I’m more annoyed that all the times I said I wished he were here, he could have been. I wish he’d told me sooner. I wish there was more than a span of like three breaths between him saying “Hey, Peak” and me saying “Screw you.” It isn’t fair.

“Obviously he’s spying,” Jayla says, rolling her eyes. “He’s an Everlasting; that’s what they do.”

Everlasting. It doesn’t sound like a bad name, pretty cool actually, except for the family attached to it. Why does he have to be an Everlasting? Maybe he could get emancipated. That’s a thing, right?

“Well,” Jayla says. “What are you going to do?”

“I have time to figure it out,” I say, flipping the pillow back behind my head. “I doubt I’ll see him again anyway.”

Jayla drops her chin. “No, you definitely will. What day do they have you working?”

“Sunday.”

“With Vera or alone?”

“Alone.”

“He’ll be there,” Jayla snorts. “I’d put money on it.”

“He probably took the first private jet out of here,” I say, all nonchalant, pretending like that thought doesn’t hurt.

“He’ll show,” she says, going back to painting her nails, which makes my traitor heart twist in ways it shouldn’t.

“Is he still texting you?” Nikki asks.

“Nope,” I say, popping the p and scratching my eyebrow with my thumb. “Just the ones right after, and then nothing.” I climb off the bed and go over to my nail polish, picking out a wild shade of teal. I realize too late it’s the same one I wore to FabCon prom.

“Don’t you think this whole thing was one giant setup?” Jayla asks. “It’s too convenient to not have been.”

“Jay.” Nikki waves her hand back and forth like that will make it dry faster. “You seriously think he rode the elevator up and down all night hoping you guys would get on? Doubtful.”

Jayla shoots Nikki a look. “Not that part, obviously, but everything after that.”

“It was fate, face it,” Nikki says, like that’s a totally normal, rational belief.

“Fate, right, that must be it.” Jayla laughs, flipping over her buzzing phone to read an incoming text. “Crap.”

“What?”

“Sorry, Jubi, but we gotta go. My mom needs me to pick up my brother, and I have to drop Nikki off first.”

“It’s fine. I’m okay,” I say, even though I was hoping they could sleep over. But they have a super-early away game tomorrow anyway, so it’s probably for the best.

“You sure?” Nikki asks.

“It was just a con crush, right? Who even cares?” I try to play it off, but those words hurt coming out.

Jayla narrows her eyes like she doesn’t quite believe me. “Right,” she says. “This is why we ghost them. Trust me next time.”

•  •  •

“Jubi?” my mom says, peeking her head into my room.