“That's a ‘yes’, then.”

I chuckled and rubbed Mari's shoulder.

“We talk about everything."

“What do you two say about me?"

“Mari!"

"I'LL tell you what we say about you."

I arched an eyebrow. "There's a crude saying: Bros before hoes. I'm pretty sure there's a female version.”

“Chicks before dicks."

“There you are. I can't let you betray Belle’s trust."

“I suppose. Still, there's so much I want to say to you now; it just feels wrong to NOT let you know what I know. Things are different after giving you my virginity. I feel so much... closer... to you. Nothing's ever going to change that. No matter what happens to us ten years from now, fifty years from now, I'm always going to remember you.”

I smiled. "I said something similar to Sam."

“She's in love with you, by the way. Sam.”

I sighed.

“She's just horny."

“She's always been horny. Now she's in LOVE, and she gets jealous, even though she tells herself not to be. She's jealous of how much time

Belle gets to spend with you. She's jealous of the way you stare at

Neevie like she's the most beautiful thing you've ever seen. She's even jealous of me for being able to deep-throat you.”

I looked down at Mari with a frown. "What happened to ‘chicks before dicks'?"

Mari ignored me.

“Neevie's in love with you, too. She's always wanted to be your girlfriend, like... your actual girlfriend, not just the

BIC's girlfriend. She's told me these daydreams about going for long drives in a convertible with the top down, just the two of you, stopping on a beach, and sitting between your legs while you kiss the back of her neck and watch the sunset. She wishes she could walk around the school on your arm, go to parties on your arm, do restaurant dates every week, watch plays, all that jazz. I think, actually, she was really close with her boyfriend back in Ireland, and she misses having that kind of pair-bonded closeness."

I had been smiling all through the first part of that, but the end bit about the ex-boyfriend in Ireland gave me pause. It made me feel like a replacement for Naimh's true love, and I wondered how much of her feelings for me were real and how much were projected.

“But that thing with Alice really messed her up," Mari continued, oblivious to my ruminations. "She's hesitating and holding herself back. She doesn't want to do anything to rock the boat, and I feel Like even if she had a ‘Neevie Tuesday’ to be in charge, she'd actually spend most of her time trying to make the rest of us happy instead of thinking of herself, just to avoid feeling like she was being selfish.

You notice she's not chirping as much or playing the instigator anymore."

“Huh...” I pondered that.