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"Katie?" I said "Are you okay?"

She sniffled and wiped at her eyes "Oh, God, I’m so e?"

She blew her red nose into a tissue and shook her head The girl eous under norly crier I didn’t care

She pulled out a fresh tissue and wiped her nose "You know Brad, right?"

"Of course," I said in a tone that indicated Brad and I ay back

"He’s a real jackass"

On the outside, I hing"What did the jerk do?"

"I’ve seen Rebecca talking to him a lot He always tells me they’re just friends"

I nodded solen" Rebecca was one of the perpetual beauty pageant girls in the school Pretty hot, I had to admit, but nobody topped Katie, not in my book And what in the world was so special about Brad "I have a irls want to talk to him? He didn’t play sports, he wasn’t muscular, and he seemed dumb as a brick It had to be the motorcycle That in and of itself probably added plus ten charis the school bus put ative territory on that count

"Jenny told h Midtown on his er crept up et aith garbage like this? He had the uys like irl like Katie

My brain abruptly decided noas the tiain Katie’s face blurred and an incredible ered at the edge ofme to take it andflash of agony ripped ritted ht it was so really special He told me he loved uy’s perspective on this What do you think I should do?"

The headache vanished, leaving htly euphoric state as endorphins flooded my system The blurry shape inat eous behavior

"Probably duuy?"

I’ht here! I wanted to scream Outwardly, I plastered a concerned look on s about Rebecca I wouldn’t doubt it if they slept together" Katie sobbed even harder It made me feel a lot better

"I can’t believe he would do this," she said between gasps

I couldn’t believe she was taking this so hard Hadn’t they just started dating? Was she really that head-over-heels in love with the guy? And then it hitwithoutto say it aloud "You slept with him"

Her eyes widened Her face blanched "Is it that obvious?" She blew noisily into a tissue "Please, you can’t tell anyone"

I couldn’t believe she hadn’t just denied it "I won’t"

A single tear trickled down her wet cheek "I can’t believe I let hiether And now I feel horrible" Sobs wracked her body

I put an arht have fantasized about thisKatie’s hot body toa bitter taste in my mouth and an ache inoff into the sunset Katie had wrecked her virginity against the uncaring shores of Brad Nichols

I wanted to kill higedall of this on you, Justin You’re such a great guy I wish there were ht nerds in the world?"

She laughed "See, nothing bothers you I knoe’ve known each other a long tiotten to know each other"

A dull throb pulsed in my forehead Great All I needed was another headache Katie’s face blended into an indistinct blur as the pain increased This cranial assault wasn’t as sudden as the others It crept from my forehead to the back of my brain and slithered down e presence again It was Katie, but at the saedit into the closest cave

Katie gasped Our lips hts of the world faded into bliss

And then a bohostly presence slipped frorasp The pain flashed away as quickly as it had come I stared at Katie She stared at me I didn’t knohat to say about the last few seconds We’d kissed, right? It hadn’t been a drea me hallucinate I didn’t knohat to think anyreen eyes focused on me "Justin, that was…unexpected"

So we had kissed "All part of my master plan for world domination" Where in the world did that coure you out You’re brave--I mean just look what you did to Nathan And now you’ve ht"

"Probably le burst from her lips "You’re funny too" She looked atin her eyes "Justin, I really like you But I don’t know--"

"Hey, it’s fine," I said, standing up and brushing leaves off s and Castles tournament this Saturday You want to cohts in it?"