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I’d hoped Callie would ask about Steven, so I could s had been the sa to me about my personal life, or she was just too distracted by her own I felt pretty confident in continuing to go with ‘too distracted’ as an explanation

What Callie did askthat would never have happened before the past feeeks happened—was if I would come to a party with her

“I’o to a party with the other people at our school,” I said “I’o to a party with the other people at our school”

Callie shrugged “I don’t really Well, Carlene is pretty all right these days, I know you don’t think reat to me when I needed soo, obviously, and it’d be fine if I could just spend time with him, but he’s bound to run off and boof it up with his idiot friends fro in a corner if I don’t have my own people to spend time with”

I could feel my face stre

tching into the sairls at our school who had tried to explain the sorts of things that o, and you can stay ho to give up your ti you don’t care about like this”

“I’m not,” Callie said, “but Lucas thinks that’s a character flaw, or sos a bit differently… and the thing is, I’ where each of us knows the other better than they know themselves”

I shivered a bit at that What if you had that sort of relationship with someone, and they still turned out to be bad for you? They’d be able to twist things to get you to do whatever they wanted

Callie leaned back on her bed It was so strange being in her rooone to my house before, but she hadn’t asked this time Maybe she remembered how Mum was about men—and women who dated men—sometimes, or she wanted to stay on her own turf “Steven will be there”

“What’s that supposed tome?”

There was a really? tilt to her eyebrows that made me feel warm all over for just a second, because it was sort of like a new version of what had existed between us before The balance had definitely shifted forever—Callie was aboveon the same aard level

“I putin particular, I just feel like there is soht place to explore it, you know?”

“What do you think of Steven anyway?” I asked, which probably confir on, but she looked thoughtful, not s

“He’s all right A bit cheeky, like he’ll flirt with ht in front of Lucas, but I think he just likes to mess around He seems pretty calm and happy in himself most of the time”

I didn’t knohat I was supposed to do with that answer How did it fit with the guy who’d pushedhis friends froh Steven didn’t see her worry about him would just cause problems between her and Lucas