She’d always called it Caltech. Fake it till you make it or speaking it into existence or something. She’d just … never thought she’d go anywhere else.
Now, though, she had acceptance letters from every school she’d applied to. Caltech’s came in last week. She still hadn’t told anyone.
She didn’t have to tell Caltech yes until August. It felt … safer, maybe? To wait. She didn’t know what her job was going to be like over the summer. What if she realized what she wanted her specialty to be, and Caltech wasn’t the best for it?
“Can’t we just, like, get brunch and go bouldering or something?” Cassie didn’t even like bouldering that much, but she had to tempt Acacia with something.
“We can do those things and you can walk.”
“Okay, whatever, we can fight about this later,” Parker cut in. “I was just asking because my mom was wondering when we were arriving.”
Cassie squinted at her. “What?”
“Is neurobio your last exam? Are you done Tuesday?”
“Yes,” she dragged out the word, not sure what Parker was plotting.
“I don’t finish until Wednesday. You wanna leave Friday?”
“What?”
Parker sighed like Cassie was being insufferable. “When do you want to drive to Nashua? We can do it in a day. It’ll be long, but we could make it by dinner.”
“No offense, princess, but what the hell are you talking about? Driving to Nashua?”
“Do you have another way you want to get there?”
“I didn’t know I was going.”
Parker rolled her eyes. “What—you thought you’d fly to Boston and set up your apartment by yourself?”
Well. Yeah. That was one of the many things Cassie was supposed to be doing instead of lying on the floor. She had an alert set for ticket prices. She figured she would have to empty her pockets for a plane ticket, plus luggage fees, packing everything she owned.
“That’s what I thought.” Parker smirked, not unkindly. “So, you wanna leave Friday? Give ourselves Thursday to get through our hangovers?”
A month and a half ago, Parker was barely speaking to her. Cassie still didn’t understand exactly what had happened, but she was so glad they were friends again.
“You really think you can survive with me in an enclosed space for, what? Nine hours?”
“Ten,” Parker said matter-of-factly. “And yeah, I’ll manage.”
* * *
For graduation, Parker had handled the brunch reservations. It was at Marco’s, Cassie’s favorite restaurant—the same one she and Parker had gone to with Erin over Family Weekend. That didn’t make it weird; they’d been there since, more than once, without Erin.
Parker and Acacia were doing a great job of making a big deal out of graduation, but it fell flat. Cassie still didn’t know where she was going for grad school. She wanted to talk it out, but didn’t know how. Everyone knew Caltech was where Cassie had wanted to go forever. She didn’t want people to think she was getting cold feet because she didn’t feel smart enough, or something. Erin was the person Cassie had talked stuff out with lately, but she couldn’t this time. Her stomach tied itself into knots considering it. Erin might think Cassie’s hesitance about Caltech was about her, and that’d be embarrassing. But going to Marco’s made Cassie think about that breakfast over Family Weekend. It made Cassie nostalgic, or sentimental, or something. It made her wish Erin could’ve come for graduation.
Marco’s was packed when they arrived, as expected.
“Table for,” the hostess paused with a smile, “three.”
Parker grinned. “That’s us.”
“Follow me, please.”
Cassie had been going to ask for a kid’s menu—for the coloring page and tic-tac-toe game, not the food—but the hostess didn’t pick up menus or silverware before turning and leading them deeper into the restaurant. Maybe they had started leaving them on the table instead. But as they weaved through the crowded restaurant, Cassie couldn’t see a single open table. It was fully packed. She didn’t even know where the hostess was leading them, because unless there was a hidden room, every table had people at it.
“Here you are,” the hostess said, stopping at yet another table with people sitting around it.
Except—
Cassie blinked. “What the hell?”