elise 's old friend , melanie , starts hopefully showing up at the coffee shop-regretting her decision to take lindsay 's side now that the queen bitch is off in europe for the summer-and just like that , elise and i have our own group , to hang out together in that back booth at the diner after a late night , to drive upstate to her vacation home in new hampshire , or to just sprawl in one of our big , empty houses , sneaking liquor and smoking weed and watching school loom closer like a jail sentence at the end of summer .