the store more than about five minutes before Piper’s phone rang, and I knew immediately by the goofy look on her face that the call was from her current boyfriend, Luke. I hadn’t managed to have a single boyfriend yet, myself—going to an all-girls school and not having a car combined to make meeting boys really tough—but Piper went through them like popcorn, one moment head over heels in love, the next bored and looking for a new adventure.
Piper gave me an apologetic smile before retreating to one of the changing rooms so she could have a private conversation with Luke, leaving me browsing the racks aimlessly.
I was the one who introduced Piper to Luke, though I kind of regretted it. There’s a gated courtyard behind my house, and Luke lives in the house across the courtyard from me. I’d had a crush on him for forever, but he never showed any sign of being interested in me in that way. For my seventeenth birthday, my dad had hosted a cookout in the courtyard. Piper was there, of course, but I’d also scraped up the courage to ask Luke. When he’d said yes, I thought maybe there was some glimmer of interest after all. But then he’d come to the party, and he’d met Piper, and that was that.
I’d never told Piper about my crush, so it wasn’t like she intentionally stole the boy I was interested in. But I couldn’t help a little twinge of jealousy every time I saw them together. I kept waiting for them to break up—they’d been together almost four months already, which was a record for Piper—but so far they were going strong. So strong that she was on that phone with him forever. I could hear her giggling from the back room as I kept glancing at my watch. Time was ticking away, and even if we left right that moment, I was going to have to lie to my dad and tell him my train was late.
I finally grew impatient and stomped back to the dressing room, pulling the curtain open and giving Piper a meaningful look before tapping my watch. She lowered the phone from her face for a second to glance at the time, and her eyes went wide.
“Oh, shit!” she said, raising the phone once more. “Sorry. I lost track of time. I’ve gotta go.”
I couldn’t hear whatever it was Luke said to her on the other end of the line, but it made her blush and smile. “I love you, too,” she said.
I turned my back to her so she wouldn’t see the sour face I made. There’s nothing quite like hearing your best friend saying “I love you” to the boy you’ve had a secret crush on for years. Maybe I shouldn’t have kept it secret. Piper had certainly made no secret about her attraction when she’d met him. She’d flirted with him from the moment I introduced them, and he’d lapped it up.
But then, Piper was beautiful, and witty, and brimming with self-confidence. How could Luke not have fallen for her? And why would he settle for an ordinary, socially awkward shy girl like me when he could have Piper? Even if I’d had the guts to tell him I liked him, and even if he liked me back, Piper would have dazzled him.
Maybe if you’d told Piper you wanted him, she wouldn’t have made a play for him, I reminded myself. Hell, if I’d told her, she’d most likely have thrown herself into a quest to hook me up with him.
Maybe that’s what I’d been afraid of. If she’d tried to play matchmaker and it didn’t work, I’d have been utterly humiliated. And with Luke living so close, I’d have my nose rubbed in that humiliation practically every day.
No. Better for him to be with Piper, even if it did make me jealous. Jealous was better than humiliated.
Piper finally got off the phone, and we hurried to her car. “I’m so sorry,” she said as we piled in. “You should have come and interrupted me sooner. You know how I am with time.”
I snapped my seat belt closed while she started the car. She was right, of course. I should have interrupted her sooner. But I hadn’t, and it was too late to change that.
“It’s okay,” I told her, insisting to myself that it was. I’d let her talk me into missing the train because I wanted to spend time with her. Instead, I’d spent