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“No one,” I say.

“Ouch. That hurts,” Gemma says. “Here, I thought we were friends.”

Mary’s eyes light up. “What did I miss?”

“Lil was sexting in class.” Gemma gives me a wink as she grabs a salad from the display. “I saw that look on your face. That was a ‘sexting with my crush’ look if I’ve ever seen one.”

“I did not ‘sext’ or was sexting.” I grab a sandwich, and some fruit, the cafeteria lady giving me a weird look.

Beside me, Mary snickers into her hand, linking her arm through mine before we make our way to the cashier. “You’re cute when you blush.”

We pay for our meals and head outside, finding an empty table under the shade of a sprawling tree.

“We, um, it’s not really official,” I say. “I don’t know. How do you even decide when it’s something more.”

Mary looks up. “Mhm, that’s a really good question. Do you feel comfortable around him?”

“Yes.”

“Wow. That was fast,” Gemma says.

“Is that bad?”

“No. It just shows that there is no confusion. On your side, at least,” Mary says.

“So why do you hesitate to call it something more than a hookup?” Gemma says.

“I don’t know. It’s… I mean, he brings me food and said that I’m the only one who has his attention right now.”

“That kinda sounds like a playboy, not gonna lie,” Gemma says.

“Yeah, kind of. What else did he do?” Mary nods along.

“He walks me home every time, and once I needed help, and he was right there when I called him.”

“Mh, that sounds more promising.” Gemma opens her salad.

“Did you already have sex?” Mary asks.

I almost choke on my food. Still have to get used to her directness.

“Is that a yes?” Gemma leans forward.

“No! We didn’t have… sex.” I can’t talk about what happened in the bathroom. “We haven’t, I mean, not really. We’ve kissed a few times, but that’s it.”

Mary sighs dreamily. “Kissing is nice. But girl, if he looks anything like the guys I imagine you’d be into, I say climb that like a tree!”

“Guess he isn’t a playboy. How long has this been going on?” Gemma asks.

“Two weeks. I think. Since I first met him.”

“When are you going to meet him next?” Mary asks.

“He invited me to his game.”

“Our Lil has a crush on one of our all-stars?” Mary squeaks and I glance around to check if someone is looking at us.

“Maybe.”

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