Becca was still hungover with anger when she went to school Monday morning. She was primarily angry with Luci but still upset with Blake and Silvia. But when she looked up and saw Luci waiting there with Liz, she felt her anger ebb away. Out of everyone, Becca knew that Luci was the one person who understood best what she was going through.

Lucita offered Becca her usual bright smile as though nothing had happened. Becca wished that was the case. She wished she could just pretend everything was okay. Giving her a weak hi, she held onto the strings from her bag, eager to find something to do with her hands to keep herself from fidgeting underneath Luci’s smile.

“So, how was your weekend,” asked Elizabeth as she picked at her chipping black nail polish. When had she started doing her nails?

“It was fine.”

“What a sport,” said Lucita beaming. She put her arm around Becca’s shoulder.

“Huh?”

“Lu told me about Silvia and Blake.”

“What!”

“Shh, let her talk.”

“Look, you’ve got to deal with this. Silvia is your best friend. And Blake? Come on, Becca, so they dated and didn’t tell you, so what? Not talking to them is just plain stupid.”

“You needn’t be so brutal, Liz,” said Lucita hotly, her smile fading, her grip tightening over Becca’s shoulder protectively.

“What, it’s the truth. Silvia feels awful as it is. What happened, happened. You can’t really change the past.”

“She’s got a point, Becca.”

“Can you guys just leave me and the situation alone?”

“Are you going to talk to Silvia?” asked Elizabeth.

“No.”

“Then we aren’t going to stop bugging you about the situation,” said Lucita taking her arm off Rebecca.

“Go screw yourselves.” Luci’s eyes widened, a little smile on her face. Becca surprised even herself as much as she seemed to surprise them, not that Liz looked happy about it.

“Seriously, Becca, drop it and talk to her, or I’ll make you.” Elizabeth turned and walked off. Lucita sighed and stared at her sadly as though disappointed.

“You’ve known her longer than me. Just do what you need to, whatever that is. Later!” Lucita walked off, following Liz. Rebecca watched her friends leave her alone in the mass of students. She didn’t want to be alone right now, feeling the tears well up behind her eyes. Looking around, she spotted her friend Jason messing with the wheels of his skateboard.

“Hey, Becca, what’s up?” he said, looking up from his skateboard.

“Not much. Liz is kind of mad at me.”

“Why?”

“I’m not speaking to Silvia.”

“Oh yeah, I heard about that.” Jason looked at her briefly and spun a wheel on his skateboard.

“From who?”

“Blake and Liz.”

Rebecca’s stomach clenched tightly. Of course, Blake would do something like that. He was such a blabbermouth, always had to be talking about something. So it shouldn’t surprise her that this would be his favorite current topic.

“Of course. What did Blake say?”

“That you weren’t talking to him because he dated Silvia.”

“Do you think I should?”

Jason sighed. “I love Blake like my brother, but sometimes he’s a piece of shit. So I wouldn’t speak to him either. Silvia, on the other hand, well, that’s all you. So I guess I would just think about it. I guess all I have to say is do what feels like to you, ya know?”

Becca nodded. He was making sense. Maybe Becca was so angry she wasn’t thinking straight about Vee’s actions. Maybe that would be the first step to take…if she wanted to keep being her friend.

Lucita walked down the hallway slowly, waiting for Silvia to show up. Unfortunately for her, so lost in her thoughts, eyes cast down, she ignored the people around her, walking right into someone.

“Oops, so—” The apology caught in her throat. Blake stood there, staring down at her with contempt and longing.

“Hello there she-bitch.”

“Oo, ouch, is that all you got, asshole?”

“Oh, what wonders you must perform with your big mouth.”

Lucita laughed. “Well, you’ll never know. You really overcompensate with all that machismo.” Blake slammed her into the wall, but Lucita retained her smile.

“How about I show you how big it is, you stupid bitch.”

“I doubt it’s anything but micro.”

Lucita stared him down, briefly looked over his shoulder, and saw Silvia walking up.

“Blake, get away from her.” Blake’s eyes never wandered from Lucita’s face.

“Two against one,” muttered Lucita wickedly to his face. Lucita was a bitch, and she knew it. She could be sweet or vicious. Years of being bullied had toughened up her skin.

Blake finally took a step back. “You two can go screw yourselves.”

“Language,” said Lucita putting her hair in a clip. He flipped her off, but she graciously ignored him. Silvia looked at her, surprised and pleased.

“How the hell did you piss him off so badly?”

“I have a knack for being wicked. So let this be a warning, don’t piss me off.” Silvia laughed, but Lucita remained serious. “I’m serious. I can totally destroy you.”

“Really? How?”

Lucita smiled slyly. “You don’t want to know, darling. Now come on, let’s get lunch. I’m hungry.” She wrapped her arms through Silvia’s and dragged her along.

Lucita wrapped her arms around Silvia’s shoulder and took her to buy lunch. There they saw Rebecca, waving her over. Rebecca took a moment before finally looking away, heading in the opposite direction. Something about the whole thing felt a little off. She had spent the weekend thinking about it, talking it over with Cyrus. How often do two people just collide?

“Hey, Silvia, only Blake knew about the whole situation, right?”

“Ugh, I think so. Why?”

“I was talking to Cyrus, and he felt it was too much of a coincidence. So I’m starting to agree with him.”

“What?” asked Silvia, confused.

“You and Blake at the movies. Both ditched. Who would ditch Blake, and why would Elizabeth just suddenly cancel. Did she even give you a reason? And look at the girls at this school. Half of them hate us because they want Blake. Do you really think some random girl would give up a chance for an actual date with him? It seems odd, doesn’t it.”

Silvia thought about it and stared at Lucita, unbelieving. “Do you think we were set up?”

“I don’t know. I mean, maybe it was fate, but really, it just seems too perfect of a setup.”

“She’s kind of right,” said a sudden male voice. Silvia and Lucita turned around and looked at Jason, his skateboard slung along his back.

“What?” said Silvia.

Jason sighed and looked around the cafeteria. “Get your lunch and meet me where you usually eat.”

“Oh, we eat—”

Jason cut Lucita off rudely. “I know where you guys eat lunch. We see you. You aren’t invisible.” Jason walked off, and Lucita crossed her arms as she watched him walk away.

“Okay, does he not like me? Everyone likes me,” said Lucita, more than annoyed. Silvia smiled and snickered, pulling her hair over her shoulder.

“Aw, what’s wrong? Upset that a guy doesn’t like you?” Silvia moved through the line and snatched up her tray. Lucita remained where she was, staring at the door.

“No, I’m just confused. I don’t know him that well or at all. Girls not liking me, I get, but guys? Like, what did I do?”

“He’s got a thing for Elizabeth.”

“I know. Liz told me. She likes him but also has this thing for some other guy.”

“What? Seriously?”

Lucita nodded. “Yeah, he goes to some other school, though. Apparently, he likes her back too.” Lucita paid for the lunch and grabbed the carton of milk.

“Any more details you care to share since Elizabeth obviously won’t.”

Lucita shrugged. “Well, Jason’s all over her during the seventh period. Well, not entirely, but he does devote much of his attention to her. Especially when we’re talking. It’s annoying, but whatever. I guess some guys are like that. At least Michael keeps me company, thank god. I hate being the third wheel.”

“Some, not all. That guy Lucas I see you around sometimes, doesn’t seem like that.”

Lucita blushed. “Yeah, Lucas is a cutie.”

“Ha! I know you liked him,” exclaimed Silvia.

“Shh, someone can hear you.”

“Oh, come on, what’s the likely hood that he’ll find out.”

“Hey,” began Lucita as she opened the door, “in my experience, I’ve learned that someone is always lurking around.”

“What experience?”

“Middle school. Trust me, someone is always listening. And at lunch, someone is obviously going to hear.”

“So you don’t want Lucas to know you like him?”

Lucita sighed. “Eventually, but let’s just focus on getting Becca to talk to you again.”

Silvia shrugged and began walking up the steps. Up at the top, she saw Jason fiddling around with his skateboard. Lucita sighed and continued up on her way.

“You really shouldn’t do that all the way up here. You might fall.”

“Do you really care?” Jason shot her a malicious look. Lucita inadvertently growled. Silvia looked at her, frightened.

“Did…did you just growl?” Lucita turned bright red and could feel her face heating up.

“What? No! Don’t be silly.” Lucita made her way through the double doors and took in the fresh air. She couldn’t believe she had just embarrassed herself like that.

“Oookay, anyway Jason, what info have you got?” Silvia sat down next to Lucita, and Jason followed suit.

Jason mussed his hand through his hair and looked at them. “Blake was supposed to meet me at the movies. Elizabeth was supposed to meet you. Elizabeth called me the day before. Apparently, Becca was being excessive about Blake, I guess. I mean Liz, she looked like she couldn’t take it anymore. She told me to ditch Blake and set the whole thing up. She figured you hated him so much that he would be a total dick to you and hoped you would tell Becca.”

“She’s the reason I’m in this mess!”

“Hold on, Jason’s not done.”

Jason looked at her, thankfully. “Anyway, Elizabeth hoped that you would just run into each other and he would be his usual dick self. When we found out you guys were dating, she thought you would tell Becca and that she would finally stop.”

“She knew? This entire time!” Lucita winced at the pitch in her voice. “Why the hell didn’t she say anything!”

“You’ll have to ask her that, I don’t know. Just thought you should know that it wasn’t a coincidence. Well, not entirely. And don’t blame Liz. You could’ve said or done the right thing anytime. Later.”

Silvia watched him get up and skate down the hallway towards the stairs. Lucita looked at Silvia, whose eyes were almost bulging.

“She knew. She knew about Blake and me this entire time, and she didn’t say a word.”

“Okay, calm down. Although to be fair, you shouldn’t have kept it a secret anyway, darlin’.” Lucita stopped herself. She really needed to stop listening to the country station on the radio.

“Seriously, what is that?”

“Sorry,” she said, rubbing the back of her neck. “My mom’s been listening to the country station lately. Good traffic report, she says. But look, not the point. I’ll talk to Liz and see what’s really going on and . . . look, I’ll just talk to her.”

“To hell with that! I’m—”

“Silvia, shut up. If you talk to her, you’re just going to scream, shout, and yell, which won’t solve anything. I, however, won’t lose my damn head talking to her. Okay?” Lucita waited for Silvia to nod.

“She should have at least told me what she was planning. I wouldn’t have dated Blake had I known the whole plan.”

“You don’t know that for sure,” said Lucita pulling out her notebook. “He seemed to really like you.” Silvia looked at her like she was insane. Lucita winked at her as she began writing in her notebook.