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Deep down, I know she wouldn’t be okay with it But if Mike is okay with it, why should that matter? We’re just friends He knoe’re just friends Even if he wasn’t with Danica, we’d still be just friends--because Mike likes girls like Danica, and I a the same air as him, I don’t feel like Mike and I are friends at all This Mike is sos to Danica, and the other Mike is someone else Someone who texts me to wish me sweet dreaot stuck in a thorn bush," o and sit on her boyfriend’s lap He makes room for her but doesn’t take his eyes off of enuine, open concern in his voice makes my cheeks heat with eether in those three little words--the ga uy my little brother idolizes, and the irls

"Yeah" I atteh, but it sounds so aard, I try to transition it into a cough instead, earning etting sick too?" Shawn asks, referring to the plague that seeroup His nose is red fro it with his sleeve all day, and Patient Zero--aka Kit--still looks like she could just lie down and die right where she’s standing Joel is fighting a cough, Adam has exhausted Rowan’s entire supply of travel tissues, and even Dee looks like she had to put on extra low

"No," I hurriedly ansilling my cheeks to return to their normal pale color

"Are you sure?" Shawn presses, his brow crinkled orry "You look kind of flushed"

"You do look really red," Mike agrees, and I consider ju at the bottoh like that? What kind of loser pretends to cough?!

"Are you running a fever?" Rowan asks, pressing the back of her hand against my forehead while everyone watchesjust-kill-et any worse, Danica proves h?" she accuses, and I’ akin to a slow loris about to be obliterated by a stea at a cover that’s about to be blown to bits "What the hell kind of question is that! Of course it wasn’t a fake cough Why would I fake cough? Why would anyone pretend to cough? God, Danica! Who would do that?"

Me I would do that Me me me me meee, oh God

"I’ Mike, with his concerned brown eyes, his frowning lips, and a perfect layer of scruff on his jaw that irl try not to act so stupid "I just, I otten how to use words I’ve forgotten how to sentence! "It was a really strenuous walk," I finallynonexistent sweat fro to do withbehind theh or even breathe like a norht now, but the suspicious look on Dee’s face doesn’t help

"Do you want to sit down?" Mike asks, gesturing to a spot beside him on the blanket that Rowan spread out earlier My eyes flit to Danica, atches me from his lap with just as much bewilder Mike up on his offer si their job of holding me up if I don’t sit down soon "Okay"

I plop down cross-legged next to hiest idiot in the history of idiocy Why did I fake a cough? What the hell was that even supposed to accoh is any better than a weird fake laugh? Why a his half-finished bottle of water out for ure out soet everyone’s attention off offever

Luckily, Danica rises to the occasion "So Hailey and I were in the woods talking about your video, and--"

"Motherfucker!" I interrupt,inside the hole I just found while nervously fiddling with the sleeve of my hoodie I don’t knohy I have the worst luck with clothes lately, but I was counting on this hoodie to be one ofhole in it A goddah curse words to er at him

"That damn thorn bush murdered ertips and liftshis finger in yet another tiny rip "Here’s another one"

I pull my arm away and crane my neck to see the underside of my sleeve "Dammit"

"It’s not too bad," Mike lies "Give it to et es h forwithshe’d read a whole lot more into it than she should, I don’t "Your le" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true">