The Girl Least Likely Read online

  Dedication

  To the low-key funny girls, hopeless romantics, and anyone who’s ever felt least likely

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Dedication

  One

  Two

  Three

  Four

  Five

  Six

  Seven

  Eight

  Nine

  Ten

  Eleven

  Twelve

  Thirteen

  Fourteen

  Fifteen

  Sixteen

  Seventeen

  Eighteen

  Nineteen

  Twenty

  Twenty-One

  Twenty-Two

  Twenty-Three

  Outtakes

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Books by Katy Loutzenhiser

  Back Ad

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  One

  The Best Friend Crush | Inevitable, apparently. That lifetime of platonic fun was just a cosmic ploy to get you to make out.

  It should be a normal thing, sitting on Sam’s couch. I try crossing my legs, slinging an elbow to one side. God, it’s getting worse. It’s like I’ve forgotten all couch-sitting procedure.

  “Wanna watch something, Gretch?” he calls, walking in from the kitchen. He unloads some chips and seltzers onto the coffee table and my eyes wander his broad frame, tan arms, that one adorable cheek dimple when he peeks up and smiles.

  Stop it, brain. Stop it right now.

  “Sure,” I say as he settles in next to me, my heart banging around in my chest like the frenzied snow outside. He tucks an arm behind his head of dark, floppy curls, clicking through the TV menu. There’s a hole growing in the Office-themed That’s what she said T-shirt I gave him a couple birthdays back, and I frown, silently thanking the universe I didn’t show up looking nice today. I had the impulse, but worried he’d notice any departure from my Hibernating Curmudgeon Aesthetic—fleece leggings, sensible socks, a whole resentful parade of Why Do I Live in Maine?! sweaters. (South Portland, specifically. Or “SoPo” if you want to be cute about it.)

  “What’ll it be?” he asks. “I’ll even do a rom-com and let you commentate.”

  “Moi? Commentate?” I hope I come off breezy. Sam knows I adore rom-coms, almost as much as I adore making fun of them. What he doesn’t know is that right now, I feel a little like I’m trapped inside of one.

  He opens up the chips. “The last one I remember watching was Say Anything. When John Cusack held up the boom box outside the girl’s window, I believe your words were, ‘Go away, you stalker!’”

  “Well, I stand by it,” I say, meeting his smiling eyes. My stomach flips. Nope, there’s no way I can watch hot people fall in love right now. “Actually.” I clear my throat. “How about the new Marnie James Netflix special? It’s really good. And I’m sure I’ll be watching rom-coms with Hen and Carmen later tonight anyway—for New Year’s Eve-Eve. There will be pajamas, Rice Krispies treats. We’re going balls to the wall!”

  Sam laughs. “Hey, where do you think that comes from? Balls to the wall?”

  “Huh,” I say, thinking. “Maybe some guy put his balls on the wall?”

  “I don’t know. Doesn’t really capture the energy of the expression. How does putting one’s balls on a wall become balls to the wall!?”

  “Maybe it was really fun,” I say, rearranging myself on the couch to face him. “Or . . . maybe a bunch of guys put their balls on the wall? As, like, a group activity?”

  “Still, it’s inactive,” he says. “You would think to end up with a meaning like that, there would have been some real movement.”

  “Well, there’s no reason to presume these men were just standing there. I think there could have plausibly been, like, a collective dragging of balls along the wall.”

  “So, like, a synchronized side-waddle?”

  I shrug. “I think it sounds like a blast.” Sam maintains his scholarly frown just a hair longer than I can. Then I snort, completely breaking, and he does too.

  “Okay, how do I look?” asks Sam’s mom as she enters the living room. She’s in a knockout black dress and heels, clearly undeterred by the snowpocalypse outside.

  “Dang, Gabriela,” I say. “I don’t know. Your date might feel inadequate.”

  “Samuel?” she says, smiling at me, and I love the way she says it. Like, Sam-well.

  “Nope, you’re my mom,” he says. “I have no comment.”

  “Of course,” she says, returning her gaze to me as she pulls on a belted jacket and reaches behind the collar to free her long curls. “I have a really good feeling about this guy.” Sam groans slightly. “Sorry, sorry! Oh, and Gretchen, tell your mom I’m bringing brigadeiros to the party tomorrow. And stuff to make caipirinhas. But make her call me if she needs anything else.”

  “Okay,” I say. “I will.”

  She hesitates, looking back and forth between us. I’m confused as Sam shakes his head, but then Gabriela says, “Could you two do me a favor and close for the new girl? I should leave now if I don’t want to be late.”

  “Sure,” says Sam, hoisting himself up before offering me a hand. I feel a little jolt as I take it, but repeat the mantra I’ve been using for months: We’re friends, god dammit. Nothing more.

  Keep Calm Yoga, also known as the whole first floor of Sam’s house, does deliver on its name. It helps that it smells like dried sage leaves down here, and all those nose-tingling oils Gabriela uses to wash the mats. A class is finishing up in back, a voice piercing through some kind of techno-meets-spiritual-awakening music. “The light within me recognizes the light within you. . . .”

  “Get ready for Amber,” sighs Sam as we lean into the front counter. “She’s like some kind of . . . wellness Barbie.”

  I make a face like, Be nice, then tilt my head. “Wait. Is this the one who pitched the workshop series that’s just for your butt? If your mom green-lights it, I have some title suggestions. Booty boot camp? Bun-latees?”

  “You think you’re kidding, but you’re not far off.” Sam’s been openly skeptical about the changes around here. For most of our childhood, Gabriela used this place to teach cat-cow to preschoolers and chair sun salutations to seniors. But as the head of a single-income household now, she’s become more open to the gimmicks.

  This summer they’re trying goat yoga.

  A loud “Ommm” rings out, and after a moment, the door swings open, releasing a wave of hot air. “Great class, ladies,” says the instructor, her voice clearer now. She’s about what I expected: elaborately spandexed and suspiciously tan for a blond girl in December, a presumably profound Chinese word branded above one hip. “Oh, and bee-tee-dubs?” she calls to the room, stacking cork blocks for patrons and tossing straps into a basket. “If you’ve been feeling a little wonky, trust me, it’s not you.”

  “Let me guess,” Sam says under his breath, so close it makes me shiver. “Is Mercury in retrograde?”

  She looks over at us, a surprisingly perceptive glint in her eyes. “Uh, it is in retrograde. Like, bad. I crashed into a parked car today.”

  When the place clears out, we switch Amber’s mix to one of Gabriela’s old bossa nova CDs. The plucks of acoustic guitar are subtle, intimate, somehow bringing warmth to the cold night. It’s nice not needing to talk, spreading out mats and misting both sides before wiping them down with rags. Sam sweeps; I water plants. I lower the thermostat; he goes out front to shut down the computer. When he returns to the studio, he flicks the lights. And now he’s looking at me, in a clean, candlelit room.

  “Hey,” he says, breaking the silence. “Ca
n we sit?” He gestures toward the waxy floor, and I nod, feeling strange as we come to face each other, cross-legged in our socks. The whole arrangement feels too serious for us. He’s studying me and it’s making me nervous. He looks nervous. But then he takes out his phone and swipes. “Xavier turned one today.” He holds out a picture of his little brother smashing a cupcake into his gleeful chubby face.

  “What a cutie. I can’t believe I haven’t met him yet.”

  “It’s hard with them so far away,” he says. “Kind of a dick move on my dad’s part. I can’t even be surly about him remarrying now that he made something that cute.” I smile, waiting. Sam almost never talks about his dad anymore. “Anyway . . .” He lets out a big breath. “You know how they’re leaving Jersey for the city because of Angela’s job, right?” I nod. “Well, when I visited at Christmas, they kind of . . . asked me to come live with them, once school’s out. They took me to see the place they’re buying, and it’s sweet. I’ll have my own room—even my own bathroom. It was kind of too good to pass up, so . . .”

  I open my mouth, but stop short. I must have heard him wrong. “Wait . . . you’re moving away? . . . For your last year of high school?”

  He shrugs, almost helpless. “It’s New York. I always assumed I’d end up there for college. This way I can make sure I really like it before I apply. Plus, my dad said he’d pay for stage combat classes if I go. Like, real ones. Not the dinky workshops you find around here. I could spend my senior year . . . second-acting plays and getting takeout past ten p.m. It’d be a chance to bond with Xavier, too, which would be cool. I want him to know me. Especially since neither of us has much family in the States.”

  I shake my head. It’s a lot to take in. “What about your mom?”

  “That part will be hard,” he says, his face falling a little. “But she supports it. And she’s back out there or whatever now. Which, I mean. Good for her, I guess.” He shudders and I manage to smile.

  “When will you . . . ?”

  “End of June, probably. On the plus side, I’ll be out of here before all the yoga goats get shipped in.”

  I laugh, kind of, my brain already beginning to race. I’ve never known a life without Samuel Oliveira in it. Not one I could really remember, anyway. Things might be different now—really different. But we’re still Sam-and-Gretch, with infinite shared memories, a language, practically a universe that’s all our own.

  I thought we’d have more time.

  To my horror, I feel a tear spill over, but before I can look away, Sam leans in slowly to catch it. I freeze, my heart hammering in my chest. The pad of his thumb is warm against my cheek, lingering there. And now I’m looking at his mouth. I lift my gaze to search his eyes: kind, and funny, with little gold flecks I somehow never noticed. He’s searching my eyes, too.

  Holy shit. Is this what I think this is?

  “Sam?” I whisper.

  But his phone rings.

  Two

  Funny Gal Pals | Your one-stop shop for all love-life analysis, ideally while doing rigorous cardio. At least one has a sass mouth.

  It was a telemarketer. Because of course it was. Still, the interruption was enough to suck all the electricity from the moment. Around the world, lights dimmed over dinner tables and dance clubs went briefly quiet. Finally, Sam said, “Oh, shoot. I think the guys are coming by soon.” And I said, “Uhhhhhhhhh.” Okay, I don’t think that’s really what I said. All I know is, when the silence grew too long, I laughed and wiped my watery eyes. Then he laughed too and we both got up off the floor.

  In my car parked outside, I hold my ruddy-cold hands to the blasting vents, my prehistoric hand-me-down Volvo still freezing despite the five whole minutes it spent heating while I roof-brushed and windshield-scraped and silent-screamed WHY?!?

  I hear a buzz from the passenger seat and turn to see my cousin Carmen’s face lighting up the dark. “Hello?”

  “Where are you?”

  “I was just leaving Sam’s,” I say, still in a fog. “We, um . . . He . . .” Across the street, Keep Calm Yoga is empty now, the sign on the door turned to Closed. A streetlamp glows out front, illuminating bits of falling snow. Sam and I stood in that very spot not long ago, until a few of the football guys came by to pick him up. I think maybe our goodbye was weird. Was it weird?

  “Greeeetchen?” she says, drawing my name out curiously. My cousin doesn’t know about the Samuel situation—my sister, Hen, either. Between our limited texts and their short breaks off from their first semester of college, there hasn’t been a good moment. And I’d hoped these feelings would go away on their own eventually. But now . . .

  Is that even what I want?

  “Sorry,” I say, shoving the car into drive. I feel newly awake—like I might burst if I don’t get over there and start spilling. “I’m five minutes from your house. Prepare yourselves. I come bearing slumber party necessities.”

  “Oh,” she says, a frown in her voice. “Well, we’re actually still at the dorms. Today’s been . . .” She sighs. “Just meet us here.”

  I run all four flights of stairs when I reach the residence hall, the burn in my muscles a nice break from all the thoughts. Driving over the bridge into the Old Port, I looped through strategies, only to narrow my future with Sam down to the three most likely scenarios.

  One: I tell him how I feel, he rejects me, and our friendship never recovers.

  Two: I tell him how I feel, he says he feels the same way, we date, later break up, and our friendship never recovers.

  Or, three: I don’t tell him how I feel, I continue to pine and fester until the day he moves away, at which time all normalcy between us has eroded to the point where it’s too weird to stay in touch, and our friendship never recovers.

  So yeah—I could probably use some outside analysis.

  Carmen’s door swings open before I even knock. “Welcome to our den of misery,” she says flatly, her ponytail of blue-black hair swinging from a fun little bandanna.

  “Well, hello to you, too,” I say, a bit breathless. But then I glance behind her, where my sister is hugging a pillow on the bed, her face streaked with tears. “Shit.” My shoulders slump. “What is it?”

  Hen lifts her gaze to me and sniffs. “Lizzy p-posted a new Instagram story. She looks . . .” The word gets lost in a sob: “Fine!”

  “Come on, Hen,” says Carmen, shooing me inside. “We all know Instagram is a lie. I’m sure Lizzy is just as miserable as you are.”

  “This is the hard part,” I tell my sister, swapping my rubber boots for a pair of Carmen’s stockpiled tsinelas—a cozy bit of home she’s carried with her to the dorms. “But this is what you wanted, right? You hated being long distance.”

  “I know,” says Hen, pulling tissues from her sweatshirt pocket. Even wrecked like this, my sister remains mystifyingly elegant, her strawberry-blond hair swept up in a loose knot, little wisps framing pale green eyes—a sort of modern-day Grace Kelly in Sad Girl Leisure Attire. “I have to get these feelings under control. I’ve barely even studied for my multivariable calculus test that got pushed to after the break. Earlier today I cried at the words divergence theorem.”

  Carmen and I glance at each other, not getting it.

  “You know . . . because Lizzy and I diverged?” After a pause, Hen giggles. To her credit, she’s always been able to laugh at herself.

  “Well, Gretch.” Carmen gestures to the neater half of the room. “You can sit on Sabrina’s bed if you want. Kick her stuff around. Maybe fart into her pillows.”

  “Ew, Carmen!” says Hen.

  “Still mad, huh?” I say, settling onto the traitorous girl’s unsuspecting comforter.

  “Of course I’m still mad!” says Carmen. “Is this something I’m just supposed to move on from? My roommate kissed my boyfriend!” She closes her wing-tipped eyes, sort of . . . power meditating. “Tell me. Truly. What kind of person does that?”

  “A monster,” sighs Hen, giving her nose a loud honk.

/>   I open my mouth, but think better of it. “What?” demands Carmen.

  “Just . . .” I shrug. “I thought you weren’t even that into the guy.”

  “Huh,” says Hen. “I kind of thought that, too. Also, hadn’t you only been hanging out for a few weeks?”

  “Okay, yes,” says Carmen. “I actually got the vibe he was kind of a bullshit artist. Super vague if you asked him about himself. And cute, but too . . .” She searches for the words. “Like, hardy-har jokey all the time.”

  “What’s his last name again?” asks Hen. “I want to do some Google stalking.”

  “You know what? Don’t,” says Carmen. “I’m done talking about him. This is about the girl code. You just don’t go around kissing your friend’s new boo.”

  Hen’s breath hitches. “I miss kissing my boo!”

  “Crap,” says Carmen, climbing onto the bed to put an arm around her. “Come on. Let’s really try it. No more Lizzy talk.” Hen tucks herself into the crook of Carmen’s neck, letting her breathing slow.

  For a second I feel left out, watching them—like I’m five again, and they’re seven. We feel like our own little girl gang now, but growing up, Hen and Carmen were always a unit—practically another set of twins, just like Mom and Aunt Viv. One white, one half Filipina, the resemblance is still striking, with their heart-shaped faces and button noses, Pantene Pro-V hair, and lanky extremities. They clearly took the bulk of our mothers’ identical DNA.

  By contrast, I’m basically my dad without the mustache: thick brown waves; round face; the low-to-the-ground, sturdy build of a reliable farmhand. There are advantages. If the zombie apocalypse ever strikes, I’d bet on me.

  Hen swipes her eyes. “Stupid Stanford. Why’d she have to go so far away?”

  At the words far away, I picture Sam in New York next year, and wonder where we’ll have left things by then. Will we be friends? More than friends? Deceased from sheer awkwardness?

  “At least you’ve been in love,” Carmen is saying.

  “Hey, um . . .” I really got sidetracked here.

  “I don’t know,” sighs Hen. “I’m starting to think love isn’t worth it.”