to get it all out. “On the first day of school, I gave Corby a tour so he’d know where his classes were, and he kind of sort of asked me to go to his first hockey game.”
“Oh.”
“My.”
“Gosh.”
They rotated off in perfect unison, almost as though they’d rehearsed their reaction, making me giggle.
“Whoa. Hold up.” Sarah lifted her palm toward me. “The hotshot hockey player who started at our school this year—the one who has all the queen bees panting over him even though he doesn’t have a penny to his name—asked you an entire month ago to come to his game and you’re only telling us this now? What else have you kept from us? Having you been secretly dating Cole Travis too? Are two hot guys going to battle it out for you?”
I rolled my eyes and shook my head at the suggestion that the rock star we went to school with would ever be interested in me. He was a legend around Black Mountain Academy and could literally have any woman he wanted. “C’mon, don’t be ridiculous.”
“I don’t think I’m the one who’s being ridiculous here,” she argued, folding her arms over her chest.
“Technically, it hasn’t been a full month. We talked like three and a half weeks ago.” Sarah started to tap her foot on the floor, and I knew she wasn’t going to let me get away with a technicality. I needed to make her understand why I’d kept my mouth shut for so long. The only thing I could think to do was give her and Emily the same speech I’d been telling myself every single day. “I don’t think he meant the invitation as anything. It was the first day of school, and he didn’t know anyone else here other than the guys on his team.”
“Emme,” Emily sighed, shaking her head as her lips turned down at the edges.
Sarah tugged on my arm and led me over to the sink. Standing behind me, she met my gaze in the mirror. “Tell me what you see,” she demanded.
I stared at my reflection for a long minute, confused by what she wanted me to look for. Finally, I answered, “I don't know. I just see me.”
“No,” she snapped, giving me a little shake. “The problem is you don't actually see yourself. You only see all the things your mom has pointed out to you as being wrong. She’s drilled that crap into your head for so long that you don’t see how beautiful you are. But the time has come to finally ignore all her nitpicking. She’s been proven wrong by a super-hot guy. If you won’t take our word for how pretty you are, then listen to him.”
I turned around to face Sarah and Emily. “We don’t even know that Corby likes me.”
“Of course, he likes you. There’s no way he would have invited you to his hockey game unless he thought you were cute,” Sarah argued.
“Yeah, Sarah is right. I can’t think of any other reason that makes sense,” Emily agreed with a firm nod. “I refuse to believe it was just because you were the first person he met who doesn’t play hockey with him.”
“There's only one way to find out for sure,” Sarah announced with a gleam in her eye that I didn't trust.
“What's that?” I asked.
“You’re going to the hockey game.”
“Yes,” Emily cheered, jumping up and down.
“What? No,” I cried, shaking my head. “Even though we have two classes together, I haven’t said a single word to Corby since he left me standing in front of the office on the first day of school. It would be super weird for me to just show up at his game now.”
“Shut up!” Sarah slapped my shoulder. “You finally have the chance to talk to the boy you’ve been crushing on over the summer, and you’ve been ignoring him all this time?”
“Doesn’t he have lunch with us, too?” Emily asked.
“Yeah,” I sighed, thinking about how much time I’d spent staring at him from across the cafeteria. “He sits at the hockey table.”
“Clearly, you can’t be trusted to think straight when it comes to him.” Sarah flung her arm over Emily’s shoulders. “Luckily, you have us to push you in the right direction.”
Emily grinned and nodded. “Yeah, there’s really only one choice here.”
“We’re just going to have to go to the hockey game with you,” Sarah declared with a smile.
“That way, we can see how Corby reacts when he spots you sitting in the