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“And so when Kelly told me that, I went upstairs and, sure enough, walked in on him with that guy! Seriously, what the fuck?” Jecka complained, taking a french fry and tossing it into her mouth.
“Wow, he’s gay? I could’ve told you that weeks ago,” Nicole said, scrolling on her phone. “Literally just listen to him talk for three seconds and you’ll come to that conclusion.”
Lunch was one of the only periods Jecka had with Nicole—not counting them skipping 4th since she had a test she hadn’t studied for and Nicole wanted an out of theatre. Nicole had wanted them to just skip altogether, but Jecka decided against it. There was a weird kind of novelty, she had realized, of venting about the newest dipshit she’d had to put up with during school. What was the fun in doing that at home, especially with the potential hassle of getting caught?
“He didn’t seem gay gay. Maybe bi at most,” Jecka said, swallowing her fry. “But anyway, he saw me and started pleading with me and shit. He didn’t even put his pants back on, like, do you expect me to say ‘oh, me next!’ or some bullshit like that?”
“Tragic,” Nicole said dryly. “So did you dump his ass?”
Jecka scoffed. “Duh. And I flirted with his best friend in front of him the day after just to rub some salt in the wound. Guys who cheat are so fucking stupid—and at a party that he knows I’m at?”
“They always find a way to fuck it up somehow,” Nicole said, leaning her cheek against her hand. “It’s like they want to end up in a sexless marriage by their 20s.”
“I hope he ends up rotting in the fucking street. God, these taste like shit,” Jecka grumbled, looking down at the basket of fries. “You want the rest?”
Nicole followed her gaze, raising her eyebrows. “After you said that? Fuck no. Besides, I’ve gotta wait for my pizza to cool down.”
“I still can’t believe you eat pizza cold. Actual psycho behavior.”
“Shut the fuck up.”
“But yeah,” Jecka said, slouching back in the hard, plastic cafeteria chair. She checked her phone for a few moments, and went through notifications and messages before shutting it off. She sighed. “Ugh, I’m like that one Sabrina Carpenter song personified.”
Nicole’s eyes flitted to her. “Who?”
“Sabrina Carpenter,” Jecka answered. “Good Graces is so me right now.”
“Who is that?” Nicole asked, sounding genuinely confused as she set her phone down.
“Sabrina Carpenter?” Jecka repeated, giving her friend an incredulous look. “The tiny blonde bitch? She’s a singer? I’ve made you listen to this song befor—you know what, I’ll just pull it up.”
Nicole thought about it for a moment. “…Name’s not ringing a bell.”
“You literally went to Target with me yesterday to buy the CD,” Jecka said, her fingers dashing across her screen as she typed on her phone. “We harassed Jeffrey on the self-checkout line?”
“Oh, okay, it’s coming back to me. Did I tell you how fuckin’ dumb it is you still buy CDs in 2024?”
“I just can’t believe you don’t know her,” Jecka said, glancing up from her phone at Nicole in disbelief. “Like, with how popular she’s gotten, you can’t avoid hearing about her if you tried.”
“There’s so many white bitches who screech into a microphone, it’s become hard to tell them apart from one another lately,” Nicole said sarcastically. “And her music is like if people who make thousand dollar TikTok hauls and are regulars at Crumbl and Erewhon had a love child.”
“What,” Jecka said, crossing her arms, “rich and pretentious Californians who’re up their own ass about everything 24/7?”
“Exactly,” Nicole said, picking up her phone again and letting out a snort. “Makes sense why you like her songs, you drag me with you to Crumbl every week.”
“Bitch, you listen to The 1975, how do you know what’s good music?” Jecka retorted.
Nicole visibly bristled at that, looking up at Jecka in bewilderment. “I would rather kill myself than listen to them, holy shit.”
“Then I guess I must’ve been hallucinating when I saw their songs on our playlist,” Jecka said under her breath.
“Okay, fine, whatever,” Nicole groaned. “Just play me the song.”
Jecka handed her one of her AirPods to put in her ear, putting the other one in her own. She clicked on the song and put her phone down on the table.
“Wait,” Jecka said suddenly, pausing it almost as soon as she hit play.
Her friend stared at her. “We’re literally three seconds into the song. What?”
Jecka went back to the beginning, replaying the acoustic guitar in the intro. “Do you think you could play that part on your guitar?”
“I guess,” Nicole said, and she sounded vaguely amused by the idea. “Why…?”
“It could be cute!” Jecka said. She tapped her fingers onto the edge of the table in sync to the music. “We could, like, make a TikTok out of it. Caption it ‘Good Graces by Sabrina Carpenter but it’s two lesbians singing it’ or something.”
“But—we’re not. I don’t think, anyway.”
“I know, but why not monetize off of it if we can?”
“Shit, you’re right,” Nicole said with a heavy sigh, the bell signaling the end of the period ringing through the cafeteria. She stuffed her phone into her pocket and got up from her chair when she froze. “Hang on, you can sing?”
Jecka pouted, slinging her backpack over her shoulder. “Uh, yeah? Why else would I say that I could?”
“You just don’t seem like the breaking out into song type,” Nicole said, the two of them walking side by side out of the cafeteria. “Besides screaming lyrics in the car when you’re drunk, but it’s hard to appreciate your singing skills when my ears feel like they’re being assaulted.”
“Well, I can sing. Ooh, here, listen to this,” Jecka said, clearing her throat as the chorus began to play. “Boy, it’s not that complicated—”
“Jesus Christ, stop.”
“—you should stay in my good graces!”
“I’m about to take out this goddamn AirPod,” Nicole muttered, pinching the bridge of her nose.
Jecka only turned up the volume on her phone. “That wasn’t anywhere near as threatening as you wanted that to be,” she teased.
Nicole shot her a dirty look. Jecka simply smirked, humming along to the rest of the song as they walked to class.