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“Hey, what’s going on?” She didn’t wait for me to respond. She pulled me into the girls’ bathroom to get out of the hallway. “Was your first time terrible? What did he do? Did it hurt?”

“Jacob never came back to pick me up on Friday.”

“What?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know what happened. He hasn’t returned any of my calls or texts. And I’ve sent him enough soup to feed an army. What do I do?”

“Is he sick?”

“I don’t know. Aunt Brooklyn said he wasn’t feeling well...”

“Then there you have it. He’s just sick.”

“I think he’s ghosting me,” I said.

Sophie laughed. “He can’t ghost you. The four of us hang out all the time. That is not an appropriate method of breaking up in this scenario.”

“Really?”

She nodded. “Really. But I’m a little worried that he’s super ill if he can’t even text.”

“I know. Should I go see him? Maybe I can bring him some soup in person.” And I’d also get out of Mr. Halifax’s class which was definitely a win in my book.

“I think that’s a good idea. Go get the best girlfriend of the year award. He probably just got a worse version of whatever you caught on Friday.”

I nodded. Although Jacob hadn’t been sitting in the cold for hours Friday night. I had. “Okay, I’m going to ditch.”

“I’ll cover for you in class. Go check on your boy.” Sophie opened the bathroom door for me and I walked out and practically bumped into Jacob. I breathed a sigh of relief and threw my arms around him. “Jacob! There you are. I was so worried!” I pulled back so I could see his face. He didn’t look unwell. “Did you get my texts? Did you get the soups?”

“Um...yeah.” He lowered his eyebrows as he stared down at me.

Crap, it was too many soups. I knew it.

“I’m sorry about Friday night,” he said. “I got held up talking to Axel.”

“That’s fine, I didn’t wait that long.” But we both knew that wasn’t true. He’d seen my texts. So he’d seen the timestamps.

Jacob cleared his throat. But then he just stared at me. It looked like he had a lot to say, but didn’t want to say it.

And I was almost scared to speak. Because I felt the same way I had on Friday night looking up at the star on the ceiling. Like Jacob was far away. But he was standing right here. He wasn’t hugging me though. Or kissing me. Or acting at all the way he usually did. But maybe he just didn’t want me to get sick. “Are you okay? Aunt Brooklyn said you weren’t feeling well. I was really worried.”

“I’m fine. I mean, I will be.”

“Okay.”

He cleared his throat again. “Scarlett, I...” his voice trailed off. “I think it would be better for both of us if we end this right now.”

I swear my heart stopped beating.

“It’s not really going anywhere, you know? It can’t.”

I felt like I couldn’t breathe. “Whhh...why? We talked about forever.” I’d pictured forever with him. I hadn’t just said it to say it. I’d wanted it. He’d painted the picture of our future and I saw myself standing beside him.

He shrugged like forever meant nothing to him.

“Jacob, I love you.”

He shook his head. “I think as a friend though, right? Like I love you. Just as a friend. And I always will.”