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“Or we don’t have to talk about it. We can just sit here in silence and look at the stars and the trees and smell the ocean air. I didn’t realize you could smell it here. I guess it makes sense; it’s just over there. But it seems so far away because there’s not a direct way to it from here. You’d have to go through downtown or up by that fishing cove off Cumberland.”

“Ellie.”

“Or, I mean, if you do want to talk about it, I can tell you that Abigail Massey is a bitch and the whole school thinks so now. If they didn’t already. Which I’m sure they did. She is such a bitch. You could press chargers if you want—I think. I think I remember reading about that somewhere. But maybe not. I don’t know. But I do know this probably absolutely sucks right now, and I hate it for you, but I think it’ll all be old news soon.”

“Ellie,” Sadie said again, stopping Ellie’s nervous rambling.

“Yeah?” Ellie nervously smiled at Sadie.

“Thank you for coming.”

Swallowing hard, Ellie scooted over toward Sadie. Their hips touched slightly, and for the first time ever, Ellie could feel something change within her. She was no longer looking at Sadie, her friend. She was looking at Sadie, the girl shereallyliked.

“There’s no place else I’d rather be,” Ellie said softly, her voice barely above a whisper.

Sadie slowly leaned her head toward Ellie resting it on her shoulder. Ellie’s heart rate quickened as she nervously licked her lips and put an arm around Sadie. It felt more perfect than anything in the world. Her arm around Sadie with her head on her shoulder was a memory Ellie never wanted to forget.

“I can’t believe I was dumb enough to send Trevor that picture in the first place.

“You’re not dumb.” Slowly, Ellie moved her free hand across her lap toward Sadie’s hand, which was absentmindedly resting on Ellie’s thigh. Their fingertips touched, and to Ellie’s relief, Sadie didn’t pull away. “We all make mistakes.”

“I’m sorry I sent that picture to you.”

So it was an accident.

Ellie didn’t know why that made her sad. But she didn’t have time to dwell on it. Her only goal was to make Sadie feel better.

“It’s okay,” Ellie smirked. “It was a great picture.”

Sadie quickly whipped her head up to look at Ellie, nearly bopping her head against Ellie’s chin in the process.

“I’m just saying,” Ellie laughed, noticing that Sadie was blushing.

“You really think so?”

“Well, yeah.”

Shrugging, Ellie tried to figure out how much she should tell Sadie. Should she tell her she liked her? Or would that scare her away? Maybe it was too soon for that. After all, they were just kinda sort of becoming friends. Ellie didn’t want to risk that and ruin their budding friendship if Sadie didn’t feel the same way.

Sadie pulled her knees up to her chin as she sighed.

“I just wish I could go back in time and never send Trevor that picture.”

Ellie noted how she didn’t seem to regret sending the picture to her.

“I know I need to tell Mom and Charlie what happened, but I’m so embarrassed. I’m embarrassed I took it and sent it. I’m embarrassed I ever thought Trevor Mariano was interested in me. Because, of course,he was wanting to make Abigail mad. She’d dumped him for that hockey player, remember?”

“Vividly. I was in the lunchroom when the drama went down.”

“Lucky,” Sadie chuckled. “I never get to see the drama firsthand. Did he really throw his sandwich at her?”

“Yup, and it was peanut butter so it stuck to the back of her uniform like a magnet.”

“Excellent.” Sadie laughed, really laughed, and Ellie soaked in the sound of it. She liked knowingshehad made Sadie laugh. Had made her smile that gorgeous smile that could make any day better. Ellie was sure of that.

But her smile slowly faded as she looked up at Ellie.

“I don’t know how to tell Mom and Charlie what happened. You know what I told them happened to make me want to leave prom early?”