Bree’s face lit up when she saw me. “Andi!” She rushed over, taking a huge bite out of a Pop-Tart and staring me down like a detective about to grill a suspect. “I’ve been stuck at emergency play practice the past couple hours—”

“Emergency play practice?” I echoed. “There’s emergency play practice?”

“You’ve never seen how wicked bad a play can go, have you?” asked Bree.

I shook my head.

“Consider yourself lucky,” she said darkly. “Anyway, apparently you’ve been having quite the morning, yourself.”

It was a tiny bit embarrassing—I’d been focusing so intensely on Riley that I hadn’t even noticed Bree’s absence from my first two classes. As long as I didn’t bring it up, she didn’t have to know.

“So… what the heck is going on?” she asked, and I could sense her caution. “Yesterday, you’re crying your eyes out, but now I’ve been hearing about jackets and arms and great romantic timing in French class all morning, and everyone’s asking me about it, but I don’t want to say a single word until I’ve heard the whole thing from you. So…?”

She lifted questioning red eyebrows at me. What could I say? I’m sure I blushed.

“So, wait… so you and Riley… you guys are… dating?” she asked, detective Bree on the case.

I couldn’t help it. I beamed.

Bree gave a short, shocked laugh. “Wow,” she said. “I mean… well, if you’re happy, then that’s great!” She gave a sincere shrug. “But seriously, Andi, don’t take any crap from him,” she warned, but there was playfulness to her words. “You are way more important than any old Riley Bay, so if he acts up, you send him to me!”

Oh, Bree, sweet, dependable, loyal Bree. If only she knew just how much more important old Riley Bay was than insignificant Andi Slate. But I nodded, and despite it all, I just couldn’t stop smiling.

“So, are you going to tell me what happened?” she asked, finishing off her second Pop-Tart.

“Well,” I said, but stopped myself. I had to be careful about the way I explained everything. As infected by my happiness as Bree seemed to be, I knew how much Riley had fallen in her estimation after New York, and how weirdly worried she could get about me. So no bringing up the prophecy that had brought us together, or stuff like the fact that I was now dating an ancient godlike superbeing in human form. Probably not the most comforting things to tell Bree. Instead, I opened with, “You know how I’m afraid of the ocean?”

Bree nodded.

“We went swimming,” I said meekly, my face flushing at the memory. “He took me to the beach. And while I was with him, I… well, we went swimming.”