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She must be hungry if she’s willing to risk Marcus suspecting something. Shit. I should have offered her a snack. “Yeah, totally. We’d love to. We’ll be down in five.”

My brother tries to send me a silent message, but I’m too overwhelmed to comprehend it, so I just push him out of the door. When I turn back around, Felicity is holding the notes in her hands.

Her eyes light up as she switches her attention from the notes to me. “Of course it was me. I didn’t know how to say it in words, so I had to write it first. That helped me find the courage to actually come out to you.”

I can’t believe it. Really. It almost seems impossible that it would be her, but she has no reason to lie. And the timing was just too perfect for it not to be her. “You could have just told me. I mean, come on, you’re Felicity Jax. I’ve had a crush on you for years.” I rub at the back of my neck. I can’t believe I actually just admitted that.

Felicity drops the note and closes the space between us. She brings a hand to my face and runs her finger along my cheek. “You make me brave.”

Then something happens that I never in a million years thought would. Felicity Jax kisses me.

Chapter 7

*Love Interest*

It’s been almost a month since I wrote my third letter to Marjorie and I have yet to hear back. She seemed so sincere in her reply to my first two letters, that I really thought she meant it when she said I could talk to her. I rack my brain about what I possibly could have said wrong. Maybe I didn’t cross out the part about her being amazing well enough and she saw it and got freaked out. I’m an idiot.

As I’m standing by my locker chastising myself for this, Marjorie walks up to me with a piece of paper in her hands. With the way she’s holding it, I can’t tell for sure, but it looks like it’s my handwriting. Oh, God, what if it’s my note?

As if reading my mind, she asks, “Is this yours?”

I’m afraid to look because if it is my note that means she knows I’m her secret admirer and the fact that she didn’t write back isn’t a good sign. When I finally grab the paper, I find that it is mine, but luckily, it’s not my note to her. Instead, it’s notes for an essay I have to write for my history class.

“Oh yeah, that’s mine. Where did you get that?”

She points her thumb behind her. “Found it over there.”

As she studies the piece of paper in her hand, I’m so happy that the chicken scratch I use to take notes looks so much different from my handwriting on the notes to her. Still, I grab it out of her hands before she can look any closer.

“Sorry,” I say when I realize how rude that was. “This is just really important. It would suck if I lost it.”

“No problem. I get it.” Marjorie plays with her blonde ponytail. “So, how was your day?”

“It was great.”

The smile on her face is so pretty that it lights up the whole room. “That’s great.” She pulls her phone out of her pocket and stares down at it, then she looks back at me with apologetic eyes. “Sorry. I have to go. Have a good night.”

Before I can say anything else, she walks away.

***

I let out a long sigh as I sit down for a late dinner with my mom.

“Still haven’t heard back?” she asks knowingly.

“No.” I shrug as if it’s not a big deal, even though we both know it’s killing me. “I’m just happy I was honest. Well, kind of.”

“What if you turned that kind of into a completely?” My mom lifts an eyebrow as if she’s challenging me.

My stomach immediately goes into knots. “Just thinking about that makes me want to throw up, so how about no?”

“I just don’t want you to be sad or disappointed. You’ve had too much disappointment in your life.”

We both know she’s talking about my father even though she doesn’t say it out loud. “I’m fine, Mom. I promise.”

“If you say so.” She watches me as if she’s waiting for me to crack, but that’s not going to happen. I really am fine. At least, I will be. “Maybe you should call Bug or one of your other friends and see if they want to come over and watch a movie or something.”

I shake my head. “I think I’m just going to go to bed early so I can get up and go to the Senior Acres before school tomorrow.”