Even When You Lie to Me by Jessica Alcott

He jiggled his keys in his hand. “See you tomorrow, then?”
    I realized that he was trying to cue me to leave. “Oh,” I said. “Yes.”
    “Okay.”
    I didn’t move.
    His forehead creased. “Did you need something else, Charlie?”
    “Um,” I said. “Just—thank you for the compliment. I’m going to try harder.”
    “I look forward to it,” he said.
    —
    “All right,” I said to Lila that night. “I get it.”
    “Drummond?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Ha!” she said. “Knew it.”
    “Congratulations.”
    “So what was it? Nice outfit today.”
    He’d been wearing a V-neck sweater and jeans—admittedly some of his nicer clothes. “Since when do you get hot for sweaters?” I said.
    “When he’s wearing them.”
    I snorted. “Next it’ll be cardigans with elbow patches.”
    “He would look good with a pipe. Come on, tell me.”
    “It was the…” I felt stupid saying it had been sparked by the conversation in class and then fueled by our chat after school. I couldn’t tell her he’d sought me out privately. “He’s really smart.”
    “You’d hope,” she said.
    “You know what I mean,” I said. “You looked awfully interested when you were talking to him about atheism.”
    “That was kind of hot, wasn’t it? He kept looking over at you, though.”
    “No, he didn’t,” I said automatically.
    “Charlie,” she said in a way that allowed no argument. “I told you, he likes you.”
    “I thought you said he wasn’t a perv.”
    “No, but he likes you.”
    “I think he likes
you.
”
    Lila laughed. “I
was
giving him some serious eye sex.”
    “Ew. I really don’t need to know where your eyes have been.”
    “I’m just planting a seed.”
    “Ugh, that’s even worse.”
    “Speaking of seeds—I’m just going to tell you now that homecoming is in a few weeks. No pressure or anything, but I want to go.”
    “You’ll go even if I don’t?”
    “Yeah, of course, but I want you to be my date. I’m just telling you now because I know you need time to freak out about it first.”
    “You’re a good friend.”
    “I wouldn’t go that far,” she said. “I’ve just been burned a few too many times. Oh, and no excuses that you need to help your dad. I know he does not need help on a freaking Friday night.”
    I had a habit of agreeing to things and then backing out at the last minute. I said yes partly because it made Lila happy, and mostly because I didn’t want to make her angry by saying no. When I flaked, she was usually much angrier than she would have been otherwise.
    “All right,” I said. “I’ll think about it. How was last period?”
    “Fine. Papakostas is as riveting as ever. You know that girl Asha, the one from our English class?”
    “Yeah, she’s in my gym class too. She’s okay. Why?”
    “She just creeps me out a little. Why is she talking to me?”
    “Because she’s trying to be friendly?”
    “No, I don’t buy it. I think she wants to be friends with you and she knows
I’m
friends with you, so she’s trying to be nice to me.”
    “You jealous?”
    “Obviously.”
She said it sarcastically, but I wondered. Lila had had me to herself for as long as we’d known each other.
    “And why is she trying to be friends with me?”
    “Far be it from me to guess at anyone’s reasons for being fascinated by the enigma of you. Is it your sparkling, bubbly personality? Your enthusiastic approach to sports? Your disdain for printed material?”
    “I’m hanging up now.”
    “For all I know, she’s just trying to get to Frida. And who could blame her?”
    “Good night.”
    “Or your dad. Who is, may I point out, still hot.”
    “I hate you.”
    “Love you too.”

I’d had crushes before, but this was worse than anything I’d ever felt. It started in my stomach and soon it was everywhere, spreading outward like an infection; it swallowed my concentration, blotted out my other interests, consumed whole days I would have normally spent reading. I felt