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So how do you save yourself from the humiliation of having missent a message to the person you used to like, shamelessly admitting the fact that you used to like him?

You lie.

Or at least, that’s what my panic-stricken brain told me to do.

At taht point though, my mind was so caught up in the indignity of it all that it refused to come up with a good lie. It refused to come up with any coherent thought whatsoever! I dialed Anne.

“Yeah?” she answered sleepily.

“You’re right, okay? I did like AJ!” I spoke in a rush. “But Anne, you gotta help me,” I pleased desperately, and filled her in on my booboo.

Anne insisted on honestly, reminding me that if Nicole found out through AJ, it’d look really bad for me, and deep down, I knew she was right. At that moment though, she wasn’t making much sense to that part of me that wanted to save face, that party of me that didn’t want to admit to anything. I managed a weak, “Thanks. Okay. I’ll deal with it,” before I bid her goodbye. But my mind was racing.

I kept telling myself that if only I hadn’t liked him, I wouldn’t be in this predicament. I must’ve drilled that thought in my head enough times until I finally came up with a solution.

Oh, sorry but Anne and I weren’t talking about you, AJ.

I started.

I used to like

…I racked my brain furiously…

Andrew Jimenez. “AJ” was my code name for him.

It was so weak. I know! But a girl at the end of her wits has a few options. (And I would’ve done anything, anything at all, to save myself from disgrace. I vowed to stand by my miserable excuse for an alibi to the end.)

By the time I messaged him back, it was 12 midnight. I endured the most fitful sleep I’d ever had and was awake the nanosecond my cellphone beeped at dawn.

My bad, sorry He had sent back. Wouldn’t have known you liked Drew

At this point, I didn’t care whether he believed me. I didn’t even care whether he thought I had awful taste for liking such a bully. I was just so darn proud of myself for coming up with a semi-plausible excuse.

In school that morning, Nicole approached me, hesitantly, wringing her hands. She had a troubled look about her.

“Katie?” she bit her lip. “I think I need to talk to you.” It turns out AJ told her about my message, wondering whether Nicole was playing a joke on him through us. He hadn’t passed on my explanation this morning.

“Did you like AJ?” she finally asked, crestfallen.

“No,” I said, a little too forcefully. “I liked Drew Himenes. Andrew Jimenez? ‘AJ’?” I said, making quotation marks in the air, not meeting her eye.

“Oh! I’m so relieved!” Nicole exclaimed, giving me a little hug. I watched her return to her seat as I winced while I mouthed a feeble “sorry’ behind her back. I did not notice Lianne, who was two seats away from me, leave the classroom to go to Drew’s and tell him the news she had overheard. Just then, Anne plopped down on the seat beside me.

She looked at me questioningly. “It’s okay. I told her,” I said. And it wasn’t exactly a lie. I told Nicole something, didn’t I? Just not exactly the truth, I reasoned. And I was well and good, riding my little story for four whole hours. It was lunchtime before everything blew up in my face.

“You two always end up liking the same guys,” Anne teased Nicole and me after eating, as soon as Jill had left for a club meeting. I was aghast. Nic looked at Anne, then at me, confused.

“I though you told her the truth?” Anne asked me, quietly.

I looked at Nicole, imploringly.

She finally understood, and her face showed how hurt she was by my deception. She hurriedly got up and walked away.

“Katie!?!” Anne let out, frustrated and disappointed with me. “Nicole! Wait!” she called out after her.

I watched them leave, helpless, the sinking feeling in my stomach all but gone. Just then Drew took the chair beside me, his friend jeering.

“So,” he said, a cocky smile on his face. “What do you do for fun?”