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I clicked “order” on my phone and looked up. “Sending Axel soup.”

“Seriously?”

“Yes, I always do when he misses school. You know that.” Just in case he was actually sick.

“Scar, you have to stop sending him soup.”

“Why? I sent it to him when I was only fake dating Jacob and you said it was fine.”

“Because you were only fake dating him,” she said. “Everything is different now.”

“But it’s a friendship soup. You said that was a thing.” Or was it RJ who had said that was a thing? And I certainly shouldn’t be trusting RJ about anything...

She sighed. “So let me get this straight. You want to stop talking to the kiss thief but you want to keep sending Axel cute gifts when he ditches school?”

“It’s not the same. Axel and I are still friends...”

“It will probably make Jacob mad.”

Oh. “You really think so? Jacob knows I always send Axel soup on sick days.” But I didn’t want to upset Jacob.

“Yeah, there’s no way Jacob’s not being territorial after you told him Axel has been spending the night in your bed every night.”

I pressed my lips together.

“You didn’t tell him?” she hissed.

“I just didn’t get a chance to yet. I was grounded all day yesterday and phoneless.”

“Okay.” She slowly nodded. “Okay, yeah. Let’s just not tell him.”

“Sophie, that’s not what I just said. I have to tell him.”

“Why? Wait. Is Axel still spending the night?”

I’d explained what happened Saturday night in my email to her. If she wanted to know those details she could read it. “He didn’t show up last night. I told him not to. So maybe he just listened. But now I’m thinking he actually might be sick. I hope he’s okay.”

“Cancel the soup order,” she said.

“What?”

“Undo what you just did. You need boundaries.” She reached for my phone.

I pulled it away. “But he’ll be expecting soup. What if he really needs it?”

Sophie reached for my phone again. “He’s going to think you’re still in love with him.”

“He never knew I was in love with him.” Yes, I’d told him I’d saved my first kiss for him. But he’d never really brought it up again. At least not when he was sober. He was probably drunk the night I’d confessed it to him too. Axel didn’t know. That’s what I had to believe. Because if he did know and had treated me the way he had for the last several years, I wasn’t sure I could even consider him a friend anymore.

“Are you sure about that?” Sophie practically fell out of her chair as she tried to snatch my phone away again.

“Friends need soup too.”

“No they don’t. You never send me soup, you whore.”

“Miss Hunter and Miss Hunter,” Mr. Halifax said.

Sophie and I both froze. I hadn’t seen him walk in.