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“You haven’t heard me out yet.”

“I don’t need to. Your last revenge plan totally backfired. Mr. Callahan and Miss French are getting married.”

I shook my head at the memory. Miss French had given Hayley a C on her math test, and Mr. Callahan had spoken to her parents about her needing tutoring in biology. So, Hayley decided to exact revenge on the two of them.

She took Mr. Callahan’s biology mascot, a giant stuffed toy heart, and hid it in Miss French’s desk. Then she wrote a ransom note for the heart. It was addressed from Miss French, and the letter demanded Mr. Callahan’s phone number in exchange for his toy. Hayley had hoped to embarrass them both, but her plan failed miserably.

“How was I supposed to know that kidnapping Mr. Hearty would end up being the catalyst for them falling in love?” Hayley asked. She sounded so devastated about it that I couldn’t help but laugh.

“You seem to be doing okay,” she commented.

I let out a breath. There was an ache in my chest, and my insides felt completely hollow, but I wasn’t falling to pieces like I might have expected.

“I guess things hadn't been going well between Jake and me for a while,” I explained. “It was almost like we were already broken up, only neither of us had said the words.”

I’d cried my eyes out when Jake had forgotten to pick me up from work the other weekend. I think in my heart I knew it was over then. The more I thought about it, the more I felt like our breakup was actually a relief.

“I think I’m mostly sad that I’ve lost him as a friend,” I continued. “We were never that great as a couple, but he always used to be a good friend.”

“Yeah, well, he’s banned from being your friend. Good friends don’t say hurtful crap about each other,” Hayley responded.

“Yeah,” I agreed. I still couldn’t believe Jake had told people we broke up because I wouldn’t have sex with him. It was so cliché.

“Madison Matthews!” my mom shouted from downstairs. I rarely heard my mom’s aggressive tone used to call my name, and I knew it meant I was in trouble.

“Oh crap,” I muttered into the phone.

“Your mom?” Hayley asked. I wasn’t surprised she’d heard the scream through the phone. It had practically shaken the walls.

“Yep,” I replied. “I’m dead.”

“It was nice knowing you,” Hayley replied. “I’ll put flowers on your grave.”

I laughed and hung up the phone before slowly making my way downstairs. I hoped that my friend would also pick out a kick-ass inscription for my tombstone. I was fairly certain I’d need it.

* * *

It turnedout I was wrong about my mom and I didn’t require a funeral. I was worried Jake might need one though after I explained the breakup to my mom. She was so livid she threatened to call his mother. It was a reaction typical of my mom. I was mortified at the thought and somehow managed to talk her down, but I had to love her for standing up for me.

Unfortunately, she wasn’t there to back me up and help me fight my battles at school the next day. Seeing Jake in the corridor first thing was like a punch to the gut. He completely ignored me as I walked by him. His gaze slipped right by me like I didn’t exist at all.

Worse still was the way Laurie flirted with him at lunch. I’d grown used to her behavior over the years, but it broke my heart to see him returning it. I thought she was after Cole, but now I was beginning to wonder if she was hedging her bets between the two boys. Either way, I couldn’t bear to watch, so I kept my gaze fixed on my food for the rest of the lunch hour.

There was also the whole “Cadi” thing to deal with. I felt like I was in mourning and yet people kept coming up to me in the corridors to tell me they were rooting for Cole and me. I even had one teacher tell me how much she wished she were young and in love again. I wasn't even in one of her classes, so to say it was a strange conversation was an understatement.

It was a relief to get to work on Thursday night. I rarely saw other kids from school at the gourmet pizza restaurant I worked at during the week. Crust was more of a weekend hangout, so I was looking forward to the few hours where I’d be able to interact with other people without the stupid True Love competition being brought up.

The moment I walked in the door though, I heard a squeal of excitement. “It’s the star of True Love,” Jazz shouted as I walked toward the staff room. “You have to tell me everything!”

I pushed down a shudder—so much for avoiding talk of the competition tonight. How did Jazz even know True Love existed? She was so busy with university, or working as a server in the restaurant, I was surprised she had time to bother herself with a high school dating contest.

“You watched the show on Sunday?”

“Obvi. One of the girls in my dorm has a sister in the competition so we all watched it together, but I had no idea you were in it! Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I wasn’t sure you’d be interested,” I replied. Jazz may be in university, but sometimes she made me feel older than her.

“Of course I am,” she gushed. “And I totally voted for you. You and Cole are so adorable together.”