p; “Josh Richter?” Lilly rolled her eyes. “Oh, please. How is my brother REMOTELY like Josh Richter?
“Because sleeping with a girl you don’t even love…that’s something Josh Richter does.”
“It’s only a Josh Richter thing to do if the girl had a major crush on him and he used her and she got hurt.”
I lifted my head to stare at her. “You mean like you and J.P.?” I asked, trying to sound as concerned as possible.
Lilly just glared at me, though. “Nice try, Mia,” she said. “But I’m not falling for that one.”
Dang.
“Mia,” Lilly said. “You can’t get all bent out of shape over the fact that Michael has been with other girls before you. That’s just STUPID.”
Now I narrowed my eyes at her. “What do you mean, GIRLS?”
“Well, like that girl from Hebrew camp—”
“WHAT GIRL FROM HEBREW CAMP?” I screamed so loudly that Boris actually stuck his head out of the supply closet to see what was going on.
“Relax,” Lilly said disgustedly. “They just made out. And he was, like, in ninth grade, or something.”
“Was she pretty?” I wanted to know. “Who was she? What base did they get to?”
“You,” Lilly said, “need therapy. Now, can we talk about something other than our romantic travails for a moment? Because we need to work on your speech.”
I blinked at her. “My what?”
“Your speech. You think just because we’ve broken up with our boyfriends, we’re no longer capable of improving our academic environment, or leading our peers to a better tomorrow?”
“No,” I said. “But—”
“Good. Because you know you have to give your student council president speech at Assembly today, right?”
I swallowed. Hard. “Lilly,” I said. “That is not going to be possible.”
“You don’t have a choice, POG,” Lilly said. “I’ve let you off easy this week because of the whole Michael thing. But this part I can’t do for you. You’re going to have to get up there and speak. I figured you wouldn’t have prepared anything, so I took the liberty of doing so.” She slid a piece of paper—covered with Lilly’s tiniest handwriting—toward me. “It’s pretty much the answers to questions posed on the table-toppers in the caf. You know, what to do in the event of a Category Five hurricane or dirty bomb attack. Nothing new. At least, not to you. It should be a snap.”
“If I do this,” I asked, in a sort of daze—maybe I was crashing from all the bacon—“you’ll tell me, right? If you and J.P. Did It over the summer?”
“Is that your sole motivation for running?” Lilly wanted to know.
“Yes,” I said.
“God, that is so pathetic. But yes, I will. You loser.”
I didn’t take offense at this because she’s right. I AM a loser. She doesn’t even know how much.
Besides, I know that beneath Lilly’s bravado, she is clearly hurting inside. How could she not be? She adored J.P. in a way I’ve never seen her fall for any other guy.
Seriously, how could J.P. do this to her? I thought he was one of the good guys. I really did.
But now I honestly don’t know how I’m going to be able to be friends with him. Let alone lab partners.
Friday, September 10, Chemistry
J.P. is acting like nothing happened! Like he thinks I don’t know about him and Lilly! He asked, “How are you, Mia?” when he sat down next to me, looking all concerned about me. Me! When he’s the one who just stomped on my best friend’s heart!
I was so shocked, I just went, “Fine,” completely forgetting what I decided in the hallway on the way to class—that I am never speaking to J.P. again.