been too tired after my lesson and the rest of my homework had kept me at my desk until Iâd fallen asleep.
I filled in the last blank and shoved the now-finished worksheet back in my pink folder, glad to not have any late homework, especially not in this advanced class. Iâd been the only one in the room for a while because Iâd gotten there early. I looked up when the doorknob turned.
Paige stepped inside, giving me a tiny smile when she saw me.
âUm, hi,â she said.
âHey.â
There wasnât any venom in our tonesâthey sounded the same. Sad and tired.
Paige was wearing a cranberry-colored three-quarters sleeve shirt that Iâd never seen before, with over-the-knee black boots and jeans. I wondered if sheâd gone shopping with Geena, her new roommate. Even after all this time, thinking about it was still hard to digest. I opened my folder, shuffling papers, and pretending there was something interesting in it.
âCan we talk for a sec?â Paige asked. She sat beside me, placing her leather messenger bag on the floor.
I glanced at her, unsure if Iâd heard her right. âOf course,â I said. I had no clue what this was about. Paige and I werenât enemies anymore, and our relationship had never been exactly that, even after the Callie thing, but weâd been sort of frozen and hadnât moved forward to repairing our past friendship.
Our past BFF-ness.
And it still hurt.
Paigeâs green eyes focused on mine. She took a deep breath and twisted a lock of red-gold hair around her finger. I shifted in my seat, hating the discomfort between us.
âSasha, I wanted to knowââ
Paige closed her mouth when the door to the classroom burst open with such force that we both jumped. Vanessa, a girl in our class, walked inside laughing with Alison. Behind them came a few other students and Mr. Davidson.
I looked at Paige, desperate to know what sheâd wanted. But it was obviously something Paige didnât want to discuss in front of everyone. She gave me a sorry look and opened her notebook.
Mr. Davidson went to his desk and started taking attendance.
Iâm going to have to sit through this entire class and be tortured, I thought. Iâd have to wait until the end to see if Paige wanted to finish what sheâd started saying. What if she said nothing at allâlike it had never happened?
I felt something being pressed into my hand. I looked down, under the table, and a tiny folded up piece of paper was in my hand. On the ripped up piece of notebook paper, in purple pen, was a note in Paigeâs handwriting.
Can we meet up and talk? Pls?
For a long minute, I stared at the note, reading Paigeâs familiar handwriting over and over.
I finally wrote back.
2mrw?
Paige read my note and handed me another.
Absolutely. Text me whenever.
For the rest of English class, I tried to focus on the lesson and not think about whatever Paige wanted to talk to me about. I wasnât too nervousâthe way weâd just talked hadnât been contentious. Paige didnât seem like she was asking to meet with me just to fight. Or, at least, I hoped not.
Later that afternoon, I was heading to free period when I saw Eric looking at a handout from one of his classes.
âHey,â I said, walking up to him.
He looked up smiled. âHey, Sasha. Howâs everything?â
âGood,â I said. âBusy, obviously. But good.â
He adjusted the math textbook and notebook in his hand. âIâm glad. Iâm happy youâre doing okay.â
âActually, Iâm doing more than okay,â I said, my tone soft. âAnd itâs partly because of you.â
Eric leaned his shoulder back against the wall, looking at me with his intense dark eyes. âWhat did I do?â
âWhat you did with Jacobâthe riding lessonsâI canât thank you enough. That was the best Halloween surprise ever. I