How It Ends by Catherine Lo Page B

why Larissa would invite me over except as some cruel joke.
    â€œA week from Friday. It’s not, like, a huge deal or anything. My parents will be there. But I thought it would be fun. I was sort of hoping we could all be friends again. You know, move on from the past?”
    I forced my face to look puzzled, as though I didn’t know what she was talking about. As though it had escaped my notice that she’d dumped me as a friend as soon as Courtney declared me uncool, and as though the whole Lezzie Longbottom thing had never happened. “Sure! That would be great! But Annie and I have plans that day. This totally sucks, but my parents are having this thing, and—”
    â€œLarissa!” Annie came bounding up at the exact wrong time.
    â€œHi, Annie!” Larissa’s smile was genuine, and I could feel things slipping away from me.
    â€œCourtney told me all about the party!” Annie said, linking her arm through mine. “We’ll be there for sure. I’m so ready for a party.”
    â€œJess said—”
    â€œIt’s that Friday two weeks before Halloween,” I interrupted with exaggerated dismay. “We can’t make it,
remember?
”
    Annie wrinkled her forehead in confusion. “Why not?”
    â€œMy parents are having that
thing.
”
    â€œWhatever,” she said with a dismissive wave of her hand. “Your mom is totally chill. She’ll be fine with us going to a party instead.” Annie turned to Larissa. “Don’t worry—I’ll talk to Mrs. Avery. We’ll be there for sure.”
    On the way home from school, I tried to make a joke out of the whole misunderstanding. I wasn’t ready to believe that Annie might actually
want
to go to Larissa’s.
    â€œI so cannot believe you didn’t get my signals about the party.”
    â€œWhat are you talking about—signals?”
    â€œThe
signals!
You know, my parents’ plans . . . I was trying to give us an out.”
    Annie stopped walking. “Why would we need an out?”
    â€œYou’re playing with me, right? This is Larissa Riley we’re talking about. The girl who’s been tormenting me since middle school and has never so much as said hello to you before today. Do you actually believe anything good could come out of this invitation?”
    Annie put her hands on her hips and raised an eyebrow at me mockingly. She looked far too much like my mother at that moment. “You’re paranoid,” she declared.
    â€œYou’re delusional.”
    Annie adjusted her backpack and started walking, not even checking to see if I was following. “I don’t know why you have to be like this, Jessie,” she lectured. “You’re always so damn suspicious. If you just stopped being such a pessimist, maybe you’d find that there are lots of people at school who actually want to be your friend.”
    I snorted and immediately wished I could take it back. Annie just picked up her pace. I had to run to catch up to her. “I just don’t understand why you would want to go to a party with a bunch of people who you yourself have called phony.”
    â€œThat was before I got to know them.”
    â€œSince when do you know them?”
    Annie stopped abruptly and I nearly crashed into her. “I keep thinking about how we’ve both complained that no one at school looks beyond appearances—that people just judge before they get to know anyone. That’s been our biggest complaint about Courtney and her friends, right?” I shrugged my shoulders noncommittally. “Well, don’t you think we’ve been doing the same thing? We’ve talked shit about Courtney and Larissa all year, laughing at their Facebook pages and making fun of them. But when you think about it, we were totally judging them without getting to know them.”
    â€œMaybe for you, but I’ve known them long enough