Chapter 3

Matt

Valentine’s Day was for suckers. Once upon a time Suzie and Margo agreed with this assessment but ever since they’d gone and fallen in love?

Not so much.

“You have to come to the dance tonight,” Suzie was explaining to me as I watched the two of them get ready in Suzie’s bedroom.

They were both decked out in dresses, and Suzie had even let Margo do her hair so her crazy curls formed a sort of crown around her head. She looked pretty; they both did.

But only Suzie was speaking to me, at least directly.

“It’s the least he can do,” Margo muttered around a mouthful of hair pins.

I stiffened at that. Having someone talk about me while standing right in front of me wasn’t fun, but I’d gotten used to it as it was the only way I was currently able to communicate with one of my two best friends.

“Will me going to this dance make you a little more likely to forgive me?” I asked.

I didn’t really expect an answer, but Margo spun around and faced me with a frown. “It’s not me you need forgiveness from right now, Matt. It’s Julia.”

“Julia.” I blinked in confusion. “Julia…Farrow?”

They both shot me a wide-eyed stare that seemed to imply I was an idiot. It was a look I’d gotten used to these days. I saw it often. “Okay, what did I miss?”

Suzie rolled her eyes and shook her head. “You are so oblivious sometimes.”

“Julia was tagged,” Margo said.

“Julia was tagged? For what? Did she have a hair out of place or something?”

Suzie shot me a withering look. “Where have you been that you didn’t hear about this? It happened yesterday afternoon.”

“Yesterday I was at the newspaper, and today I had an issue to get out,” I said. “It was deadline day.” As the editor-in-chief of our high school newspaper I ended up getting out of the majority of my classes on deadline day. Most teachers were understanding of the fact that I had a job to do with almost no time to do it. Every one of my reporters handed their stories in either late or at the very last minute. Still, I loved the job. Especially these days when hanging out with my friends was more stressful than fun.

“It’s been all over social media,” Margo said.

I stared at her in disbelief. “I’m off social media, remember? You were the one who imposed that punishment.”

She set her fists on her hips and faced me squarely. “I didn’t force you to do anything. I merely suggested that you take some time off from social media to think about what you’ve done.”

“You are going to make a great mother one day. Do you know that?”

She huffed but Suzie laughed, and for one moment things almost felt like normal between us.

“You should apologize to Julia tonight,” Margo said.

Moment over.

I scratched my head, trying to contain my frustration. “Why exactly am I apologizing to her?” I turned to Suzie. “And what did she get tagged for? Seriously, the girl is perfect.”

She was more than perfect. She was impossibly perfect. Unfailingly kind, unerringly courteous, the girl was too good to be true. Did I mention she was beautiful, to boot? Not just pretty or cute…the girl was hot. Stunning in a supermodel sort of way.

She was too good for any of the guys at Grover, yet she had the modesty not to flaunt that fact. Her modesty was overkill, in my book. She didn’t get to be beautiful, popular, athletically inclined, smart, and a candidate for sainthood. It was just too much. Which was exactly why I didn’t buy it. No one was that perfect, not even Julia.

“She was outed as a closet comics geek,” Suzie said.

I stared at her for a full second waiting for her to laugh at her own joke.

She didn’t laugh. Neither did Margo.

“Wait,” I said. “Seriously?”

They both gave me very serious looks. I sat there trying to imagine Julia Farrow reading anything and failed. I couldn’t even imagine her reading her school assignments. Reading, in general, seemed far too human for the perfect pod-person that was Julia Farrow.

“Comics,” I repeated, as if that would help me to see it. Nope. Still couldn’t envision it.

“Apparently she’s really into them,” Suzie said. “Like, she dresses up and everything.”

I blinked so rapidly one of my contacts almost popped out. I’d been trying to switch from glasses to contacts lately but it wasn’t really working for me. Or maybe I just wasn’t used to them yet. Either way, I had to tone down my shock or lose a lens.

“And someone posted a picture?” I said.

Margo’s expression turned murderous. “I’ll give you one guess who.”

I groaned. “Cara Snyder.”

“Bingo.” For a half a second there Margo actually made eye contact with me without glaring. Progress!

“So, if Cara is the one who embarrassed her, why exactly am I the one apologizing?”

Wrong question. Margo’s glare returned in full force. “Because all of this is your fault.”

“Margo,” Suzie said quietly, a warning tone in her voice. “He made a mistake and he’s sorry, but you can’t blame him for Cara’s actions.”

Margo’s pursed lips said she didn’t feel the same. And honestly, a little part of me agreed. “She’s right,” I said to Suzie. “I started this stupid thing, the least I can do is own up to it.”

While I had admitted my guilt to Suzie and Margo, and I was pretty sure they’d told their boyfriends, I hadn’t exactly admitted my guilt to the world at large.

“You don’t need to own up to everything,” Margo finally said. “No one wants to see you get beaten up by Joel’s crew. But, you do need to make things right with Julia. Or, at least…try to be her friend.”

Me. Friends with Julia. The thought was laughable. So laughable I couldn’t even bring myself to laugh. “You want me to be friends with her?”

Margo sighed and she really did sound a lot like my mother. “Just be nice to her, Matt. The girl is going through a tough time.”

“Sure,” I said. “I’ll be very nice to her on Monday.”

“You’ll be nice to her tonight.” Suzie half turned in the chair as Margo stabbed her with another pin. “You promised you’d come to the dance with us tonight, remember?”

Crap. I did remember making that promise but I’d been hoping they wouldn’t remember. Dances were a new thing for the three of us. This year’s homecoming was the first time any of us had gone to one, and that had only been because Margo, AKA band geek extraordinaire, had been crowned homecoming queen.

Long story.

Anyway, after that we’d made a pact that we’d go to these stupid senior events together. I’d sort of thought that our situation had changed now that they were each paired up with two of the most popular guys in our class. Neither of them needed me tagging along.

“We’re going as friends, remember?” Suzie said. She arched her brows meaningfully. It meant a lot to her that the three of us stay tight, despite our issues.

I looked to Margo, expecting her to either give me the cold shoulder or another stern scowl. Instead, she looked hesitant as she reached for Suzie’s brush. “You should come.” She said it quietly and without anger and it might have been the nicest thing she’d said to me in months.

No, it was definitely the nicest thing she’d said to me in months.

“Yeah, okay,” I said. “I’ll go.”

Some tension eased out of the room, but I wasn’t exactly happier for this new decision. Now I was stuck spending my Friday night watching my best friends make out with their boyfriends on the dancefloor while I…oh man.

While I made nice with Miss Perfect.