Page 64 of Regretting Youu

When is that finally going to sink in?

Lexie doesn’t even have a chance to fasten her seat belt before I assault her with the news. “I kissed Miller Adams, and I think maybe we’re a thing now.”

“Wow. Okay,” she says, nodding. “But . . . what about Shelby?”

“He broke up with her two weeks ago.”

She takes a moment to let this sink in. I back out of her driveway, and she’s staring forward, thinking hard about it. Then she looks at me and says, “I don’t know, Clara. Seems a little quick, like maybe it’s a rebound.”

“I know. I kind of thought the same thing, but it doesn’t feel that way at all. I can’t explain it, but . . . I don’t know. I get the feeling he didn’t have this kind of connection with Shelby.”

I can feel her giving me a look. “I’m your friend, so I feel the need to say this, but you sound kind of crazy right now. He dated Shelby for an entire year. You made out with him once, and you think he has more feelings for you than he does for her?”

It does sound insane, but she wasn’t there. “You know me better than anyone, Lex. You know I don’t fall for guys like this. I think you should take me a little more seriously.”

“Sorry,” she says. “Maybe you’re right. Maybe Miller Adams is madly in love with you, and his twelve-month relationship with Shelby was some kind of move to make you jealous.”

“Now you’re just making fun of me.”

“It was just a kiss, Clara! You’re acting like the two of you are official already. Of course I’m making fun of you.”

I do see the ridiculousness of it from her point of view. But I still think she’s wrong. I drop it, though, because she won’t understand it. “It was an amazing kiss, though,” I say with a smile.

She rolls her eyes. “Good for you. Just don’t make it official yet. It’s not official, is it?”

“No. I don’t guess so. All we did was kiss. He didn’t even ask me out on a date.”

“Good. When he does ask you, pretend you’re busy.”

“Why?”

“So it doesn’t seem like you like him this much.”

Her advice is confusing. “Why wouldn’t I want him to know I like him?”

“Because he might lose interest. You’ll scare him away.”

“That makes no sense.”

“It’s just how guys work.”

“Let me get this straight. If I like a guy, and he likes me, we have to pretend not to like each other, or we’ll stop liking each other?”

“Hey, I didn’t make the rules,” she says. She falls back into her seat in kind of a slump. “I can’t believe this. We’ve always been single together. This is going to change our friendship.”

“No, it won’t.”

“It will,” she says. “You’ll sit by him at lunch. He’ll start meeting you before and after school. You’ll be too busy to hang out with me on weekends.”

“You work all the time, anyway.”

“Yeah, but I could have a day off someday, and you won’t want to spend it with me now.”

“Next time you have a day off, I’m going to spend it with you.”

“Promise?”

I hold up my pinkie, and she grips it just as we’re pulling into the school parking lot.