“Oh my God, Grant!” I say. “Did your parents catch you guys messing around?” Visions of Grant and some faceless guy tumbling around his bed flash through my mind, and I quickly try to push them out. Not a mental picture that I need.

“No,” Grant says, rolling his eyes. “But you know my mom. She was all, ‘Why was there a boy in your room?’ and I was all, ‘Mom, because I am bisexual. I told you.’” He stamps his red and white K-Swiss sneakers on the sidewalk. “Ally, can we please go in the library for a second? Just to warm up?”

“Fine,” I say, sighing. Grant is always about the drama.

“So, anyway,” he says as we walk through the automatic doors into the library. The warm air does feel good, I must admit. “They were totally rude to him.”

“To who?”

“To Brett! Hello, are you new?” He pushes his way through the turnstile, and I follow him dutifully.

“Oh, right, sorry,” I say. “That sucks. Maybe you could just start introducing guys to your parents as friends? And then they might be more accepting later on, when you tell them you’re dating?”

“But they’re not just my friends!” Grant says. He plops down at one of the long wooden tables that take up most of the space on the first floor of the library. “And it doesn’t matter—they get wicked suspicious of any guy I hang around with.”

“I’m sorry, Grant,” I say. “That totally sucks. They’ll come around, though. You just have to give it time.”

He frowns and looks down at the table.

“Hey, at least they haven’t totally disowned you.”

“True,” he says.

“They love you, Grant.” I finger the camera strap around my neck, wishing I knew what to say to make him feel better. “They’re just kind of freaked out by the whole thing. Like I said, you have to give it time.”

“Yeah,” he says. “Maybe.” He sighs and looks down at the floor. After a second, he picks his gaze up and looks at me across the table. “Hey, Ally, no, but seriously, do I look okay?”

NOW

I spent five hours that day taking pictures. The weird thing was, even though it was hard work, the time flew by. I should have realized the fact that I was actually excited about doing schoolwork meant something.

Actually, maybe it wasn’t as obvious then as it is now. I mean, I had tons of stuff to keep me distracted: classes, my new friend Kelly, the fact that my life was being broadcast to America. Oh yeah, and the fact that for some ridiculous reason, I started getting hot and weak everytime I was around Drew.

THEN

THINGS THAT ARE FUCKED UP:

1. That Vanessa Hudgens had naked pics of her leaked on the Internet not once, but twice.

2. The fact that there are people out there who think it’s totally acceptable that Brad picked Angelina over Jen.