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Me: Butt dial. Sorry.

Evan: Lol classic.

Classic. I put my phone in my desk drawer and close the drawer.

On Thursday, Paige corners me in the fourth-floor kitchen, because Kenzie wanted to make quesadillas and Kenzie owns a pan, which makes her the most powerful person on that floor. Paige is sitting on the counter with her legs swinging, smelling faintly like a skunk. Kenzie is burning a tortilla.

“So,” Paige says. “Did you tell him?”

I look up. “Tell who?”

“Your boyfriend.”

“He’s not—”

Paige waits, and I don’t finish, because they both know. Kenzie turns around from the stove with the spatula still in her hand.

“You didn’t tell him,” Paige says.

I shake my head. “It’s not that simple.”

“It’s one sentence.”

“Paige.”

“It’s literally one sentence. I don’t want to be with you anymore. That’s it. After everything he did? Come on. Say it how it is.”

I smile at her in spite of myself. “You sound like me.”

Kenzie has turned the burner off, and the kitchen falls very quiet. Paige is right. Maybe I’m not as upfront as I thought I was.

“So right now,” Paige says, “as far as he knows, you’re still his girlfriend. He’s still texting you. He’s making plans. He’s thinking about what to say to you on Saturday.”

I stare at the counter.

“That’s not me being mean,” she says. “That’s just what’s true.”

“I know it’s true.”

“So?”

“So I’m going to do it.”

“When?”

“Paige,” Kenzie hisses.

“I’m not asking to be a bitch,” Paige says in defense. “I’m asking because you’re going to feel like garbage every hour until you do it, and I’d like you to be fun by Saturday.”

Kenzie makes a noise into her hand. And the awful thing is that Paige is right. She might be the only friend I’ve ever had who tells me exactly what I need to hear. I don’t need anyone tiptoeing around my feelings. Evan lied, kissed someone else, and I need to just do it.

“I’ll do it,” I say.

Paige nods once and hops down off the counter. “Good. Kenzie, that black one is yours.”

I call him at nine, sitting on the floor between my bed and the wall with my back against the frame and my knees pulled up. Tessa is at her desk. When the phone starts ringing out, she gets up without a word, puts in her headphones, and leaves, and she closes the door so quietly that I don’t hear it click.

He picks up on the first ring. “Hey. Hey. Hi.”