count on me (l.h)

"entirely coincidental"

"Perfect timing, eh?" Madalyn boasted before taking a step toward me and wrapping her arms around my frame. "I brought tequila."

"Oh, great," I joked, sending Emma a wink over Madalyn's shoulder. They both walked inside and we made our way to the living room once I had closed the door. "Well, what's first on the agenda?"

"Isn't Kate coming?" Jenna asked with a confused look on her face. I shook my head as I crossed over to the smaller couch, taking a seat beside Emma. "Well... why not?"

"She texted saying she wasn't feeling well," I told the girls. Jenna eyed me suspiciously which caused me to chuckle. "What?"

"Why didn't she text in our group chat?"

"She texted me about it before class, so I guess she just didn't think to say something to everyone," I explained with a shrug of my shoulders. "D'you miss her or something?" I joked but knew I wished she could have come.

"She's become a regular! It's strange to not have her around." I agreed with Jenna and was glad she felt that way.

"Hopefully she gets to feeling better," Madalyn chimed in as she got comfortable on the other couch, next to Jenna. "Switching lanes, however, I think we're all in need of a good update from one another—to start off the night."

"I agree!" Emma said, nodding her head. "I haven't heard much from the two of you since last weekend, so I'm going to need to get caught up to speed," she demanded, referring to Jenna and Madalyn.

"I'll go first!" Jenna exclaimed, seeming excited. "I don't really have much to say, honestly. I got two papers and an exam back this week, and aced all of them," she began with. Once the words left her mouth, we all cheered for her which caused her smile to grow. "Hmm, what else? Oh! Danny and I went to a new place downtown Tuesday night and got tacos. It was delicious. And not that things are ever questionable between the two of us, but things are especially good, I'd say. It'll be three years in January, and that makes my head spin."

"Oh, shit," Emma muttered, clearly not realizing how long they'd been together. "I knew you guys started dating your freshman year, but it never really occurred to me how long that was in years, if that makes sense."

"It's gone by so fast, but it's been so amazing," Jenna said with a smile. "The last thing I ever expected was to get into a relationship so fast. I had never even kissed a guy before meeting Danny," she admitted to Emma.

"Wait... really?"

"Mhm," Jenna said with a bashful smile on her face. "Isn't that something? I'd only been on one date in high school."

"That's sort of incredible," Emma said through a laugh. "I had absolutely no idea."

"And now they'll probably get married and Jenna will have never had to deal with the bullshit that some relationships bring about," I pouted jokingly. Nothing would make me happier for Jenna and Danny to get married and be happy together forever. Danny had one crazy ex-girlfriend, but I'd say that they had both gotten pretty lucky to find each other so early on.

"So... you've only ever had sex with Danny?" Emma asked which caused me to chuckle. Emma wasn't a prude by definition, but she rarely talked about sex or anything of the sort. The closer she got to Madalyn and Jenna, the more comfortable she seemed to get with such topics.

"Yep," Jenna answered proudly. "And it took us quite a while to get there," she said through a snicker. Thinking back to the beginning of their relationship made me chuckle, and I knew Madalyn was thinking about the same things. It had taken a while to get Jenna to open up to us, but once she had, it was impossible to get her to keep anything to herself. "He's a good one. That's all I have to say about that."