Simone smiles. “He is kind of an asshole,” she says, trying to laugh through her tears. “I mean, his ‘outta my way or you’re gonna get played’ shirt? What is that about?”

“A warning?” I offer.

“A desperate plea for attention?”

“The last shirt left at the dollar store?”

They look at me.

“What? They have shirts at the dollar store,” I say. “Besides, it was a joke.”

There’s a moment of silence, and then we all start laughing.

“So was it good?” Jasmine asks Simone. She grabs a cookie off the plate and takes a bite. She manages to look sexy and put together even while eating junk food.

“What?” Simone asks, looking up.

“She means the sex,” I clarify. “How was it?”

“Well, I don’t really have anything to compare it to,” Simone says slowly.

“So it was bad,” Jasmine says, finishing the cookie.

She giggles. “No, it wasn’t bad, it was just . . . is it supposed to be so bumpy?”

Jasmine and I look at each other and burst out laughing. “All right,” Jasmine says, sighing. “I’m going to change. Someone pour me a, what is it? Diet Coke with Lime? I have a feeling we’re going to be here awhile.”

She stands up and starts to head to her room, but Simone starts to talk. “This is probably going to sound pathetic,” she says slowly. “But I’ve had a crush on him since I’ve been here, and now . . . I don’t know, now it feels like I have nothing.” Her eyes start to fill up with tears, and Jasmine puts her arms around her.

“You have us,” she says, and we let Simone cry.

Over the next week, my life becomes an exercise in avoidance. I avoid Kelly in photography, and she avoids me. I wish I could be a badass, but really, what would I say? “Hi, thanks for pretending to be my friend so you could write some half-assed article that you hoped would be picked up by the New York Times?” Besides, it wouldn’t do any good. I can’t change the fact that she wrote it.

I’m still avoiding Drew, because, hello, I slept in his bed. And wore his clothes. I SLEPT IN HIS BED WHILE WEARING HIS CLOTHES. And then, instead of being all sketched out about it like a normal person would, he pretended like it was totally okay and even bought me a present. What the hell is that about? I was going to thank him for the book, I swear to God, I was. But then Kelly’s article came out, and I’m sure he read it. And what if, when he read the part about how I was secretly in love with him, he started to think it was true? The whole situation is completely fucked up.