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It took everything within me to keep from clamping my hands over her mouth. “Would you shut up!”

She tipped her head back and laughed again. “Oh my god, this is so rich!”

I curled my fingers, pressing my lips into a thin line to keep from slapping this girl. Shewasnuts. Edith snapped her head back and placed an arm around my shoulders, finally bringing her volume down. “Look, I like you. I think we’re going to be good friends. But I like Chelsea too. She’s a bitch, like, 80 percent of the time, but the girl kicks major ass, and I like that in a girl. So, as far as I’m concerned, all is fair in love and war, Mara.”

Okay, if I wasn’t convinced she was on drugs before, I wastotallyconvinced now.

She spun around out in front of me, finger up as though she was about to make an important point. “Now, here’s how it all goes down. Chelsea and Matias have got someserioushistory, newbie. Like, they’re on again, off again, for the past year. Right now, it’s off again, ya hear me? She broke up with him a few months ago and left him pretty heartbroken. But she’s decided she wants him back now and has been working overtime to get back into his good graces.”

“Why are you telling me all of this?”

“So you can go in for the kill! Chelsea’s been needing some stiff competition for quite some time to knock her down a peg or two.” She placed a hand on her chest. “I’m her friend, but as her friend, I know when the girl has gotten too full of herself. And that time isnow.” She replaced her arm around my shoulders and started moving us along. “Now, going back to what I was telling you before. If you want Matias, then you’re going to have to step up your game and getinthere.”

“Wait a minute…first off, I don’twantMatias, okay?”

Edith smacked her face with her hands as she groaned. “Ugh…don’t tell me you don’t want him.Everygirlwantshim in this freaking place. They’re just afraid the ginger will rip them a new one if they even try.”

“Andthat’syour way of convincing me to pursue a guy that another girl has clearly staked her claim on?” I arched a brow and asked dubiously, “Are yousureyou’re Chelsea’s friend?”

“Eh, maybe more likefrenemies.”

I snorted, and then without being able to help it, broke out into laughter. It felt good to laugh. And before I knew it, Edith was laughing right along with me. The whole thing was so ridiculous, how could younotlaugh? And talking with Edith like this felt sonatural. I never had friends in Telvia. No one wanted to be friends with the First Daughter of the President. Too risky. Anything you did could have been misinterpreted as though you were a Subclass Sympathizer. No one so much as looked at me until Chase. And now, here I was, standing with a girl who couldn’t care less about who I was,andwas treating me like she had known me her whole life. It was different.

I liked it.

And even though I was still pretty thoroughly convinced that Edith was crazy or walked around high all the time, I decided I liked her too.

“Edith…” I started, not sure how to phrase what I wanted to ask.

“Yeah?”

“Do you guys…do you…do you get to choose?”

Edith cocked an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, you’re talking about me and Matias getting together, but wouldn’t he have to apply to be a match for me or something?”

Edith stopped dead in her tracks, eyes wide like I had grown horns and feathers. “Are you for real?”

I stayed silent, suddenly feeling very self-conscious.

Then she busted out into laughter. “Girl, things are different here. You don’t need toapplyto date someone. That’s Telvian crap. You like someone, then you go out with them. Done. Easy-peasy.”

“Oh.” That was it? No need for permission, no need to pray and hope and dream that Admin would match you with someone you liked.Wow…

She patted my back. Silence fell between us as we started walking again. When the silence stretched and I felt as though I was going to snap, Edith did me the favor of breaking the quiet.

“Chase was a good guy, and…I hear he was a great friend.”

I pressed my lips together as I watched my feet taking each step in front of me. A little lump formed in my throat, keeping me silent.

“You know, I get wanting to save space after he died. I get if you feel like you’re not ready for a relationship. I didn’t mean to be insensitive to that or anything.”

“It’s okay. You weren’t.” I sighed. “It’s not like we were dating anyway. We never even got that far. But…I was hoping we would.”

Silence encompassed us again.

“Matias is a good guy too, you know. And so is Wes.”