“Why do you keep saying that?” He stops short. Awareness washes away his smile. “Did you think—?”

“No.” I cut him off before he can verbalize my embarrassment. “Maybe. I didn’t know.”

“Oh,” he says in a half-breath, half-word sigh. He studies the flowers like he’s hoping they’ll open a portal out of this awkward moment. When he looks up, his face contorts in a grimace. I can only imagine what mine looks like.

“I like you, too, of course, just not that way,” he says.

Of course. Not that way. Never that way. Not for me.

I nod and reach for the door handle.

“No, it’s fine. I—I just have to go.”

Asad hits his palm into his forehead.

“Idiot! Idiot!”

He stands close to me, the flowers between us again. Her flowers. In his eyes, something foreign—a look I’m well versed in, just not from him.

Pity.

“I thought you knew. I thought everybody knew. I’ve had a crush on her since middle school.” His face twists like my insides. “It’s gonna be weird now, isn’t it?”

I shake my head. Please stop talking.

“Asad, really. It’s fine. I’m fine.”

I step back, the door against my heels. I’m out of room to retreat. I grab the door handle behind me as Asad steps closer.

“Seriously, Ava. I meant what I said the other night. I’m so glad you’re in my life. When Piper asked me to look out for you, I never would have guessed you’d end up being one of my closest friends. Now I’ve gone and screwed it all up.”

My fingers slide off the knob.

“Wait. What?”

“You are, really. You’ve got to know how much I value our friendship.”

“No. Not that. The other thing. Piper asked you to look out for me? When?”

Asad shrugs. “I don’t know, before drama club.”

The day I wanted to bolt from the auditorium. He convinced me to stay. Held my hand.

Made me hope.

“You only talked to me because Piper asked you to?”

“No, I also talked to you in class on your first day, remember? You totally shafted me.”

I remember. He talked to me. I was rude. And yet he was still nice and welcoming and over-the-top friendly at drama. Because Piper asked him to be my pity friend. Because he’d do anything for her.

And she knew it.

I turn my back to Asad, awkwardly trying to open the door without backing any closer to him or her flowers. He grabs my arm.

“Don’t leave it like this, Ava. Who cares how we met? What matters is you’re one of my closest friends now.”

Friends. Of course—the Burned Girl: friend zone for life.

I shake him off. “I have to go.”

“Where?”

“Anywhere. Somewhere not here.”