The Shapiros and I went to a Hard Rock Cafe-type restaurant in Kansas City. The place was filled with people I knew in high school: they were all unemployed. I leaned over to Barb and told her that this is why I didn’t go away to school like everyone else: I didn’t want to see them ever again.

I saw Priya and said hello, but she consciously looked over my head away from me. I also told Barb that Priya had been my best friend since third grade, supposedly.

Jon was there, Kyle C was there, Anna A was there. I asked Anna how the job at the magazine was going: she explained that it was “so embarrasing. Mom announced it before I went for an interview. Turns out they needed a photographer, not a writer.” So she didn’t work there after all.

Somehow Priya had decided to talk me after all and joined me with her new girlfriend Kendra. Priya also thought I was her girlfriend too: she put her arms around Kendra and I and said, “If only I had my girls around me all time…”

I left to go somewhere and then came back to find the Shapiros and high school people gone. A loud woman with short hair and lace pants stood up and said I needed to come sit by her. I sat by her and Erika’s mom. We watched a bad movie: the credits were in an awful font. I know someone got credits for “ad-libs.”