When she was 17 only one of them had a car at any given time. At the end of junior year it was Ashley. But she got in a wreck in the summer. Then they were car-less until Imogen got her's right before the school.

The first thing they did with that new car was drive a few towns over by the lake. Rent a motel. Drink and talk about everything.

While driving back in the morning that's how 

Imogen Howe

felt. Like they had discussed everything. There was nothing else that she was wondering about or wanting to get off her chest. She felt whole and she could feel that Ashley felt the same.

Senior year began. Ashley hung out with the popular kids. Imogen with the artists. Even before the first snow the two had grown apart. Thankfully for Imogen, she was the one with the car. Ashley still didn't have one, but she had plenty of friends with cars. Nice cars. To drive her around. Had Imogen been the one without a 

car

, she would've spent many days stuck at home. Her friends didn't have as many cars. And their cars weren't as nice.

Also they worked more. Ashley's friends were busy in their own way. A way that felt less detached and isolating.  Imogen's friends worked at disparate bars, restaurants, and retail stores. Jobs that made you feel like you were missing out. Exiled from life and friends. Ashley and Co. were busy with sports. The hours spent at practice, and travelling on the road to games. It must've been exhausting, but they must've never felt alone.

After the summer when the two stopped hanging out, Imogen saw it as an inevitability. Even wondered why they had hung out prior to that. Why had they been friends at all? Had it all been fake?

At the motel, right before school started they had drunk an entire fifth of 

Absolut

 

vodka

. That was a lot for just two high school girls. Neither of them puked or got sick. The next day they had a bit of a hangover but that was it. For breakfast they stopped into a 

diner

. There was a large variety of age groups there. The music was loud. The clanking of the cups and dishes was loud. The laughter and conversations were louder. They knew nobody there but it reminded Imogen of a real neighborhood. A community before franchises took over every town and there was no more neighborhood diners to go to.

After eating they drank a few cups of coffee while the waitress kept topping their mugs up. At one point Ashley made some motion that Imogen noticed. Noticed in a way that said to her 'this next question is not like the ones before.'

"Imogen."

"Yeah?"

"What kind of person do you want to be?"

"That's a really weird question," she laughed nervous. "I don't really think about it. I am. who I am. right?"

"I think everyone thinks about it a lot. We go about doing all these things in our own ways. Why? Because we think we are some kind of person."

The sounds of the cafe became louder but didn't distract from Ashley's voice and words. Imogen heard a long sip from a few tables down. 

"This is our last year. I think I'm going to finally be popular," Ashley said.