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“L-love? So all this ti Zach rong, and he said nothing Neither of you said anything Were you laughing at me the whole time?” Mia said, stricken

“No,” Zach said “Come on, you know us better than that ”

“Do I? You’re both liars ” Mia’s eyes filled with tears She spun on her heels and ran for the row of school buses, cli aboard just as the doors closed

Lexi saw Mia on the bus, staring at theh the cloudy , her pale face streaked with tears, her hand pressed to the glass

Zach put his arm around her “It’s okay, Lex She’ll be okay with this I promise ”

“What if it isn’t?” Lexi whispered “What if she never forgives me?”

For the next several hours, Lexi sat in her lonely bedroo into a future without Mia’s friendship

Yeah, she loved Zach With all of her heart and soul, but she didn’t love Mia any less It was a different emotion, rounder and softer and more comfortable; maybe it was more solid and reliable, too All she kneas that she couldn’t trade one for the other That would be like having to choose between air to breathe and water to drink She needed both to survive

She never should have kept this secret fro fro now It was a truth she should have learned fro fro and hurt her best friend’s feelings

She knehat she had to do She left her small, tidy bedroo roo TV

“Can I go to Mia’s house?” Lexi said

“At this hour? On a school night?”

“It’s important,” Lexi said She didn’t knohat she’d do if her aunt said no

Eva looked at her “This about that boy of yours?”

Lexi nodded