Two girls walk by, both obviously trying not to stare at me, but then I feel the taller one glance my way for a moment. I glance back at her, then look away and keep walking.
I hear what sounds like a sob. When I look behind me, the tall girl is being comforted by her friend.
Was that my fault?
I hate this.
I walk into Mrs. Destin’s classroom.
Maggie
I really thought I could change him.
So stupid, I know. The cliché of all clichés.
But I wanted to be the one to get him to seventeen.
To undo the curse or whatever. The Belle to his Beast.
Obviously, I didn’t do it.
I knew it was hopeless when he didn’t text this morning.
But still, some mentally damaged part of me thought I might come to school and just now, when I looked at him, he would be all,It worked, Mags!,and I would say,Of course it did, Coco,and we would high-five and make out right there in the hall as the music swelled—“Tale as old as time, true as it can beeeeee”—and the entire school would cheer and we would all live happily ever goddamn after.
But there’s Carter, with those stupid little spikes in his hair, walking by me without a clue in the world.
He did actually stare at me for a second.
And, in that second, everything seemed possible. He looked vulnerable and adorable, and I wanted to hug him and tell him who I was and that we were going to figure this out together.
Then he kept walking.
At which point a vise squeezed my heart until it burst into a dozen bloody chunks that exploded a hole in my sternum and landed with a pitter-pat of thuds on the dingy hallway tile near my feet.
Now I am a dead person.
And suddenly it’s crystal clear:
I cannot do this again.
I will not do this again.
Start from scratch? Do our whole relationship over?
No. No no no.
That sounds like fucking torture.
It must end.
“Yo, sorry, Maggie,” Shana says, putting an arm around me as I let out a sob and collapse into a strange formation, like a broken tripod that won’t fully close. “Totally sucks.”
And for the briefest of moments, even though she’s one of my closest friends, I want to grab Shana by the ears and scream,“COULD YOU SAY ANYTHING MORE OBVIOUS RIGHT NOW?”
But I don’t.
Instead, I say, “I’m done.”
