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cheating, but no one said a word. Realizing another guy I’d cared about would hurt me over sex had been devastating. It was hard to think of my dad as the exception after Kirk’s betrayal. Dad had ripped my life in half because he’d needed to sleep with some pharmaceutical sales rep named Ginger from Poughkeepsie and Kirk had gleefully stomped on my heart because he couldn’t wait another couple hours to have sex with me. The whole thing baffled me. What was so all consuming powerful about sex anyway?
    “Here comes the new guy.” Justin tilted his head in the direction of the cafeteria door.
    Liam walked past a table of whispering girls and stopped at the juice machine. He stared at the selections as if they didn’t have juice in his mother country. After a few beats, he fished money from the pocket of his new-looking jeans. I was on the edge of my seat, as if his choice of beverage might reveal his secrets. Liam deposited coins in exchange for an apple juice. I relaxed. Apple juice was very normal and non-sinister, as juices went.
    “You stopped chewing,” Justin’s voice startled me.
    “What?” I chewed again, slow and deliberate.
    “Do you recognize his shirt? He’s the guy you ran into this morning. Liam Hale.”
    Liam’s eyes met mine across the sea of bustling tables. Did he hear us over all the racket? I looked at Justin, cheeks scalding at being caught staring. Again. I concentrated on chewing my food before I choked to death in the school cafeteria. My brain was glitchy today. Not enough sleep. Headache. Excuses. Excuses. Excuses.
    “Have you met him?” I bit my lip the minute the words escaped. I didn’t want to seem too eager.
    I took a long drink of water and forced my gaze back to Justin.
    “Not really. That guy’s weird, Callie. I’d give him plenty of room if I were you.”
    “I am.” I spoke too quickly, giving myself away. Justin shifted in his seat, examining me until I looked away. I wasn’t sure how Justin thought of me these days. My thoughts of him changed by the minute. Did he wonder if we could be more than friends one day, the way I sometimes did? Didn’t matter. I’d never ask. True love was for fairy tales and, last time I checked, I wasn’t animated.
    Besides, romance wasn’t worth losing a best friend. Romance was Satan’s creation, designed to break hearts, elicit despair, and ruin lives. My theory was based on the real life experiences of my mom and myself. Romance, like any unhealthy addiction and/or mental illness situation, left you craving more.
    Infuriatingly, my gaze darted straight to Liam, who looked up a split second later and saw me looking. He leaned against the cafeteria wall, ear buds in, deflecting people who approached with his signature frown. Long fingers curled around the apple juice bottle. Justin turned, following the path of my attention to Liam, who looked up again.
    Gah! I dropped my head to the table. “Owie.”
    “Do you need a ride home tonight?” Justin asked over the ringing of the bell and my ears.
    I rolled my head left and right in response. “I’m swimming after school.”
    “Call me if you want a ride home after.”
    “’Kay.”
    A shadow fell over my head and I dared a peek at Justin. He had my bag on his shoulder and his palms braced over his hips. “Chin up, buttercup.”
    Justin gathered our trash and tossed it in the bin while I got my head together.
    “Thanks.”
    “I don’t know what’s going on with you today, but maybe a swim will cure it.” Justin nudged me with his elbow. He understood. When his day sucked, he climbed on a bucking bronco to rattle his worries loose. Everyone needed someplace to sort their junk. What did people do in Iceland to clear their minds? Fish? Ski? Ice skate?
    Two steps beyond the cafeteria door, Kirk had Hannah pressed against the wall in a full-out PG-13 show of PDA. It was the kind of display sure to get anyone but the star football player detention.
    “Jealous?” Kirk’s wing