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“It is now. This asshole has evaded us for long enough. Seriously, where is this clown?” RJ turned around in circles scanning the cafeteria now.

My phone buzzed again.

“So your best guess was Leo? Really? Epic fail, guys.”

“That son of a bitch,” RJ said under his breath.

Liam grabbed my phone. “Seriously, who the fuck are you, you creep?”

“Don’t steal your sister’s phone.”

Liam looked up at me. “I’m going to kill this guy.”

“Stop it.” I grabbed my phone back. “He’s here. Somewhere.”

“And you know who’s not?” Sophie smiled. “Mr. Halifax. I knew he wasn’t your kiss thief. Which I probably should have put together this morning after your photo development room hookup. Since Mr. Halifax was in class with me. I had eyes on him the whole time.” She squealed. “He’s still in love with me! He must have just given you an A on that quiz because he’s scared of Uncle James. Not because he’s obsessed with you. Because he’s obsessed with me!” She clapped her hands together.

Well, that was a relief.

“Great,” RJ said. “But can we please focus on identifying this loser?”

I pressed my lips together. “He’s not a loser, RJ.”

“Scar, why else would he be hooking up with you in dark closets otherwise? Who are the ugliest people in the cafeteria right now?”

“No, we need to go back to the beginning,” Sophie said. “I still have the JV team roster...”

I groaned. “I’m not doing that. This ends now.” I started typing a text out. “Tell me who you are right now or I’m never speaking to you again.”

Sophie looked over my shoulder. “Brilliant.”

I hit send.

He texted back right away: “You’ve threatened that before. Yet here we are talking. And we did a lot more than talk this morning.”

I felt my cheeks growing hot. “Please,” I texted. “Just tell me.”

“Step away from your friends so I can text just you,” my kiss thief responded.

“Don’t do it,” RJ said.

“He’s literally watching me right now. I can’t not do it. I’ll let you know what he says right after.” I walked over to the windows.

My phone buzzed with my kiss thief’s text: “You always look beautiful. But what happened to your uniform from this morning?”

“I was trying to follow you and I accidentally knocked over a stop bath. I’m not sure the vinegar smell will ever get out of my hair.”

“I’m sorry about that. That wasn’t a first I meant to steal. But I’m sure you still smell amazing.”

Still? So this guy had been close enough to me today to know what I smelled like earlier? No. I probably smelled the same most days. Gah. “Please tell me who you are.”

The seconds slowly ticked by. But his response finally came: “Are you over Jacob?”

Did I even have a choice not to be? Jacob had already moved on. I looked over at our table to see him laughing about something with Olivia. She placed her hand on his arm and he smiled down at her.

“Yes,” I texted back, even though the truth was a lot more complicated than that. I was pretty sure a part of me would always love Jacob. But that piece of me got smaller and smaller the more obvious it became that Jacob had never loved me back.

The kiss thief didn’t write back.