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Alexander Brougham: rich egomaniac, rude know-it-all, reality TV connoisseur. Interesting. “That’s actually perfect. Use that to get back in touch. Be pleasant.”

“You keep repeating that. Do you think I’d struggle with being pleasant?”

We sat within a long, long pause. “I’m sure you’ll be fine,” I said at last. Honestly, I was proud of my diplomacy. “Love makes people softer.”

“Am I hard?” he asked, with his trademark blank expression.

I went on like he hadn’t spoken. “As early as you can, segue into Disneyland. Say something like you’ve been wanting to go, then ask her if it would be weird to go with her as friends, and say she made it more fun or something. If she doesn’t absolutely hate you, you’d have a good shot at her being down, I think.”

“Tell her I want to be friends when I don’t?” Brougham asked, his dark eyebrows flying up into an arch of judgment and superiority. “That seems manipulative.”

“Well, no. Because right now, youareaiming for friendship. And it might stop there. But honestly, it’snevergoing to go from total silence to back in a healthy, revamped relationship. You need an in-between point.”

I handed Brougham the notebook, and he scanned the steps I’d written down for Stage One. When he looked back up, he’d set his jaw in determination. “You know, Phillips? I can work with this.” He blew out a breath. “When should I text her?”

I locked eyes with him and grinned, the excitement of it all hitting me. I’d get to see how my advice worked in real time. And I might just be able to bring love back into Brougham’s frozen, emotionless life. “Tonight. Do it tonight.”

SIX

Character Analysis:

Alexander Brougham

Thinks he wants a relationship, but is actually terrified of opening up, because he has godawful parents.

Scratch that, that’s an awful thing to say. His relationship with his parents is strained, and this affected his views on the stability of relationships. Says he adored Winona, but went silent on her for a month despite describing the relationship as good.

Is a commitment-phobe!

Therapy needed?

Pretty eyes, I guess. We can work with that.

A knock on the door an hour after Brougham left made me swing around to see Mom, still in her clothes from school.Her sunflower dress had splatters of blue goop on it—presumably from one of the day’s experiments—and her hair was frizzy and coming out of its bun, but overall, she still looked awesome.

Mom had always shunned the clothes available in the plus-size section of most stores. Her philosophy was just because a woman was fat, it didn’t mean she had to dress in clothes designed to make her blend into the background. If society wanted her to take up less space, Mom made a habit of taking up extra to spite it. So she got most of her clothes online, in a style best described asloud.Everything she owned came in vibrant prints and popping colors, from A-line dresses covered in cupcakes to peplum tops in a red and orange zigzag pattern to knee-high boots in raspberry pink.

“Still working, huh?” she asked. Because she had no idea about my whole locker venture, she figured whenever I was hunched over a notebook or papers or a Word document, I was studiously making my way through the week’s assignments. I was more than happy to encourage this misconception.

“Yup,” I said. “I had a friend over after school so I’ll be going for a while yet.”

“A ‘friend’?”

I saw her point. The only “friend” I usually brought over was Brooke, and I’d never referred to her so distantly in my life. Brooke wasBrooke.Brougham wasa friend.And that was being extremely generous. “Yeah. Alexander Brougham?”

Mom blinked in surprise. “He’s in my class.”

“My condolences.”

She folded her arms. Oh god, here it came. “And is he perhaps someone you hope to bemorethan friends with?”

“I’d pay good money to avoid Alexander Brougham ever seeing me like that.”

Mom laughed. “Strong feelings.”

“To put it lightly.”

“Well, we’ll see how that goes,” she said. She had that annoying tone, though. The all-knowing, wise bringer-of-enlightenment tone adults got when they thought they knew you so much better than you did.