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“What if he’s been in love with me this whole time too and was just too scared to mess up our friendship or something? What if it’s him? He’s certainly been acting weird about Jacob and me dating. He’s tried multiple times to get me to dump him. Why else would he do that?”

“He might just want everyone on the football team to focus so they can get to the playoffs their senior year. Or he knows something shady about Jacob that we don’t. Or...”

“What on earth is shady about Jacob?”

Sophie shrugged. “You’d have to ask Jacob. Or Axel in this scenario.”

I sighed.

“Speaking of Jacob, you’ve been avoiding him all day.”

“I know.” I was a little tempted to go eat lunch with my dad in his classroom. But I’d have to talk to Jacob about everything eventually.

“Does that mean you’re not going to tell him about the kiss thief date? I hope?”

“I have to tell him, Soph.”

“Do you though?”

“Yes.”

“Okay. But...you don’t have to call it a date.”

“What would I call it then?” I asked.

She bit her lip as she thought it over. “You could call it a reveal. Because that’s technically what it is.”

“Technically it’s also a date.”

“Yeah,” Sophie said. “But you’re not going on it for the sake of going on a date. You’re going on it for the sake of the reveal.”

“I guess that’s true.”

“Definitely true. Let’s give that a try.”

“I don’t know,” I said. “I really don’t like the idea of lying to him.”

“Well, you have the rest of the day to figure out how you want to word it. If you want to word it at all. Because Axel will be at lunch and it would take forever to catch him up on the whole kiss thief thing. Unless he’s taking another day off, I mean.” She pushed open the door and pulled me through it.

“Ah! You distracted me from my Axel theory!” I wasn’t done discussing that yet.

“I figured you’d never go to lunch otherwise and I’m starving.”

“Soph! What if it’s him?”

She shrugged. “What if it is? Does it change how you feel about Jacob?”

“No, of course not. But...I...”

“Let’s just say your kiss thief is Axel,” she said. “Would you start dating Axel and break up with Jacob?”

I opened my mouth and closed it again.

“Yes you would break up with Jacob? Or no you wouldn’t?”

“Of course I wouldn’t,” I said. I didn’t hesitate this time. Axel had his chance. I’d given him so many opportunities. He didn’t like me back. End of story. I was with Jacob now and that’s what I wanted.

“Then don’t sweat it. Besides, it’s not Axel. I’m great at reading the room and I’m sorry to say it, but Axel is just not that into you. Don’t make that face at me!”