It's a Match! by Zoë Marshall Page A

was joking.  
    Sutton read his expression and turned beet red. “Oh, you meant a play on the whole ‘two left feet’ thing, huh? I am the most gullible person on earth.”
    He smiled widely at her. “Did you know gullible isn’t even—”
    “in the dictionary?” Sutton interrupted. She heard this line every single time she told someone she was gullible. She wished people could come up with some new material.  
    He laughed and nodded his head a few times. “Not quite that gullible, I see.”
    Her face slowly cooled down and she extended her hand to the shirtless boy. His abs were a thing of beauty. “I’m Sutton.”
    “Hi, Sutton. I’m Jeremy. I’m sorry again about the whole hitting you with a Frisbee thing.”
    “It’s okay. I understand, you have a very serious medical condition. It wouldn’t really be fair of me to fault you for it.”
    “You’re funny, Miss Gullible. I’ll see you around.”
    She felt her cheeks reddening again as he grabbed the Frisbee from the ground next to her and ran off toward his friends. In theory, he was attractive. But something about him felt off and Sutton couldn’t quite put her finger on it.

COLE PUT HIS phone down and immediately took a seat at his desk. He wanted to start creating Sutton’s profile as soon as possible. He hated knowing his friend was in pain, and if there was anything he could do to help, he had to do it.  
    He sat staring at his computer, looking at Sutton’s Facebook page, wondering which pictures would be best to use. He had to use the one of her sticking her tongue out while staring at his eggplant Parmesan distastefully, of course. Sutton hated eggplant. That and raw onions were the only foods she wouldn’t eat. Other than that, she was a very adventurous eater.
    Then Cole stumbled upon the perfect profile picture. The day Aiden broke up with Sutton, she and Cole had spent the day at the zoo. They’d been sitting on a bench staring at the monkeys, and she took a long sip from her blue raspberry slushy. She’d immediately gotten brain freeze. In the picture, she had a small pink flower behind her ear and her hands pressed to the sides of her face in agony. Cole had taken the picture without her knowledge and from then on, it was always his favorite picture of her….  

    Cole was folding laundry as he heard his phone beep. He picked it up to see a cryptic text from Sutton:

    I need to see you.
    What’s up, Sutt? You ok?
    Not really.
    I’ll be there in fifteen.

    Cole drove to Sutton’s house as quickly as he could. He knew it must be something huge. He found a parking spot right in front of her house and walked around to the back entrance. He avoided the front door as much as possible, because he was less likely to run into her parents.  
    Security buzzed him in and he headed up to Sutton’s room. He knocked quietly, then heard Sutton meekly say, “Come in.” He opened the door to see Sutton sitting on her bed, staring off into nothing in particular. He walked over and sat next to her on the bed. “I came as quickly as I could. What’s going on?”
    Sutton didn’t turn to look at him. She maintained her blank stare as she said two simple words: “It’s Aiden.”
    “What happened?”
    “We broke up.”
    Cole’s heart instantly ached for Sutton, shocked to hear the news. “Why?”
    “I’m not really sure. He just said that it was moving too fast, that it was over.”
    “But he seemed so into it,” Cole said, sympathetically.
    “I know. But you knew we were kind of growing apart for a while.”
    “I figured that was just some sort of phase.”
    “So did I. I just kept hoping it would change,” Sutton said, finally turning to Cole.  
    Cole put his hand on Sutton’s. “You’re shaking. What can I do?”
    “Just be here with me.”
    “I can do that.”
    The two sat quietly for a few minutes, then Sutton spoke up. “Can we go somewhere? I need to be distracted.”
    “Of course. What did you want to do?”
    “I