I was tired, but couldn’t sleep. I found my thoughts drifting back to Jake, and then Max.

Once, when we were younger, back in elementary school, I had a crush on Max. I’d seen other girls flirt with him, Max often flirting back, and heard the whispers in the girl’s bathroom, but Max was like the brother I didn’t have. It was weird, and it scared me.

So I avoided him, making Max worried about me. The more I avoided him, the more he tried to find out what was wrong. There was no escaping him.

So when he finally came to my house, asking my mom to see me, and looking so worried that my mom immediatly sent him up to my bedroom, where I’d been hiding, I told the truth.

He stared at me as I hid my head in my pillow, suddenly concious of the fact that my room was a mess. He’d already seen it a million times, but suddenly now I was dying of embarassment because my room was a mess.

When he remained silent for a long time, I lifted my head a little from my pillow and looked at him, cheeks bright red.