Against All Odds by Kels Barnholdt

full-length mirror again. “It’s going to work. You look fucking hot!”
    I smile and pull her in for a hug, but she pushes me back. “No way am I hugging you in that little amount of clothes.”
    “Oh, shut up,” I say shutting the dressing room door in her face.
    Later that night we’re on our way back to Angelina’s house with my purchase happily tucked between our seats. I can’t believe I actually went through with buying it.
    I mean this is a pretty big step. But wearing it will be an even bigger one, so we’ll have to see how that one goes.
    Angelina’s cell phone rings and breaks me out of my thoughts. She hits the Bluetooth button in her SUV to answer. (Angelina’s parents thought it would be a good idea to buy her a brand new car the day she turned sixteen. I, on the other hand, had to work to save up for my car, learning a good work ethic and all that.)
    “Hello?” Angelina says practically screaming. I always tell her the point of having a Bluetooth is to show that you can talk like a normal person and still drive. But somehow she always ends up screaming anyway.
    “Hey there,” Angelina’s dad’s voice comes booming through the speakers of the car. I instantly feel myself smiling.
    “Hey dad,” Angelina says flipping her blinker on and switching lanes, “do you care if Tori sleeps over tonight?”
    Her dad laughs. “Of course not. Just a quick favor though.”
    Angelina’s dad is the best, and absolutely nothing like my dad. He owns his own construction business, but I have no idea how he can be in charge of anyone since he’s like the nicest guy ever. Aren’t bosses supposed to be mean? At least some of the time anyway?
    Angelina’s dad is a lot of things but mean is definitely not one of them. He’s always happy, always laughing. I know it’s horrible to say but I would sometimes go over to Angelina’s house to play when I was little and find myself pretending that her dad was mine. It wasn’t because I hated my dad or anything. I just craved attention from him from a very young age and never got it. Even back then he didn’t treat me like much of a daughter. I secretly think he was hoping for a son.
    “What kind of favor?” Angelina asks her dad.
    “Stop and pick up dinner. We just ordered from Tony’s.” Angelina sighs and rolls her eyes at me. She does this because she hates going to Tony’s more than anything in the world. Not because the food is bad. It’s actually really good. It’s just that Angelina’s ex-boyfriend Jeff works there.
    It’s not so much that Angelina hates Jeff exactly. He’s just kind of an idiot. They dated for like four months when we were all freshmen. And from the start he had always given me a weird vibe. But I figured he made my best friend happy and that’s all that mattered. Then one night we were all at Angelina’s watching a movie. Angelina left the room for a minute to go get more popcorn and Jeff totally grabbed my butt. Naturally, I had to tell Angelina about it right away. I mean she was my best friend after all.
    Needless to say that was the end of their very short-lived relationship. The thing is Jeff doesn’t seem to get why Angelina broke up with him, even though we both explained it to him several times after the fact.
    Anyway, to make a long story short, Jeff is still convinced to this day that Angelina broke up with him because both she and I are in love with him and don’t want to end our friendship over it. This alone should tell you how much of an idiot he really is.
    So every time we go into Tony’s he usually tries to hit on us. He makes comments about us not telling the other one, that it can be on the down low, and you
    “shouldn’t have to fight your feelings” kind of thing. It would be annoying if it wasn’t so funny.
    Well, I should say that I think it’s funny. Angelina, on the other hand, can’t stand him. And she’s now looking at me with a pleading look. So I give her a nod, letting her know that