“What do you mean nothing?”

“We left right after that. I said bye to her family, and we drove home and talked about other stuff.”

“Did you flirt with her then?” Lex says, her eyebrows beetling with confusion.

“No.” Or at least, I don’t think I did. We talked like we normally do. It was aggressively normal, actually. I think I might have been babbling a little, but Ana made fun of me like she usually does, because, apparently, she thinks it’s cute when I’m flustered. She thinks I’m cute, and maybe she’s into girls, and she definitely already knew I was a lesbian. Oh my god, I think I’m having a stroke.

“How do you feel?” Lex asks, and I have never felt less prepared to answer a question in my life.

“I don’t know,” I say helplessly. “Confused?”

“But you like her,” Lex says, as if it’s an undeniable fact.

“I don’t know.”

Lex harrumphs as if I’m being stupid, but I’m completely serious. What if I’m reading too much into this? What if Ana doesn’t like girls, and I end up heartbroken and even more awkward than I already am around her? I can’t avoid her—we do basically everything together.

Lex tries to get more details about how I’m feeling about Ana, but I’m too wound up to talk about it much more. Soon after we hang up, Ana texts me to say that Lili has decided I’m cool. I tap out ten possible replies before settling on bless . I send it, then stare at my screen wondering why I thought that was a sensible response. She doesn’t reply, which is definitely proof that she just thinks of me as a friend. After ten minutes of opening and closing apps on my phone and ignoring Lex’s texts about letting love into my life, I decide to organize my potionworking supplies. At least that’s a productive, relaxing way for me to not get any sleep.

I’m sitting on the floor surrounded by crystals and glassware when my phone buzzes. I don’t grab it right away, telling myself that it’s not Ana and it doesn’t matter even if it is. But then it buzzes again, and again, until I snatch it up from the floor. There’s a string of links to magical-makeup tutorial videos from Ana.

SHAY: ???

Since when is Ana super into makeup? I’ve never seen her wear anything other than ChapStick, which barely even counts. These videos about color-changing eyeshadow don’t seem like something she would be interested in at all.

A few minutes pass before my phone buzzes again.

ANA: sorry, Lili hijacked my phone

Ah. The world makes sense again.

SHAY: hi Lili!

ANA: lol don’t encourage her

ANA: anyway, what else are you up to this weekend?