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at him. Luke looked really cute today. His light brown hair was slicke d back and the forest green polo t-shirt he was wearing brought out the gold flecks in his emerald green eyes .
    “I had a really good time last night. I know that we said we would go out again really soon, but . . . now just isn’t the right time for me. Maybe in the future, though?” Luke asked, studying her face.
    “Oh, umm,” Sam ara searched for the right words, trying to hide her disappointment . “Yeah, okay.”
    “Thanks for being so cool about it,” Luke said apologetically. “I’ll see you around.” He gave her a small s mile before walking away.
    Samara knew that she wasn’t going to cry over this. They had only gone on one date, and to be technical, it was barely even a date. Still, at the end of the night , he had kissed her. Why did he kiss her and suggest that they should go out again sometime soon if that wasn’t what he was really plann ing on doing? It made no sense.
    Maybe he had already met someone who he liked better since last night. Or maybe she had been wrong, and she hadn’t looked good enough for him . Maybe Luke wasn’t into curly hair. She probably should have let Emma use the flat iron to straighten it instead.
    Samara hadn’t expected this type of rejection to hurt so badly , but she really didn’t have much experience in the love department. In fact, Luke was the first guy who had ever taken her out on a date. Part of that was because her parents were so overprotective and didn’t want her dating until she was eighteen, but it was also because she hadn’t found a guy who she liked enough to bend the rules for. Luke had been the first – and when they had played beer bong together at Emma’s house on the night of the party, he had seemed really into her. He was even nice enough to drink for her whenever a ball made it into their cup – maybe that was part of the problem. She wasn’t a big drinker, unlike the other girls in their class.
    Samara wasn’t sure what had changed since last night that would make him not want to go out with her again. She wondered if their kiss had been bad enough to scare him away, even though it had seemed really good at the time.
    “Hey, do you want to go shopping tonight? ” Emma asked from behind her.
    “Umm, no, that’s okay,” Samara replied. “I think I’m just going to go home. I have a lo t of homework to do tonight.”
    “Suit yourself,” Em ma shrugged. “Ashley and Brielle are also coming. You’ll be the only one who’s left out.”
    “It’s okay. I’ll see you tomorrow,” Samara replied, slamming her locker door shut louder than she meant to and began walking down the hallway . Shopping had never been Samara’s favorite afterschool hobby, but she usually tagged along because she had nothing else to do. It was a lot better than going home after school and listening to he r family argue with each other.
    Tonight, she just didn’t feel like being around anyone. Samara knew that she was going to be a Debbie Downer, so she was better off staying at home. Besides, it would give her time to mope around – and that was really what she needed tonight. She wasn’t sure why it bothered her so much , but Luke had really hurt her.
     
    *
     
    As she walked home from school, just thinking about Emma got on her nerves. It seemed like her best friend wanted her to be unhappy just because she was unhappy. Sighing, she realized that they had a lot in common at the moment. Luke did n’t really like either of them.
    When she walked through the front door, Seth was sitting on the couch. He looked up at her when sh e came into the living room.
    “Seth,” Samara said, trying to compose herself . She wanted to yell at him for hitting their father, but she knew that would just make him even angrier and he’d either end up getting violent towards her or run away again for who knew how long . “Were you at school today? I didn’t see you.”
    Seth shook his head,