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if they knew what was good for them, so I was a little surprised when Lily herself came tripping over to our table Friday at lunchtime.
    I lifted my head from my plate of wilted chicken salad, gave her a bit of my patented evil eye, and went back to talking to Dot.
    “It’s blue with this tiny geometric print,” I explained, trying to describe the skirt I was planning to buy on the weekend. “It’s Marc Jacobs via New Look.”
    “Sounds cool,” Dot said, slanting her eyes over at Lily who was shifting from foot to foot.
    “It is, but I don’t know if I’ve got anything that goes . . .”
    “Isabel, can I talk to you a minute?”
    I could hear Lily perfectly, but I carried on extolling the virtues of the skirt to Dot, like it was the finest example of haute couture.
    “Look, Isabel, I think we should try to clear the air or something. ”
    Dot smiled thinly. “Hey, Is, did you just hear this weird squeaking noise?”
    I’ve spent years perfecting the nonchalant shrug that I gave. “Maybe it was just your imagination.”
    Lily must have had a total death wish because she pulled out the empty chair next to me and sat down.
    Worse than that, she touched my arm. I stared at her stubby fingers curled around my sleeve and very gently shook my wrist.
    “What happened last term . . . We both did stuff . . . Y’know, and I thought . . .” She was giving me nothing but word salad, before she exhaled angrily. “Isabel, I’m trying to apologize!”
    “Are you going to manage a complete sentence before the bell goes?” I rested my chin on my hand and watched her bottom lip tremble. “What exactly do you want to apologize for?”
    I could see her mentally count to ten, though she got stuck around five. “I thought we could forget what happened and I wanted to tell you this all week, but well . . . I’m sorry about your mum.”
    “What about her?” I asked flatly. “What are you sorry about?”
    She laughed nervously and looked at Dot for some clarification but Dot was staring at her bag of crisps like they were about to break into song.
    “I’m sorry about your mum,” Lily repeated. “About what happened.”
    “You should be,” I said gently. “ ’Cause, if you think about it, it was your fault really.”
    It was really fascinating to watch the color drain out of her face as if someone had adjusted her contrast button. “That’s a terrible thing to say,” she gasped, her pink lip gloss even more garish against her blanched skin. “I thought you’d be different.”
    I knew she did. Everyone did. They wanted me soft and weak so they could stop being scared of me.
    They were going to have a long wait.
    “Well, I’m not,” I said, feeling my top lip curl with disdain and that bitch-goddess tone edge into my voice. “Business as usual. Now why are you still sitting there?”
    Lily scrubbed her hand over her eyes, which were leaking tears, as usual. “Your mum died!” she screeched, ensuring that everyone in the canteen was now giving us their undivided attention. “And if you weren’t such an evil cow, then you’d be upset about it.”
    I put my hand to my heart and made an “ouch” face, like I was bothered. “Listen, sweetie, so I’m one

    parent less—that doesn’t change the fact that you gave that baseball cap-wearing twat a blowjob and everyone knows you’re a skeevy ho. Sucks to be you, huh?”
    She was rooted to the spot, opening that famous mouth of hers as wide as it would go. Didn’t look like she was going to be moving anytime soon, which just made it easier to nudge my half full can of Diet Coke with my elbow as I got up so she was drenched in a sticky deluge of brown droplets that soaked into her white top.
    “You should really wear more black,” I advised her, gathering up my jacket and bag. “Doesn’t show the stains quite so much, does it?”
    “You bitch,” she breathed as if she couldn’t quite believe she’d just had a Diet Coke shower.
    Dot bumped her shoulder