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Peter gri out with her? Is that why you didn’t come early to help me set up?"

He hesitates "Yeah, I ith her She called , so I went over there, and then I couldn’t just leave her by herselfso I brought her"

Crying? I’ve never known her to cry Even when her cat Queen Elizabeth died, she didn’t cry She et Peter to stay "You couldn’t just leave her?"

"No," he says "She’s going through so to be there for her As a friend That’s it!"

"Gosh, she really knoork you, Peter!"

"It’s not like that"

"It’s always like that She pulls the strings and you just" I dangle my arms and head like a marionette doll

Peter frowns "That was ht now So watch out"

"You’re not h Not usually"

"Why can’t you just tell me? You knoon’t tell anyone I really want to understand it, Peter"

"Because it’s not for me to say Don’t try tothis to manipulate you It’s what she does" I hear the jealousy in hs "Nothing’s happening with us She just needs a friend"

"She has a lot of friends"

"She needs an old friend"

I shake et it Girls understand each other in a way boys never will It’s how I know this is all just another one of her ga up at my house today was just another way for her to exert do of old friends, I didn’t realize you and McClaren were so buddy-buddy"

I flush "I told you ere pen pals"

Raising his eyebrows, he says, "You’re pen pals but he doesn’t knoe’re together?"

"It never came up!" Wait a ht now, not the other way around Somehow this whole conversation has flipped around, and now I’

"So that day you went to the Model UN thing a few o, I asked you if you saw McClaren and you said no But then today he brought up Model UN, and you clearly did see him there Did you not?"

I s "When did you turn into a prosecutor? Sheesh I saw him there but we didn’t even talk; I just handed hiave him a note?"

"It wasn’t from me--it was from a different country, for Model UN" Peter opens his mouth to ask another question, and I quickly add, "I just didn’tcame of it"

Incredulous, he says, "So you want me to be honest with you, but you don’t want to be honest with me?"

"It wasn’t like that!" I cry out What is even happening here? How did our fight get so big so fast?

Neither of us says anything for a moment Then, quietly, he asks, "Do you want to break up?"

Break up? "No" All of a sudden I feel shaky, like I could cry "Do you?"

"No!"