Free Girlfriend Material by Melissa Kantor

problem.”
    I gave Tina the message and fled to the guesthouse.
    Maybe Laura had been different the last time we’d talked, but she was my best friend. I hit her number on speed dial.
    She picked up on the first ring. “Hey!”
    “Can I just tell you how much my life sucks?”
    “Oh my God, Katie, what happened?”
    I launched right into the whole Sarah story. Laura’s a really good listener. She just said, Oh, wow and Oh, no a few times, but she didn’t interrupt me. I was halfway through the scene at the pool when Laura said something I couldn’t quite hear.
    “What?” I said. “Nothing,” she said. “I was just talking to Brad.” “You were talking to Brad? Brad’s there?” I suddenly felt really self-conscious about how long I’d been complaining. “We’re going to a movie in a minute,” she said. “But finish your story.”
    “Um, okay,” I said. But it felt weird to talk to her knowing she was sitting with Brad. Right when I finished, she said something else that I couldn’t hear. “What?” I said again.
    “I said,‘Stop it,’” she said, louder this time. Then she giggled.
    “Maybe … maybe this isn’t such a good time for us to talk,” I said.
    “No, no,” she said. “It’s a fine time. They sound like a bunch of spoiled brats.”
    That made me feel a little better. I liked the idea of Jenna, Lawrence, and Sarah sounding bratty. But what about Adam? I hadn’t even told Laura about Adam.
    “What?” said Laura.
    “I didn’t say anything,” I said.
    “No, Brad did,” she said. I heard her muffled What did you say? And Brad’s even more muffled response. “Brad says you should tell them to go to hell and come back to Salt Lake City, where people don’t suck.”
    Wow, Brad, that’s such helpful advice. And I think you should let me have a five-second conversation with my best friend without offering up your pithy yet useless solution to my problems.
    “Um, thanks,” I said. “Tell him I’ll keep that in mind.”
    “Seriously, Kate, you should just forget about those losers. Summer will be over before you know it. Don’t make a sad face!” she added.
    I was about to tell her that: A) I wasn’t making a sad face, and B) even if I were, she wouldn’t have been able to see it, when I realized she hadn’t been talking to me.
    The sound of a kiss confirmed my theory that it was Brad, not me, who was distressed at the thought that summer’s halcyon days might swiftly come to an end.
    “You know, I should go,” I said.
    “No, don’t go,” she said. “I want to hear more about what’s going on with you. We haven’t talked in days.”
    Even if Laura meant what she said, there was no way I could continue this three-way conversation. “I’ll call you soon,” I said. “I promise.”
    “I miss you,” she said.
    “Miss you too,” I said. But as I hung up the phone, I had the feeling that even if I were in Salt Lake with her, I’d still be missing my best friend.

WHEN I WOKE UP the next morning, my mom was already up and gone. I forced myself to sit on the deck and write. Ms. Baker had said that real writers write every day, and I hadn’t written in almost a week. I kept thinking about Natasha and how angry she was, but I didn’t want to write a story about an angry teenage girl. I could just see Ms. Baker or someone reading it and assuming I was writing about myself. I decided to write a story about a teenage boy who had some of Natasha’s qualities, only the boy version of them. He’d be really short and skinny. He’d be scared of everything. I decided his family was going on a camping trip and he was supposed to have his own tent, only he was scared to sleep by himself. He thinks he’s going to be eaten by a bear, but the dad just says, There aren’t any bears where we’re going . Maybe at the end the boy would get eaten by a bear. That seemed too obvious, though. Maybe he’d just see a bear and know his dad had been wrong?
    When I finished the