One Year (New & Lengthened Edition) Read Online Free Page B

the thought. Though I’ve already officially had dinner with my parents, I don’t count it as dinner. The portions were minuscule and the conversation was treacherous.
    When we get to the pizza place, I quickly realize that Dylan was not in fact exaggerating about the size of those slices. They’re huge. Very thin with not too much cheese, but enormous nevertheless. I order one and it looks like a whole 20” pizza at home, only in slice form. Luckily, the plates and tables are equally large and we have room to spread out with our slices.
    I avoid Tristan’s gaze practically the whole dinner. And he does well in avoiding mine as well. Instead, we both concentrate on Dylan and Juliet, who have enough to talk about for all of us. Dylan talks about running track in high school and summering in the Hamptons. Juliet moans about her dad’s decision to buy a house on the Jersey Shore instead of the Hamptons.
    “The Hamptons aren’t that great.” Dylan tries to comfort her.
    “Oh please, don’t give me that.” She waves her hand as if she’s insulted.
    “What?” Dylan laughs, taking another big bite of pizza.
    “I hate people who pretend the Hamptons aren’t that great even more than people who actually summer there! It’s like those girls who pretend that they don’t like diamonds. Am I right?” She turns to me.
    I shrug. “Sorry, I’m the wrong person to ask. I’ve never been to the Hamptons. And I don’t really like diamonds.”
    Juliet looks at me as if I’m insane. “Oh, you’re impossible!”

----
    “ A ll in all , I think that has been a great first day, wouldn’t you say?” Juliet asks me as she gets undressed. I’m already lying in bed, reading on my phone.
    “It could’ve been better.” I shrug. “But I do like you and Dylan.”
    She laughs. “I don’t know about Tristan. He’s difficult to read. What’s he like?”
    She catches me off-guard. I don’t know what to say.
    “You know him really well, right? I was just wondering. He seems quiet.” She puts on a pair of blue pajama pants and a tank top and climbs into bed.
    “I don’t really know. I don’t really know who he is anymore,” I say. I know she’s waiting for me to elaborate. So I take a moment to consider the question.
    “No, he’s not really quiet. Not at all. He’s loud and opinionated. He’s headstrong. I don’t know why he seems quiet. Well, no. I know; it’s because of me. He definitely didn’t expect to find me living here, either.”
    “So, what did happen between you two? Tell me everything.”
    It would take a whole night to tell her everything.
    “We were childhood friends. Best friends, really. For many years. And then in 11 th grade, we finally started dating. There was this thing building up within for a few years before that. We told each other everything. Hung out all the time. I had a crush on him forever. But then in 11 th grade, he suddenly kissed me. And everything fell into place.
    “We dated for two years. It was hard. His family moved to San Francisco the year before our senior year because his dad got a really lucrative job at an education technology start up.”
    “His parents made him move his senior year? That’s rough!”
    “Yeah, it was. At first, he was going to stay with a friend, but that didn’t work out. But he’s got two little brothers; they’re in elementary school. So it’s not just him that his parents had to consider.”
    “So what happened?”
    “Well, we decided to continue our relationship. Long distance. He came down for Christmas and then for the whole summer. He stayed at a friend’s house.”
    I stopped talking and looked at the ceiling. It was an old popcorn ceiling, and it reminded me of the kind of ceilings they have in shady motels. I couldn’t go any further. I wasn’t ready. But Juliet wanted to know more.
    “So?” she asks. I look over at her. She’s lying on her stomach with her arms wrapped around one of the ten throw pillows she piled on her