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“It’s not Evan,” I say.

“Have you heard from him?”

“No. Not since the diner. I asked him not to reach out again.” I pick a piece of dried mask off my jaw. “So he isn’t.”

“And how’s that going?” Bianca asks.

I open my mouth to say fine, but that would be a lie. I shrug. “It sucks. I’m so used to having a boyfriend. We got together the summer before sophomore year, and everybody thought we’d break up by Christmas, and we didn’t, and then it was just—” I fan my face. “My whole life.”

“Wow,” Paige says. “That’s a long time.”

My phone vibrates again. “It’s Declan,” I say.

“Declan, Kylie?” Paige scoffs.

“He texts me. And I answer, because he’s funny, and because I’m—” I stop.

“Because you’re what?” Kenzie says.

I shrug, because it’s the same thought I had Tuesday in the library, in Evan’s voice. I keep fanning my face. “One time, Evan told me I’d never be single. He said it like a compliment. You wouldn’t be single a week, Ky. Somebody would snap you up.”

Kenzie makes a face.

“And then he told me that I don’t like to be alone. At the time, I thought it meant he was scared of losing me. Now it’s been a week, and there’s a guy texting me, and I keep thinking, what if he was right about me? What if I’m the kind of person who can’t be by herself for five minutes without finding somebody to hold onto?”

Paige pulls back from Kenzie and lets her finish her own mask. “Okay, first of all,” she says, “Fuck him.”

“Paige,” Kenzie says.

“No, I’m serious, that is such a guy thing to say. That’s a guy telling you he thinks you’re a girl-shaped object that gets picked up. That’s not a compliment.”

Bianca snorts.

“Second,” Paige says, “you didn’t find Declan. Declan found you. He walked into a kitchen where you were getting humiliated and came over. You didn’t do anything. It’s neutral.”

“Nothing is neutral,” Kenzie says, peeling the edge of her own mask. “Everything’s something. But you can go on a date with a guy and still be sad about a different guy.”

I stare at her.

“Are you going to go out with him?” Bianca asks.

I look at my phone. “He asked for Friday.”

“And?”

“I said yes.”

Paige points at me with the mask packet. “Kylie.”

“I said yes because I want to go, and because I want to see what he’s like when he’s not being nice at a party.” I pull my knees up. “And if I don’t like what I see, that’s it. I’m not doing anything I don’t want to do. I’m not jumping into anything.”

“Okay,” Paige says. “But you tell us where you’re going, and you text one of us at the end.”

“Obviously.”

“And if he’s weird—”

“I’ll be weird back,” I say. “I’ve gotten really good at it.”