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She got there first. “You come here to dump me?”

“What? As my date, you mean?”

“Well I don’t mean as your girlfriend.”

I paused. “I wanted to know if you were serious.”

“Duh. Do you have anyone better to go with?”

She was walking faster down the hall now and I had to scramble to keep up. “Not really.”

“Yeah, well, neither do I. So let’s coordinate outfits and look better than both of them, all right?”

She stopped her near-sprint and turned to face me, one eyebrow raised in a challenge.

Well, shit. Who would’ve thought Lara would be asking me to a dance? And who would’ve thought I’d ever say yes?

But I was about to, wasn’t I?

I shrugged, and folded my arms. “All right.”

In my pocket, my phone buzzed, and I pulled it out while Lara blatantly peeked.

Friday, 12:32 PM

Meet me in the parking lot after school?

The parking lot was mostly empty by the time Will sheepishly appeared and shuffled to my car. He offered me a weak smile that I didn’t return. I just leaned against my hood and waited.

“I wanted to tell you,” he said in a low voice as soon as he got close enough.

“Yeah, well, you didn’t.”

“I was going to next time I saw you.”

“You saw me yesterday. You didn’t say athing.You didn’t have any trouble telling the guys.”

“I didn’t, I swear. Jess told Matt.”

“Why did she tell Matt?”

“I don’tknow, Ollie!” he said, flinging his hands up in frustration. “I’m sorry, okay?”

“Sorry you didn’t tell me or sorry you’re going with her?” I asked, my voice hard.

He blinked at me. “It doesn’t mean anything,” he said. “I promise.”

“Yeah.”

“I would go with you if I could.”

I tried to smile, but my muscles worked against me. The thing is, he could. He was just choosing not to. And whether they were good reasons or not, he was still choosing not to go with me. And if he absolutely had to do that, fine, but couldn’t he go alone?

I probably should’ve said that to him, but I didn’t for two reasons. One, because I was terrified he’d hear me practically beg him to do something important for me and still say no. Two, because I didn’t want him to go alone because I asked him to. I wanted him to go alone because he truly believed that if he couldn’t go with me, he didn’t want to go with anyone.

“I can’t wait to see you all suited up,” Will said in a quiet voice. “I really do wish I could go with you.”

He was looking at me in this intense way. No one had ever looked at me like that before. Like I was the most special person in the world, and he’d only just realized.