Like a Best Friend | ✓

chapter ten

The first time I wake up on Thursday morning, it's just gone five, more than an hour before I planned to be awake to get ready for today's road trip and almost two hours before the sun is set to rise. Kitty is fast asleep next to me, closer than she was when we went to bed last night. She has a tendency to shift towards the middle, taking up every inch of space I give her, and I don't want to wake her so I roll onto my side, right on the edge of the bed.

Before I left on this trip, I promised my parents that I would keep in touch and I have not been great on that front, aside from the occasional picture. I usually talk to my parents most days – pretty much every day, really – but I've been spending my emotional energy on Kitty and I haven't stopped to actually chat when my parents reply to a photo.

I open up our group chat, appropriately named Campbell Soup, which until recently was just the three of us until Isaac started middle school and got his first phone, and the first thing he wanted was to be inducted into the family chat. Cece (Cecelia, but nobody calls her that) is extraordinarily jealous now, especially because half of her friends have phones, but it's the one thing Mom and Dad are pretty firm about. No phones before sixth grade. Cece doesn't know how lucky she is – I didn't get mine until I was nearly fifteen.

hey sorry I've been incommunicado! v busy with kitty, we're having a great time, I text. It's just after eight back home; Mom will probably be in bed and Dad will be on the way back from taking Isaac and Cece to school. I don't know how I survived all those years of starting at ten after eight, every morning a fight to get to school on time.

Fliss!! Good to hear from you!! Mom texts. How are you baby? How's Kitty? I've been so worried about her, I can't imagine what she must be going through.

she's actually fine, I reply. like, weirdly so? she's living her best life out here (which ofc is great!! i don't want her to be sad!!!) but like ... she was supposed to get married last week and i feel like no matter the reason that it didn't happen, that's bound to stir up some emotions?

Maybe her happiness is the emotion that's being stirred up? Mom suggests.

hmm. hadn't thought of it like that.

As long as she's okay, that's all that matters! I went for a drink with Sarah last night and she's been so worried, please can you (subtly) encourage Kitty to talk to her mom and let her know she's alright?

Will do, I say, adding a saluting emoji. Kitty and her family are tight knit, as close as close can be when they're all so crazy busy, but her brothers and their wives are so active in the family group chat that she has to keep it muted for her own sanity.

P.s. if Kitty's worried that her parents are upset with her for calling off the wedding, please let her know they're not at all. I think Sarah's feeling guilty, if anything, Mom texts.

she hasn't mentioned anything like that. what's sarah guilty for???

It's a few minutes before Mom replies. I imagine Dad has just made it home and he's debriefing her on the school run, on whatever insane batshit crazy stuff my siblings talked about on the way. They're a pair of total weirdos and I love them to death.

I think because Levi's her friend's son and she introduced them, she's convinced herself that Kitty felt pressure to settle down with him to make the parents happy? I told her she's crazy and Kitty's her own woman! But you know what Sarah's like.

Sarah Cohen is an overthinker. Most of the time she uses it to her advantage, working out every possible angle of a problem, every potential outcome, but it's not so helpful when it comes to second-guessing her kids.