The fact that she’s taking any credit for Chase and me getting together when she’s the one preventing me from fully enjoying it pisses me off, and of course she managed to poke at the very thing I’ve been most worried about. “I don’t think a cut ‘n’ color can be credited for an entire relationship, Jasmine.” I hope not, anyway.

“No, I suppose not,” she muses. “But you have this whole … aura of confidence that’s a way more magnified version of when I met you. Has he found your piercing yet?”

The piercing. We were so bored one day that a game of Truth or Dare? went too far and landed me with a ring through my belly button thanks to Carter’s older sister. Cliché, maybe, but it looked hot. Anyone could see it if they happened to go swimming with me, or if I threw on a crop top, but the way she says it, you’d think it was somewhere even the tiniest of bikinis would still cover.

“Not yet.”

She smirks, but there’s no jealousy in it. No bitterness. And that’s what makes it cruel. “It’s only a matter of time, I’m sure.”

“I guess.” I still can’t get past Shannon running to Jasmine after she spoke to me. I guess she had her phone number after all. “So you’re talking to me now?”

“I haven’t been not talking to you, Tinkerbell. We literally just talked at my party.”

Tinkerbell. The resurgence of my nickname might suffuse me with warmth if she weren’t giving me such attitude. But I was right, I realize—Jasmine did need to know that I wasn’t going to try to bring things back to where they’d been this summer. She needed me to have a boyfriend in order for us to be friends, so she could be sure I wasn’t going to pursue her. I’d been happy when I first thought of how maybe that would bring us back to normal, but right now it makes me feel sick.

“OK, whatever. Guess it doesn’t matter since you’ve had no trouble making friends here.” I try to keep my voice light, to remember how grateful I am for the friends she made me a few months ago, even if they fell to the wayside. But my feelings at her buddying up with Shannon drip from every word, and it doesn’t help that I’m upset about the other stuff.

The thing is, I wanted us to be friends, and I wanted to date Chase, and it looks like I’m gonna get it all, so I should be happy. At the very least, I should be nice. “Guess this means you’ll be joining us for lunch?”

“Shannon did mention something about that, yeah.”

“Great!” I plaster a smile on my face. “Guess I’ll see you then.”