Hi, Colin. I’m sorry I’ve been such a bad friend these past couple of weeks. I hope things are good with you. Are you free on Tuesday to go to Crispy Chicken with me for dinner at 6:00? Just LMK. Thanks.

I reread it only once, and then, instead of agonizing over it, I quickly pushed send.

My heart lurched and I gasped, but there was no taking it back now.

“Done?” asked Sierra.

“Done,” I said. “For better or for worse.” I tried to summon the courage of Anne of Green Gables, who said: “Next to trying and winning, the best thing is trying and failing.” Hmmm. I wasn’t so sure about that.

CHAPTER ELEVEN A SURPRISE VISITOR

To say that I checked my phone five hundred times over the course of the next day would be… an understatement.

Colin did not reply.

By the time I went to bed on Monday night (after answering ten question mark texts from Sierra with big fat NOs), I had moved through the whole spectrum of emotions, from mortified, to anxious, to furious, to sad, to angry, and back, multiple times. I wouldn’t let myself regret sending the text, though. I knew that the ball had been in my court, and I’d owed him that much, at least.

I slept fitfully and did not allow myself to check my phone until I was in the car with my mom on the way to my class at the Y. Usually the class was on Mondays and Thursdays, but Ms. Gallo had made a change this week because she had a conflict.

I looked at my phone again. Still nothing. I sighed.

“Everything okay, sweetheart?” she asked.

“Ugh,” I said.

“How so?” she prodded.

I explained that I was loving my new class and had made two good friends there, in addition to the Wildflowers. But then I confessed.

“I’ve been a bad friend,” I said, and I explained about Colin.

“So, wait, why didn’t you contact him when you got home?” My mom was confused.

“Because I kind of like him and I thought he liked me back, and I thought he’d, like, magically and romantically know I was home, and he’d show up with a bouquet of flowers and sweep me off my feet—”

My mom was laughing. “Maybe he thought the same about you!” she interjected.

“Haha.” I laughed wryly. “As if!”

“Why not? Boys have feelings too, you know!”

“Not Tanner!” I said.

“Yes, maybe not Tanner,” joked my mom. “Anyway, I’m sure that when things cool down, Colin will get back to you. Don’t worry.”

We’d reached the Y, and my mom idled in front as I gathered up my backpack.

“You’re a good kid, Allie. Don’t worry,” she said lightly, but her eyes held concern.

“Thanks, Mom. Love you,” I replied.

“Love you too.”