The Friday after Nica returned, I was standing at the back door holding it open for a trash run. I was leaning against it with a cigarette in one hand and my weed pen in the other when Layla came outside. It was unusual for two reasons: Layla never came outside and Layla never spoke to me.
“A bunch of us are going to Poe’s after work to celebrate Nica being back if you want to go,” she offered. “Riley’s invited too.”
“Oh-okay.” More shock rippled through me due to the invitation. After what had happened with Mackenzie, I didn’t get invited to go places with her. And Layla and Mackenzie were a lot like Willow and Nica. If one was going somewhere, so was the other. There were only two reasonable explanations I was being invited now: Nica specifically asked to invite me or they were invit
