Page 1 of The Friendsgiving Pact

Chapter One

Avery

Avery tripped over Savannah’s (thankfully unplugged) curling iron as she hauled her laundry hamper out of her—their—closet. She wasn’t quite used to sharing a room yet, even three months in. “So you’re already home?” she said, loud enough that her phone’s speaker could pick it up.

“Got in last night,” Cam’s familiar voice replied. “Will you be at Grace’s party?” As he spoke, Avery’s phone was simultaneously buzzing with multiple messages, although she was pretty sure it was just Harper, Grace, and Tommy making plans for the next week. Since she’d already sent in her votes (yes to Harper’s cousin’s wedding on Saturday, maybe to Tommy’s suggestion of brunch, absolutely not to Grace’s suggestion of lunch at the country club on Sunday, since Avery hated that place and Grace only wanted to go to see if her current crush was bartending), she ignored it. Theo would be arriving any minute now, and he got crabby if she was running late.

“Yeah, we might be a little late, but we’ll be there,” she said.

“We?”

“Me and Theo,” Avery said, fishing a pair of shoes out from under half a dozen of Savannah’s heels.

“Theo, huh?” Cam said, a chill creeping into his voice. Theo and Cameron had never gotten along, a fact that had made her senior year of high school significantly more difficult. Having a best friend and a boyfriend who didn’t particularly like each other wasn’t very fun. Cameron sighed, a burst of static. “Can we talk at Grace’s? Alone?”

Before she could answer, her door swung open and in walked Theo himself without even bothering to knock. “You don’t lock your door?” Theo scolded.

“Not when I’m in here, doofus,” she snapped back, even as she launched herself into his arms for a hug, Cameron momentarily forgotten. Theo had gotten a little broader over the past few months, but he still felt like home. “And sorry I’m late.”

“Do you really think I’m surprised?” Theo replied into her hair. He put her down and flopped into her desk chair like he did it every day. He had managed to visit only once since the semester started, even though Hilleboe College was just forty minutes away from the University of Minnesota, but there was something that felt familiar about him being in her room, spinning in her chair while she dug more clothes out of her almost-bursting closet to pack. Her side of the room was fairly stark. She hadn’t quite figured out how she wanted to decorate it yet, so all that was on the walls was one Van Gogh poster she’d bought from a stand in the quad during move-in. Savannah’s wall was covered in posters displaying the schedules of the football and hockey teams, a bulletin board with photos of her high school friends, and, rather incongruously, one small indie punk band poster next to her bed. Avery had asked her about it once, and Savannah had simply said, “They rock,” with a shrug and then left for her econ class.

“That must be Theo,” Cameron said, sounding less than thrilled. “Can we talk when you get here? Just us?” he repeated.

Theo frowned down at her phone. You’re talking to Cameron? he mouthed at her.

Shut up, she mouthed back. “Sure, Cam. But I have to finish packing right now, so I’ll see you there, okay?”

“Okay,” Cameron said, and there was a pause. “And Avy? I miss you.”

“Miss you too, Cameron,” Theo said sarcastically as Cameron hung up, meeting her glare without flinching. He raised his eyebrows. “‘Avy,’ huh?”

“Are you going to be a jerk about this?” she replied, mimicking his expression.

“Just didn’t know you guys were back on speaking terms, that’s all,” he said mildly. “Seems like she really likes pink,” Theo added, nodding toward Savannah’s side of the closet.

“So do lots of people. Besides, the sorority she’s rushing has a strict dress code for pledges,” Avery shrugged, accepting Theo’s truce. On paper, she understood why the dorm put her with Savannah: They were both political science majors, they had nearly identical high school résumés, and Avery’s parents were doctors while Savannah’s were lawyers. But Savannah cared a lot about things like sororities and parties and football games, whereas Avery had always lacked the school spirit gene. Savannah was nice enough and she wasn’t a bad roommate, but mostly they were just awkward with each other.

Avery’s phone buzzed again, and Theo unlocked it with her code. “Hey, that could be private,” she whined.

Theo rolled his eyes while he read her messages. “Since when has anything been private between us? I’ve bought you tampons, for chrissakes. Tommy says Grace’s cousin is getting the keg for tonight, and Harper is annoyed there will only be beer, so she’s trying to convince him to get wine coolers too.” He ran his hand through his dark curly hair while he scrolled, brow knitted. “And how long have you been talking to Cameron again?”

Avery kept pondering her choice between two dresses for the Friday night dinner at the Itasca Country Club—one navy, one grey—and shrugged. “Does it matter?” Truth be told, she did want to talk to Cam. It had never felt like a clean break with him; more of a slow unraveling that was still dangling, a thread she kept trying to cut but couldn’t. But even though she wanted to talk, another part of her knew she needed to keep from getting tangled up with him again.

But Theo was still scrolling through her phone. “Wait, you’ve been texting with him for over a week? ‘Will you be going to the Christmas Kick-Off over break? We had so much fun last year,’” Theo read. “Was that the night he got drunk and puked all over the parking lot?”

Avery wanted to say, You’ll have to be more specific, because, unfortunately, Cameron had gotten drunk and puked in the country club parking lot several times during their relationship, but bringing that up would just make Theo dislike him even more. It was really the only friction point in their friendship, and she’d rather not get into it.

Especially since, yes, obviously she had been talking to Cameron again for a few weeks. Their original plan was to try long-distance—she’d stayed in-state and he was out at Boston College—but in September, just three weeks into the school year and after several days of not answering her texts, Cam had dumped her over FaceTime. “I just think this isn’t fair to either of us,” Cameron had said, and then a week later a statuesque brunette started showing up in all his Instagram stories. She’d disappeared fairly quickly, though, and Cameron had started texting Avery again just after Halloween.

It was hard, making a clean break from him. Their parents were friends—his were on the board at the hospital—and there was something so uncomplicated about Cameron. He wasn’t stupid, but he was easy to read in a way that made Avery feel comfortable, if not particularly excited or passionate. She felt more at home with Theo, but Cameron didn’t make her angry the way Theo could when he got into one of his brooding moods. And while Cameron didn’t always understand her, he also didn’t do that thing Theo did when he could see right through whatever facade she was attempting to maintain.

“Aves, you cannot be serious,” Theo started, and Avery snatched her phone out of his hands.

“Stop it,” she ordered. “If I want to talk to Cameron, I can.”

“Please tell me you’re not thinking about getting back with him,” Theo said, with just a hint of desperation in his voice. That wasn’t like Theo, as Theo didn’t plead. He was stoic to the point of being irritating sometimes, and the urgency in his tone caught her off guard.

“If we’re going to make it to Grace’s party tonight, we should get going. It’s starting to snow,” she said instead.