Fall from Love

say, filling her wine glass back up and then mine.
    “It was pretty good, huh?” she agrees, clearly impressed with herself. “Okay.” She clears her throat and raises her glass for her secondtoast of the night. “Here’s to our senior year, may it be full of epic memories.”
    Our glasses clink and I chuckle, feeling the effects from the first bottle of wine hit me like a ton of bricks.
    “What’s so funny?” Jenna narrows her hazy gaze, or tries to, and that’s when I know she’s tipsy.
    “Let’s see, your first toast was for us to have as much wicked fun as possible this year, and now it’s epic memories? Epic? Wicked? ” I laugh and repeat her choice of words. “I don’t know; I’ve just never heard you say those things before.” Between her excellent cooking skills and some new vocabulary, I wonder what other new things I’ve missed about my best friend over the past few months.
    A goofy smile stretches across her face. “Yeah, I actually hate those words. It’s just something I picked up from Josh. I’ve told him to stop saying them because it makes him sound stupid and immature and here I am saying them, too.”
    As soon as she finishes talking, she curses under her breath and her eyes grow wide.
    “Who’s Josh?” I ask.
    “Shit, Holly. I didn’t mean to bring him up. It’s this stupid wine and we’ve been having such a good time. It just slipped,” she rambles, meets my gaze, and an anxious look appears on her face.
    I raise an eyebrow, wondering what she’s freaking out about. “Jenna, relax… All you did was mention a guy’s name.”
    “You’re right.” She laughs nervously and rolls her eyes. “It’s stupid.”
    “So who’s Josh?” It’s obvious that she wants to drop the subject which just makes me more curious.
    “Um…” She hesitates for a minute, licking her lips. “He’s just some guy I’ve been talking to.”
    “What?! And you kept this from me!?” My voice is louder than usual and I know it must be from the wine.
    Her face falls. “Well, I just didn’t want to bring up a guy in front of you. I know you’re still dealing, you know, with your own stuff. I may be a bitch, but I’m not a cold hearted one.”
    I fall back in my seat. My heart stings when I realize what just happened. My best friend just admitted that she has been intentionally keeping things from me—important things. I used to be the first person she ran to when a new guy entered her life.
    “How long have you been talking to him?”
    She takes another sip of wine and swallows hard before responding. “A few months.”
    “Jenna! That’s the longest you ever stuck with one guy.”
    “Damn, Holly, stop yelling.” Her hand flies to her head and she begins to rub circles around her right temple. “All of your yelling is giving me a headache.”
    I roll my eyes at her dramatic tone. “ Sorry , I just found out that my best friend has been talking to a guy for months and didn’t tell me,” I say, trying to keep my voice at a decent volume. “Doesn’t that break the code of best friends somehow? Our code?”
    When we were freshman we made a pact to always be there for each other, no matter what—or who—came between us. If I’m being honest, I totally botched that pact on my end, something I feel really bad about.
    She sighs and swirls around her wine. Both of us watch it go round and round in her glass, not able to meet each other’s eyes. Of course I understand why this topic is a sensitive subject, but it still hurts that she’s keeping something like this from me.
    “I wanted to tell you, Holly... believe me, but I wanted to give you some time to heal a little more first,” she says finally.
    I feel a tug at my heart. “And I love you for that, but you’re not getting off that easy. I want to hear all about him. He must be important to you if he’s lasted this long.” I look up and meet her gaze.
    “He is important,” she says and a slow smile creeps across her lips. It’s like a switch is turned on and love potion is freaking oozing out of her. “Well,” she begins, “his name is Josh Abbott and he’s a student at CU. We met a few months ago at Sterling’s—”
    “Wait,” I interrupt her. “Is that the guy you were hanging all over the other night?”
    “I was not!” she fires back, but the smile spreading across her face tells me that I’m right.
    “He’s cute.” I smile.
    “Yeah, he is, isn’t he?” She sighs. “And not just that, but