I didn’t think there was anything on earth Kori couldn’t tell me. But if there was one thing, my mom having an affair with a married man would probably be it. Kori had known I’d held out the hope if I couldn’t have my real father, one day I would have a father. And I wanted a good one. One who didn’t lie and cheat. One who had a good heart and an easy smile. One who didn’t leave his family in the dust.

“I won’t kiss you if you eat it,” Cole was saying to her new side-kick, Adrian17. I squeezed in behind her in the cafeteria line, pretending all was normal. I slid my tray along the silver rails, grabbing some extra fruit for Mr. Miller’s horses.

Adrian pulled her tight against him and kissed her ear. “Yes you will. You can’t resist me.”

To be perfectly honest, I was shocked her little lark had somehow survived through everything with Kori. It shocked me because I knew the only reason Cole even hooked up with him was to piss off the BBs, and I knew how hard it was for me to even think about boyfriend stuff, and Anthony had definitely not been some stupid practical joke.

The line moved slowly. Ahead of me, Chelsea was taking two cartons of milk off of Marci’s tray. As Marci stretched for a slice of pizza, Chelsea dropped the cartons and grabbed Marci’s wrist. “You’re supposed to be on a diet!”

“It’s new. All carbs and dairy,” Marci said, nearly pleading. “It’s French! You know how skinny French women are. All they eat is cheese and bread.”

“Yeah, well, you’re an American and it’s not working for you.” Chelsea tossed back Marci’s oatmeal cookie, following it quickly with the blueberry muffin.

Marci’s tray was empty except for one yogurt and a bottled water. Embarrassed, she looked down as she passed us on her way to her table. Of course, it might’ve had something to do with Cole and Adrian playing handsies over the garlic bread.

For two cool people, they were unbelievably annoying as a couple. Luckily he still sat with his jockstrap buddies at lunch, which meant I had a fighting chance of keeping my food down at our table.

Unfortunately the continuation of their ooey-gooey-you’re-the-smoochie lovefest picked up right where it was left off. In Doc’s class, Adrian took his new favorite seat, sprawling in the chair directly behind Cole. She turned toward him for maximum flirting.

“I’m not telling you what my secret was! No! Tell me yours, then. No. Tell me yours! No. Tell me now. Tell me. Tell me. Tell me.”

Kill me. No. Kill me now. Kill me. Kill me. Kill me.