A group of friends tries to piece itself back together after losing its glue.
*****
It's a quiet October morning in Palo Alto, California, when the news break out--June Beaumont was...
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SOFIA
June hated Thanksgiving.
Therefore, the fact that I was sitting in a coffee shop, surrounded by the newspaper team, instead of enjoying the holidays with my family made me think about her and, in turn, made me miss her even more than I already did.
She'd never been a fan of Thanksgiving for obvious, wise reasons: it was stupid and disrespectful to celebrate the killing of Native Americans by eating dead birds. June had had strong opinions about plenty of things and Thanksgiving was something she'd always been vocal about. Thus, since I was so goddamn bored and annoyed with the holidays, a feeling of kinship washed all over me for a moment.
Then, I remembered she would never complain about it again and sat up straight in my seat before I fell asleep in front of the entire team. Felix would never let me live that down and I needed the newspaper. My college applications had already been submitted and I needed those extracurricular activities to make me stand out in the middle of thousands of applicants; after all, anyone could get good grades, even if they weren't real.
My bitterness aside, my cappuccino was heavenly. I had a cappuccino machine at home, but they couldn't compare to the one I was currently picking at, mostly to avoid taking part in the conversation.
Felix wanted to write a memorial edition in June's honor. Although I wasn't opposed to it, I knew he expected the two of us to be featured writers, since we actually knew her and were close to her, and that was what I was opposed to. I refused to use June's death and so many people's grief just so the newspaper could sell more copies.
They couldn't fool me with empty promises about how they would donate the money to June's family—they didn't need more money, not when they were as rich as they were.
Naturally, I still hadn't said a word to Felix regarding my ambivalence. I knew just how infuriatingly stubborn he was—though I supposed that came with his upbringing, as he belonged to an entire family of lawyers and politicians, and with the fact that he had always been used to getting his way—and I didn't want to pick a fight with yet another one of my friends.
". . . let Sofia do it," someone said, and I jerked up at the mention of my name. It gracefully broke my attempt at pretending I had been listening closely to what they were saying, and Felix's eyes narrowed ever so slightly when he looked my way. "What do you think?"
I blinked. The girl who spoke was Georgina, the person responsible for sharing those rumors about Leon on social media, and I couldn't say I particularly liked her—even before the scandal.
