Page 44 of Anyone But Her

"I'm bored," Willow says, sinking down on my butterfly chair.

"What do you want to do?"

"I don't know." She smooths her long dark hair over her shoulder, then stops and stares at me. "What's going on with you?"

"What do you mean?"

"Why are you smiling so much? And why's your hair all tangled?"

I look down at my hair. She's right. It's tangled. When I was talking to Luke I was twisting my hair around my finger, which must've tangled it.

"I just need to brush it out," I say, brushing it with my fingers.

"So what's with the smile?"

"I'm not smiling," I say defensively.

"You were just a minute ago. Were you talking to a guy?"

"A guy? No. What guy?"

She laughs. "You were totally talking to a guy. Who was it? That guy from your chem class?"

"No. And I wasn't talking to a guy. I was just smiling because I'm happy to be back at school."

"You said you liked being home."

"I did, but it's still good to be back. Is Lilly back yet?"

"She was back yesterday." Willow smiles. "I think she did it with Reed."

Reed is Lilly's boyfriend. They've been dating since last fall and still haven't done it, or they hadn't before spring break. Lilly's a virgin so she's been putting off sex with Reed until she's sure she's ready.

"They did it?" I scoot to the edge of my bed. "How do you know?"

"I don't know for sure but when I saw her this morning she had that look."

"What look?"

"The I'm-a-woman-now look." Willow laughs. "I told her that and she just about killed me. She's so self conscious about that stuff."

"Maybe she didn't do it."

"She totally did. I just don't know if it happened when she was home on break or last night. When I saw her this morning she was coming back from Reed's room. Her hair was a mess and her clothes were all wrinkled."

"That doesn't prove anything. She stays in Reed's room all the time."

"Yeah, but this time was different. She looked different. Trust me, I can tell."

She can? So if I did it with Luke, Willow would know? She can't know. Nobody can. Not that I ever plan to do that with him.

My phone dings. It's a text from Luke. Good talk tonight. I already can't wait to call you again.

"Who is it?" Willow asks. "Your mystery man?"

"It's just my mom, asking what I'm doing."

I text Luke back. I liked it too. Talk to you tomorrow.

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