Next Door to a Star by Krysten Lindsay Hager

you,” she said. “You have to use a hairdryer or sit in the sun to activate it. It looks pretty natural. Come over tonight and I’ll show you.”
    I went over to her house after dinner and she sprayed something called “Sunglazing” in my hair. It smelled like rotten eggs and Windex, but I didn’t complain. She used her hairdryer and my head felt tight and itchy from the heat. It didn’t look much different when she was finished, but she said it would be more noticeable if I sat out in the sun.
    “I use it a lot and my hair’s naturally dishwater blonde. It’s even darker than yours,” she said.
    I was surprised since my hair seemed a lot darker than Simone’s. Her hair was super blonde now.
    “Make sure you put more conditioner on your hair so it doesn’t dry out,” she said.
    I didn’t own any, but Lily had a bottle of Baby Tangles-Be-Gone which said, “extra conditioning” on the label so I figured I could use it.
    “So what’s going on with Connor and Pilar?” I asked.
    “They’re still going out, but I think Pilar told him not to talk to me anymore. He, like, won’t make eye contact with me or anything. It’s so weird.”
    “When’s Lauren coming to town?” I asked.
    “Hmm?” she said as she pulled down the side of her waistband to check out her tan. “My color is getting gross.” She pulled up the bottom of her pink tank top. “I need to put more on.”
    “Put more of what on?”
    “I use this self-tanning cream, but sometimes it wears off kinda splotchy,” she said.
    Now it made sense why she was so tan. I always wondered how she got so much color when she was always putting on sunscreen. Simone put her hair up in a bun with a headband to pull back the little hairs around her face. Then she rolled up the bottom of her shorts and covered herself in tanning cream, which made her look greasy. She padded over to her bed on her heels so her oily feet wouldn’t stain the carpet.
    “Now I have to sit without touching anything for two hours so it can dry. Can you turn on the radio?” she asked.
    Simone’s mom asked if I wanted to stay for dinner. They were having tuna casserole, which I hated, but I called and asked if I could stay anyway.
    “Simone, don’t get the tanning stuff on my furniture,” her mother said.
    “I won’t, Ma.”
    “Well, you left a brown ring on my white couch last week,” she said. “That stuff stinks.”
    Simone rolled her eyes and passed me a plate of casserole. I tried to eat as much of it as I could.
    “Ma, did you use fat-free soup in this?” Simone asked.
    Her mother shook her head. After dinner, we ate leftover birthday cake that had been in the freezer. I never realized how awesome frozen frosting tasted—it was like biting into chewy ice cream. Simone didn’t seem to mind the cake wasn’t fat-free. We went over to my grandparents’ yard after dinner. Simone was still oily from her fake tan and didn’t want to go inside and have anybody see her. The backyard smelled fresh and moist from the sprinklers watering the grass.
    I turned to look at her. “So when is Lauren coming—”
    “Oh man, I got some tanning stuff on my shorts. I gotta throw these in the wash,” she said, tugging at the hem. “Be right back.”
    I took a couple pics of my new hair while I was waiting, and, in a moment of rare bravery, sent one to Nick, asking what he thought of my new look. The second I sent it, I felt stupid and wanted to take it back. Ugh, now I would look so shallow and desperate for his approval. How could I be so dumb?
     
    Nick: Looks really pretty, but you did before too. Was watching the Tigers last night and thought of you .
     
    My face got warm as I wrote back that was I thinking about him too when I watched the last game. Simone walked up then.
    “What are you doing for the Fourth of July?” I asked when she sat down with her new shorts on. I was hoping she’d ask me to watch the fireworks with her, spend the night, and then we’d go get,