“Well I guess that rules out Chris as a potential prom date,” Emily said with a sigh as she spread her signature red lipstick across her lips, “And he seemed so sweet too...” Smearing her lips together thoughtfully, she glanced over to the next mirror, where her best friend, Arianna Cho, was applying new mascara. Ari had been strangely quiet for the last few days, but guy talk would usually make her snap right back to her senses. So why wasn’t it working? With another, more exaggerated sigh, Emily continued.
     “You’re always telling me to slow down or I’ll manage to date every guy in the school before the semester is up. Maybe you’re right,” she said. It was time for tactic number two: Arianna loved to be right.

     “I’m always right,” Ari muttered, continuing with her make-up. Groaning, Emily turned around and leaned on the edge of the bathroom sink. “Ok Ari. Spill. You’ve been like a zombie for days. What’s up?”
     Ari glanced over at her friend and rolled her eyes. Choosing to ignore Emily’s question, she instead returned to Em’s earlier comments. “Y’know what your problem is, baby-cakes?” she asked, brushing some of her silky, black hair over her shoulder, “You refuse to date anyone you actually care about. You go out with all these guys just ‘cause they ask you, but you don’t actually care about any of them. It’s practically a game for you now, isn’t it?”
     Emily raised her eyebrows at the clear dismissal of her question, but chose to play along with the charade. Ari would explain when she was ready. She always did.

     “I’m just gullible,” Emily said with a little smile, “Guys tell me they like me and I believe them. And I don’t wanna hurt their feelings by turning them down! Besides, Chris was super sweet. He got me roses and wrote me a poem! I figured I could easily grow to like him with a little time!”
     “Oh, honey,” Arianna moaned, “You can’t go into a relationship figuring you’ll ‘grow to like’ the person. Even if the guy does actually like you, no one wants to stick around on the off chance that you might like them someday. And I bet Chris just wanted to get in your pants like all the others, right?”

     Emily blushed at that. It was true. They had only been dating for a week before Chris had asked when they were going to have sex, and when she had told him he was moving way too fast, he had gotten pissed. “Aw, come on you little slut,” he had shouted, “You open your legs for all the guys; why the fuck am I any different?”
     Ari, knowing exactly what that blush meant, burst into laughter. “Emily, if you’re still a virgin at graduation after dating all these guys, I will seriously laugh my ass off. There has never been a virgin more famous for sleeping around.”

     “It’s not funny!” Emily squealed, playfully throwing a mascara bottle at Ari, “Besides, being a virgin isn’t a bad thing!”
     Ari smirked and glanced up at the clock. “Right, well you go play your little virgin games. I’m sneaking out. Both of Mikey’s parents are out of the house today and this is not an opportunity I want to miss, thank you very much,” she said with a wink as she inspected the mascara tube Emily had thrown at her, “And thanks! I’ll just be keeping this!” She flashed a peace sign at Emily and started towards the door, then stopped and turned back.

     “One last word of advice though? Go for a guy you actually like this time-- Like that Jessie guy I always see you with! He’s pretty cute! And I bet things would work a thousand times better with him,” she said with another wink before backing out of the room. The door slammed shut before Emily could finish her sentence, “What? But we’re just fri--”

     As always, Emily was going to be late for class. Make-up time in the restroom with Arianna had been a tradition since freshman year, but it always ended just as the bell for class was ringing, and Emily still had to go to her locker. Sighing, she opened her locker and set the books from her morning classes down on one of the shelves. Ms. Ibbotson was just going to have to deal with it.

     Of course, being late was no big deal to the rebellious sorts in the school, so when the ripped jeans and clunky boots appeared beneath her locker door, she wasn’t surprised at all. Despite their numerous differences, Jessie Romero was her best friend, second only to Arianna.
     Immediately, Emily slammed her locker shut and jumped at him, wrapping her arms around his neck, her feet dangling a few inches off of the floor. “Where’ve you been?” she squealed, voice muffled by his neck. She felt his chest rumble with laughter as his arms wrapped around her, hugging her back for a moment before letting her go.
     “Somehow I don’t think you really wanna know,” he replied finally, a goofy smile lighting up his face. He was probably right, of course.

     For all that she loved spending time with Jessie, she knew that he got into trouble in a lot of ways she’d rather not know about, and he knew that hearing about his latest escapades would only trouble her. Instead, he asked her what was going on in her life. He had been gone for almost two weeks now. Of course they had some serious catching up to do.
     “I’m worried about Ari,” Emily told him, opening her locker once more, “She’s been acting funny lately, and she’ll barely talk to me except to steer me away from topics she really doesn’t want me to bring up.”
     Jessie leaned on some other lockers and listened, not saying anything. They both knew that Emily got the same way sometimes. In fact, Ari may very well have picked it up from her.

     As Emily finished up in her locker, Jessie automatically grabbed her backpack from her shoulder. She grabbed at it, but he spun away, not letting her take it. “C’mon,” he said, sticking out his tongue, “Lemme be a gentleman, will ya?” He always did this, and though Emily always argued, in the end, she would let him.
     Starting off down the hall towards her next class, Emily glared at Jessie playfully. “People are gonna start rumors about us dating again if you keep doing that, Jessie,” she huffed. Rumors were always flying about the two of them. They’d been friends for ages, but for some reason the rest of the school thought they were more.

     “So let the rumors fly. They’re idiots,” Jessie said, stopping in his tracks. Emily glanced over her shoulder and saw him staring at her.
     “What’s wrong, Jess?” she asked in confusion, but the way the corners of her lips were slowly turning up, she could see that it wasn’t a problem at all. No, he had just gotten some undoubtedly stupid idea in his head, and of course he was about to share it with her.
     “In fact...” he said breathlessly, slinking towards her like a cat, “Why don’t we give them something to gossip about?” He grabbed one of her hands and twirled her, before pulling her against his chest and backing her up against the wall. Her eyes widened as she felt a hand graze her chest, then caught his for a moment. Her words caught in her throat, and for just a second it felt like they were suspended in time.

     Finally, Emily moved, slapping him playfully and pushing him away. “C’mon Jess, don’t be a dumbo. If anyone saw us like that there would be no escaping the rumors, which is stupid, ‘cause we’re just friends.”
     “Yeah...” he replied, “Just friends...”
     They were silent the rest of the way to class, both of them refusing to look at each other.