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soda, to give myself an extra moment to think. Could I justify telling Evan about Lisa being back, when I hadn’t even told Courtney and Max? Maybe not, but I knew I was going to tell him anyway. There was something open about him.
    “I have,” I said. “Actually, she’s staying with us right now.”
    “Oh, so you have a relationship with her then.”
    “Not exactly,” I said, and dove into the whole sordid Lisa history. “She’s been back a week now, and I still don’t know why she’s here. We’ve been doing a pretty good job of steering clear of each other.”
    He looked confused. “Why don’t you just ask her?”
    I let out a little laugh. “You make it sound so simple.”
    “Well, isn’t it? You talk to her for two minutes, get her side of the story, and then decide whether she’s worth your time or not. But by spending all your energy avoiding her and wondering why she’s here, you’re not being fair to yourself.” He shrugged and took a bite of his mashed potatoes.
    I stared at him in awe. “Who are you?”
    “You mean, ‘who is this random guy who thinks he knows anything about my life?’”
    “I mean, ‘who is this person who sees things so clearly?’ I wish I could do that. I’m always overanalyzing everything—it’s why I can’t ever sleep. My mind won’t shut up.”
    “Yeah, I’m the total opposite. I’ve never been a worrier. But that’s not necessarily a good thing—things appear so cut-and-dried to me that I always think I’m right, which of course isn’t true, and I end up putting my foot in my mouth.” He paused. “You know, if we ever had kids, I bet they’d end up with a perfect mix of our two personality extremes.”
    I laughed. “Oh, so now we’re having kids together, huh?”
    He grinned. “Well, I think we kind of have to. Far be it from us to deny the world perfectly tempered, Shakespeare-quoting, Elizabethan fencing experts with your smile.”
    After dinner, we were having such a good time that we decided to forgo the movie and instead just drive around and talk. Evan told me all about his life back in San Francisco and how after his parents’ divorce they didn’t give him a choice of whether he wanted to stay in California with his dad or move here with his mom for her new job. He told me how he joined the drama club with a few guy friends freshman year because they’d heard it was a good place to meet girls and how, by the end of the first semester, his friends had all bailed but he had unexpectedly fallen in love with theater. We talked about Ty, and we talked about Sarah, Evan’s ex-girlfriend.
    “What happened with the two of you?”
    “She left for college in Seattle, I came here, and that was the end of that.” He gave a quick, unaffected shrug. I couldn’t help feeling there was more to the story.
    “Did you love her?”
    He stared straight ahead. “I thought I did.”
    I sighed. I knew what that was like.
    We sat there quietly for a while, parked on a side street a few blocks away from my house, listening to the radio. It wasn’t an awkward lapse in conversation, though; it was comfortable. And after a few songs, Evan leaned over out of the blue and kissed me. It was soft and hesitant at first, but slowly grew deep and intense.
    It was strange kissing someone other than Ty. Lee didn’t count, because I didn’t remember it. But Ty…I still remembered every kiss with him, from the very first to the very last. I remembered the softness of his lips and the way our teeth sometimes scraped against each other’s and how we would laugh and go right on kissing. I remembered kissing him and thinking I never wanted to kiss anyone else for the rest of my life.
    Kissing Evan was different. Not bad different, just…new. I liked the way he threaded his hands through my hair and I liked the way he seemed to be exploring my kiss rather than forcing his own on me. Reacting rather than acting.
    We did a pretty good job of steaming up the car windows,