Page 58 of Every Little Thing

“Well… no. It wouldn’t change, you know, like—the fundamental part of me.”

“Which is?”

“God, you ask so many questions.” I folded my arms. “Okay, okay. I, um… I guess I might have a crush on Harper? I don’t know. I guess.”

Kay’s face lit up. I wanted to run away and hide in the bushes and dig myself a hole and crawl into it and bury myself alive and die there, never to be found. “Yeah?”

“She’s just… I just like her. I don’t know. I keep thinking about her, and I want to be close to her and touch her and kiss her. So I guess I fulfill all the criteria. So… there. That’s that, I guess. Can I go now?”

Kay laughed, standing up and offering a hand, helping me up with her. “I’m really excited for you. That’s a big realization to come to. So… are you going to tell her? Because I bet she’d love to make this… mysterious unnamed outing into an actual date.”

I folded my arms, looking away. “Ugh. It’s complicated, okay? We don’t need labels and stuff, we can just keep kissing and things.”

Kay looked like she’d just won a million magical unicorn dollars. “Keep kissing?”

“Oh. Uh.”

“You kissed Harper.”

“No! Not even once.”

“Multiple times?”

I waved my hands frantically. “Never! I would never kiss her. Or anyone!”

“When did you kiss her?”

“Oh my god, you are so not listening to me!”

“Did she kiss you back?”

“No! Because, uh… there was no kiss to begin with.”

Her face fell. “Oh… she didn’t?”

“No—it’s not that. Um…” I put a hand over my face, sinking against the wall. “Oh my god. Okay. I did. And she did. And that’s the last thing you’re getting from me on the subject. We’re not dating. Just let a girl kiss her friend sometimes. That’s it. End of story. Fin. Kaput.”

She hugged me. I groaned, resigning myself to hugging her back. Nobody suffered like Paisley Macleod suffered.

“You two are so cute,” she laughed. “I’m really happy for you!”

“You are not listening.”

She stepped back from the hug, eyes shining. “Do you want to go shopping together?”

“No! I have a date.”

She smiled. I scowled.

“Dammit.”

“I don’t mean right now,” she laughed. “In general. You know I love clothes and fashion and stuff. I would literally love itsomuch if I got to help you, you know, style up, find your look.”

I was suddenly so self-conscious it felt like my skin would all up and crawl away. I hugged myself tightly, suddenly really fascinated with the leaves outside the window. “Um… I think you’d be disappointed.”

“What? Disappointed how?”

“Just, you know.”

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