I was walking down the hallway with Kylie in the morning when I saw Brendon standing with his friends. He said “hi” to me, but I just gave him a smile. Margaux said to be mysterious and unavailable. I went to my locker and put my books away.

“Did you get my e-mail?” he asked.

“I didn’t read it until late last night. I was super busy,” I said.

“Did you have lots of homework?” he asked.

Actually, I had watched a Cutie Pies marathon and spent the rest of the night doing an astrological chart I had promised Rory a while back, but he didn’t need to know my plans. I shrugged.

“Everything okay?” he asked.

“Yeah, why?” I asked.

“I dunno. You’re acting weird,” he said. “Are you sick or something?”

Great, I tried to act mysterious, and he thought I was coming down with something. I said I was fine, and he asked if I wanted to go to the movies after school.

“I thought today was the college prep meeting,” I said.

“It’ll probably be boring, and it’s not like I don’t know about it all already,” he said. “Meet me at my car, okay?”

I thought it was weird he was going to miss the meeting where the counselors go over all the things you needed to do to get ready for college, but I guess he did have a zillion books on it. I told Kylie and Margaux about it, and Kylie thought he just needed a break from college prep stuff.

“Uh-oh,” Margaux said. “He’s missing the meeting so you guys can go somewhere private and talk.”

“But they’re going to a movie so they can’t talk much,” Kylie said.

“Yeah, or make a scene,” Margaux said. “He wants to break up.”

“What? Are you sure?” I asked.

Margaux said she had broken up with three different guys at the movies.

“I always waited until they show the last preview, so the guy can’t throw a fit because the theater’s quiet. Sometimes the guy leaves, which is great because then I don’t have to worry about what to say when the movie’s over,” she said. “Oh, but make sure he pays for your ticket.”

“You let the guy pay for you, and then you dump him?” Kylie asked with her eyes wide.

“Sometimes, but Emme will be in the opposite position, so she should definitely get him to pay. It would suck to buy your own ticket and then get dumped,” she said.

“Yeah, I’ll bet,” Kylie said. “I can’t believe you.”

Margaux pointed out I’d be stuck at the theater afterward since Brendon was the one driving. She said I should go into the mall afterwards and call my parents for a ride home because it would be too humiliating to get a ride home from him.

“Brendon is not going to dump her,” Kylie said. “Besides, if he wanted to break up with her, he could just go to the meeting and then dump her afterward. He doesn’t need to miss the meeting, too.”

“You guys, should I break up with him first?” I asked.

Kylie said we didn’t even know if he wanted to break up with me.

“You should find out what was going on with him,” she said.

But Margaux wasn’t as optimistic.

“Dump him first,” she said.

My heart was in my stomach as I walked to his car. He was listening to his favorite Fat Losers album when I got in the car. He didn’t say much as we drove to the theater. I hadn’t actually thought he was going to break up with me, but now he seemed like he had something on his mind.

“Is everything okay?” I asked.

“Do you mind if we skip the movie and just go somewhere and talk?” he asked.

The cheap jerk wasn’t even going to pay for my ticket! He was just going to dump me in the lobby and save himself the ticket price. He took my arm and led me into the mall entrance. We sat outside a department store, and I leaned back and folded my arms across my chest. I wasn’t going to make this easy for him.

“I’m not going to my dad’s school,” he said.

“Huh?”

“I met with a counselor while I was there, and it’s not going to work out. It’s not just my physics grade either. There are so many people applying and I—I dunno. I don’t want anybody to know yet because…well, no one thought I had a chance to get in anyway,” he said.

“I did, but are you sure there’s no chance?” I asked.

“I’m on the wait-list.”

“That’s good, isn’t it?”

He shook his head and said he had met with our school counselor when he got back, and Mrs. Bergin said that it would be next to impossible to move up on that list. She told him he’d need to apply to other schools right away.

“I should have applied to more backup schools, but I was so determined to get in, so I only applied to two others, and I don’t want to go to either one.”

“You’ve still got a while to decide what to do, right?”

He shrugged. I had two more years before I had to start worrying about colleges, and I didn’t have an idea of where I wanted to go to school. I wasn’t sure what to say to him, so I thought about what Margaux would do and asked if he still wanted to see the movie. Maybe he needed a distraction, and after all, Margaux wasn’t good at deep conversations, so I figured she’d want to get away from the weirdness and see a movie. I even ordered her favorite combo at the concession stand: bottled water and fat-free gummy bears. Brendon didn’t say anything during the previews, but he did offer me some of his popcorn and chocolate-covered peanuts. After the movie, we went to a department store. I was feeling Margaux-like, so I dragged him over to the makeup counter while I tried on a lipstick.

“What do you think?” I asked, trying Margaux’s famous lip smack.

He shrugged and said it was nice. I bought it, and then made him wait while I tried on some jeans. He sat in a chair next to the dressing rooms, looking bored. I started to feel bad, so I suggested we stop for lattes at Beanie Weanies. There were a lot of people there, so I told him to get a table, and I’d order for us. I asked the guy behind the counter for extra soy whipped cream and tried doing Margaux’s lip smack. I apparently nailed it because I got my extra whipped topping, and he didn’t even charge me for the white chocolate flavoring I had in my latte. I brought the drinks over to the chairs Brendon had saved for us.

“What were you doing?” Brendon asked, glaring at me.

“What?”

“The way you were acting with the guy behind the counter.”

I acted like I didn’t know what he meant.

“I couldn’t hear what you were saying, but it sure seemed like you were flirting with him,” he said.

“I wasn’t, but I guess he was kinda flirting with me,” I said. Margaux always acted like she couldn’t help she was irresistible.

Brendon stood up and said he wanted to go, but I tugged on his arm and said I wanted to finish my coffee first. He sat back down, but he barely said two words to me. I tried asking him questions, but he kept giving me one-word answers. Finally, I gave up and we left. The whole playing-hard-to-get thing was supposed to make him like me more and give me control over the relationship since I had always felt like he was in control before. At least it was how it worked when Margaux did it. The guys would always call her right after they dropped her off. Of course, she was too busy to take the call, but they still called all the same. Only Brendon didn’t call me at night, and he barely spoke to me in the hall the next day. I asked Margaux what I did wrong, and she blew it off.

“It’s a typical guy thing. You take a little control away, and they’ve gotta go all out and show you they’ve still got the power. It’s classic,” she said, rolling her eyes.

Later, I told Kylie I had followed Margaux’s advice, and now Brendon was acting weird. She asked if anything happened at the movies. I didn’t tell her about Brendon not getting into his dad’s old school since he didn’t want anyone to know.

“I would just ask him what’s up,” she said. “But I wouldn’t take Margaux’s advice. I mean, has she ever had a relationship which has lasted longer than her attention span?”

Kylie’s advice made more sense, and at least she and Zach had been going out for a while. I was going to write him a note, but Margaux told me not to put stuff in writing. I decided I would leave the math lab a little early to make sure I caught up with him after his last class. However, Tyrell had other ideas.

“The math teacher suggested I work with you to help you get caught up,” he said. “I don’t know if it’s something you wanna do, but I could stay after the lab’s over, and we could go over your homework.”

I did need the extra help in math, so I stayed. I saw Brendon standing outside the lab, and I went to tell him that I needed to work with Tyrell a little longer.

“I can call my mom for a ride if you have to go,” I said.

“Fine, whatever,” he said, walking away.

I had to fight to concentrate on what Tyrell was showing me. We worked for a half-hour, and he asked if I had a ride home.

“I’ll call my mom,” I said.

“I can give you a ride home if you want.”

We were walking out to his car when we saw Brendon and Sam sitting on a bench. I knew they were talking about me because Sam nudged Brendon when he saw me.

“Do you want me to wait for you?” Tyrell asked, and I shook my head.

“No, but thanks for helping me today.”

“No problem. I needed the extra tutoring points for student council anyway,” he said.

I sat down, and Sam got up and made some excuse to leave. I asked Brendon if everything was okay, and he shrugged. I tried to put myself in my Margaux persona, but I figured her solution would be to go after Sam and flirt with him to make Brendon jealous, which was not the right thing to do at the moment. Maybe I needed to drop the whole Margaux thing. It was obvious Brendon was upset about something, so I asked him if he wanted to talk.

“Let’s go sit in your car. It’s freezing out here,” I said.

He switched on the heat in the car, and I rubbed my hands together as the windows started to fog up.

“What’s going on with you?” he asked. “You’ve been acting weird lately.”

“Me? You’re the one who blew me off in the hall this morning.”

He started to say something else when somebody knocked on his window. He rolled it down. “What?”

“Can I get a ride home, man?” Sam said. “My car wouldn’t start.

“Fine, get in,” Brendon said.

Sam lived further out than me, so Brendon dropped me off first. I was hoping we’d get to talk, but at least he asked if I wanted to hang out after school tomorrow, so he couldn’t have been too mad at me.

Margaux, Kylie, and I did a three-way call later to talk about the whole Brendon thing.

“You know what? We should do the new Healthy Self thirty-day challenge,” Kylie said. “We’ll get fitter, healthier, and—”

“You think I need to lose weight?” I asked.

“No, it’s just part of the program. My mom ordered it, and I just thought you might want to do it,” she said. “By the way, did you hear Lauren got into Senator Agretti’s old school?”

“Seriously? I wonder if she applied there because Brendon did,” I said.

Margaux snorted. “Duh, of course. Seriously, she might as well just pee on him to mark her territory.”

“Margaux, shut up,” Kylie said.

“Whatever. Anyway, the important thing is if Brendon knew she was applying there,” Margaux said. “Em, do you think he knew?”

I hoped Lauren was just trying to follow Brendon, but what if they had planned this whole thing while they were dating? What if he convinced her to apply there so they could go to college together, wear matching American flag sweaters with big scarves while drinking hot chocolate, and jump into leaf piles just like a preppy clothing catalog. At least now I didn’t have to worry about them reciting poetry to one another in South Bend, but still, what if they had made plans to go to school together?

“Don’t worry about it,” Kylie said. “She was probably trying to follow him—like she always does. She’s so pathetic.”

Kylie was trying to make me feel better, but Lauren was far from pathetic. After all, she was pretty much the “Most Likely to Succeed” poster girl. While she was out overachieving and saving the world without messing up her perfect, bouncy hair, I was trying to get through each day. I tried to push away the image of Lauren and Brendon holding hands and drinking hot chocolate under a stadium blanket, but of course, I had to go and ask him about it the next day. We were sitting in the bookstore café when I asked him if he knew she had applied to the same school as him.

“Huh? Yeah, I think she mentioned it,” he said as he flipped through a news magazine.

“Did you know she got in?”

He glanced up for a second, and then shook his head. I couldn’t read his expression. Was he thinking, “Crap, I dumped the wrong one,” or “Well, it sucks Lauren got in, and I didn’t,” or maybe “Will she shut up so I can read this article?”

He just stared at me. “I’m getting a muffin. You want anything?”

I wanted a chai latte, but he got up before I could answer. I followed him in line as he picked up a blueberry fat-free muffin.

“You know, they should call those things frosting-less cupcakes because they’re not any healthier—”

“Can I have one day without a food lecture? Please?” he said.

“Fine.” I shoved a five-dollar bill at him. “I want a chai latte.”

He handed me the money when he brought my drink over to the table. I thought he’d apologize for ripping my head off, but he didn’t say anything. He just stared at his magazine. Brendon had been different ever since he found out he wasn’t going to his dad’s alma mater. I thought about asking if he wanted to do something this weekend, but I didn’t want to get shot down. What happened to the guy who used to e-mail me the weather report every night?

“Your horoscope says you shouldn’t overspend this weekend,” he said.

“You read my horoscope?” I asked.

“Every day,” he said.

“Even when we weren’t together?”

He nodded,

“I read yours, too.”

“Did you read Derrick’s as well?” he asked.

“Who? Oh, Darren? No. Why?” I asked, trying to hide a smile. He had been jealous of Darren.

He shrugged. “I just thought since you started hanging out with him two minutes after we had a fight, maybe you thought he was your soul mate. You were supposed to find your soul mate in your number five year, weren’t you?” he asked. “So did you?”

I wasn’t sure what to say, and I was afraid to set him off, so I said I thought he didn’t believe in that kind of stuff. He started to answer when Margaux came over with my cousin. I was surprised she was still with Austin.

“Can we sit with you guys?” she asked. “Austin, bring over two chairs and get me a gingerbread latte and a lemon bar, but not the kind that has the crumbly junk on top of it. I only like the ones with powdered sugar on top.”

“So what’s up? Ooh, horoscopes,” she said, pulling the paper out of Brendon’s hands. “Mine says to utilize this opportunity to streamline your position. What’s Austin’s sign, Em?”

I remembered going to a birthday party for either him or his brother a million years ago, and I thought I had been wearing a sundress at the time, so I guessed it was some time in the summer.

“So like a Cancer or Leo?” she asked. “I hope he’s a Leo, I’d hate to have some moody guy dragging me down.”

Brendon stood up. “I need to make a call.”

“Margaux, Brendon’s a Cancer,” I said when he left.

“I know, and from the look on your face when I walked in, the moody guy was bringing you down. So what’s his problem? Did he get sparkling water on his sweater label?” she asked, rolling her eyes.

“No, he’s just—”

“Is this the kind of lemon bar you wanted?” Austin asked, coming over. She nodded and asked him what his sign was. “Leo.”

“Are Leos and Aries compatible?” she asked. I nodded. Maybe it explained why he was still in the picture. On the other hand, Cancers and Leos, Brendon and my signs, weren’t exactly destined to be together…even if sometimes I felt like we were.

“I am so dreading winter break,” she said. “We have to go to my Aunt Patti and Uncle Randolph’s for Christmas Eve, and Patti wears the same Santa Claus sweater every stinking year. It’s like she thinks it won’t be Christmas for the rest of us if she doesn’t have it on.”

“Didn’t she give you the design-your-own-sweatshirt kit one year?” I asked.

“Mm-hmm. You see what I’m dealing with. Plus, my uncle makes the same stupid joke each year about asking Santa for a sports car. Seriously, I could record my whole conversation before I go in because they ask the same crap about school, and then Randolph goes on about the ‘importance of education.’ What he should do is tell me to stay in school so I don’t end up like him. Kidding.”

My mouth dropped open, and I glanced over at my cousin to see his reaction, but he was smiling at her. “You crack me up,” he said.

She blushed and fed him a bite of her lemon bar. What was this?

Brendon came back to the table looking madder than before. “Everything okay?” I asked. He nodded. “Well, we better get going so you don’t miss your meeting. See you guys later.”

I heard the song they played at the funeral home as we walked out of the bookstore. I hoped it was a sign from Grandma things were going to be okay. Brendon opened the car door for me.

“Why did you lie and say I had a meeting?” he asked.

“Well, Margaux can be a lot to handle, and I was getting strong let’s-get-out-of-here vibes from your direction,” I said. “Did I read that right?”

“You always do.”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know, but in the past it’s felt like you could read my mind. You just seem to understand me when no one’s ever been able to get what I’m dealing with being in my family. And what’s even weirder is…well, I’m sorta able to do it with you,” he said. “I knew something was wrong with your grandma before you told me about the stroke. It’s why I was at your locker that day. I had a feeling and—”

“Wait, back up. What do you mean?”

“Even before we started going out I’d get these feelings about you. I saw you during the school year last year, and I had this feeling we were supposed to, I dunno, be together. So when I walked into our summer class, I knew it was meant to be, and I wasn’t surprised at all when Mrs. Rae had us working together. Then I’d have these dreams about you—I’m weirding you out, aren’t I?”

I shook my head. “No, I mean, maybe a little, but keep going. I want to hear this.”

“I’d know when I was supposed to call you, and I’d always seem to get this feeling when you needed me. At first, I thought it was a coincidence, but there was too much going on. It threw me the day the numerology book said that thing about the soul mates,” he said. “I never told you this, but the day I came to your house to look at your computer, my mom asked me where I was going and when I told her she said, ‘She must be your soul mate if you’re leaving the house for her during the basketball playoffs.’”

“You missed a playoff game to help me?”

“Yup, but once we got to know each other better—I got a little scared by how well you seemed to get me. Most people try to imagine what my life must be like or act like they get it, but you seemed to see past all the stuff people assume and actually got what I was dealing with. For the first time I felt like someone understood me and what I was going through—from my family’s expectations, to my grandpa being sick, and the whole pressure to be someone or something I’m not.”

“You haven’t had other people you could talk to?”

“Nope. If I complain in the slightest they act like I’m ungrateful. I don’t get to be myself fully because, well, like you said, there’s a five-year plan already set up for me,” he said.

“Your dad is a nice guy though—he wouldn’t do all that stuff to help other people if he wasn’t. I think he’d listen to you if you showed him how important journalism is to you.”

Brendon ran his fingers through his hair. “I think I am going to talk to him about it. But, Em, something else has been bothering me—other than the college admissions people telling me I’m a big, fat, stinking loser.”

“You’re not a loser.”

“Yeah, well, I’ve felt like one with the hot and cold thing you’ve been running on me. It’s like we’re back together—oh no, we’re not. Every time I felt like we were getting close again, you’d pull back.”

I glanced down at my hands and then saw my bracelets. It hit me. Cheryl was right about the way I hide behind New Age stuff instead of dealing with things head on, and I realized I had been holding back with Brendon because of all the other things going on in my life. And maybe Kylie was right—I didn’t feel good enough for Brendon, so I didn’t share my real feelings.

“You know, I don’t think we talked about how I felt when you blew me off the night of the reading and then the whole Lauren thing—it hurt me you went to the dance with her.”

“But I thought it was pretty obvious homecoming night who I wanted to be with when I kissed you at the after party,” he said.

I shifted. “Honestly, I didn’t know what the kiss was about. I think the whole thing with you and Lauren was always on my mind. Your relationship with her was a lot…well, it was much more serious than I ever got with a guy, and I didn’t know if she had some sort of hold over you because of it.”

“Yeah, we did date for a while,” he said. “But that was history.”

“And that’s what my ex said, and then he cheated on me with the last girl he dated.”

“But that was him, not me.”

“Same situation.”

“How?”

I swallowed. “Well, John’s ex was…well, they had slept together, and when I told him I wasn’t ready for anything like that, he said it was fine, but he went back to her because…well, he knew she’d be okay with it.”

Brendon stared at me, but didn’t say anything.

“I pretty much figured you and Lauren had the same kind of relationship,” I said.

“I’m not going to lie to you—we did. But it also complicated everything. She got weird afterwards. I’m not saying I wasn’t taking it seriously, but she got super codependent, like it was assumed we’d go to the same college and law school and get married. That part of the relationship put all this pressure on us. I felt guilty when I realized I couldn’t be with her anymore—like I had to stay with her, and I think it’s why we stayed together for so long. And there was this one time last year when I told her we needed to take a step back. It was because she started talking about if we should get married while we were in law school or wait until we graduated. It was the same day she yelled at me for forgetting our six-month anniversary, which I didn’t even know was a thing. And when I say yelled, I mean she let me have it.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah, and I said we were moving too fast for me, and she said, ‘What did you think it meant when we slept together?’ I spent the whole night apologizing and feeling like I didn’t have the right to break it off with her.”

“What happened to make you change your mind?”

“Only Sam knows about this, but…well, she was over at our place, and she made a comment about Jayson having no direction for his life and how she hoped I didn’t turn out like him. It hit me wrong because he was going through some stuff, and she knew he was struggling—not about the suicide attempt, but she knew he was having serious issues. I thought she was being pretty cold, and I told her I wanted to break up. Honestly, I couldn’t see myself staying with someone who could be so heartless. She waited a day and then told me she thought she was pregnant.”

“What?” It felt like my heart went into my throat.

“Yeah, well, a few days later it came out she lied, and I was like, there is no way we can keep going on.”

“Then why are you still letting her in your life so much? She e-mails you, texts you—the dance thing—”

“I felt guilty. Seriously, the whole relationship got so complicated after it. And it was a huge mistake.”

I sat back in the seat. “Life was so much easier when dating meant passing notes in the hallway, drinking out of the same juice box at lunch, and sharing crayons.”

He laughed. “Those were the days. I’m sorry if I did anything to make you feel like you did when you were with John. Instead of trying to reassure you I wasn’t like him, I guess I got offended that you thought I was.”

“Well, it wasn’t just him. I think my whole experience getting over the betrayal and everything that went on with my grandparents threw me off. Maybe I pushed you away a bit.”

“You think?” he said.

“In my defense, it’s a little hard to go out with someone half the school wants to be with.”

“Only half the school?” he asked with a smirk. “I’d like to think I’m good-looking enough to make a few guys question some stuff.”

I cracked up. “Wow, so modest.”

“Em, I miss being with you. I’ve never had anything like this before, and I don’t want to lose you.”

“Me neither. You know, I went to a psychic fair, and I was trying to figure out how the stars aligned for us, looking to tarot cards and stuff to see if we were meant to be. This lady there was like, stop getting caught up in the New Age stuff. She told me to listen to my common sense and see the situation as it is. I think I was hiding behind the New Age stuff instead of dealing with real life.”

“Like when we went out, and you were oh-so-subtly trying to figure out how we connected with numerology to see if we had a future together?”

My face got warm. “You picked up on what I was doing?”

“Yup.”

“How embarrassing.”

“Eh, it was cute, but I don’t need number connections to tell me how I feel about you,” he said. “I mean, even my mom likes you, and she doesn’t like anybody.”

“Well, I am adorable.”

“Too true.”

“But there’s something else I think we need to talk about. I held back a lot of stuff—you know how I felt resentful about Lauren and all, and how I was being kind of standoffish to you around Thanksgiving.”

“Oh, you mean when you were being a little Margaux and acting super cold?”

I squirmed. “You picked up on the Margaux stuff, too?”

“Uh-huh, but I figured you were just trying to sort out if I was telling the truth about running into Lauren in Frankenmuth.”

“Well, part of it, but I was…” I paused, feeling anxious. “Um…”

“Emme, you can tell me anything,” he said, putting his hand over mine.

“I know you had a student council meeting the day of my grandma’s funeral, but I was hurt you didn’t come when you said you would.”

“I did come.”

“What?”

“I was there, but I got super overwhelmed because I started thinking about how my granddad’s health hasn’t been good, and I went into the hallway before I had an anxiety attack in the church. The whole thing threw me a lot more than I expected it to, and I was kind of a mess, so I left before the luncheon started. I went up to your grandpa and asked him to tell you I had to leave and said I’d call you later.”

My mouth dropped open. “Oh my goodness, that’s what Grandpa meant—he got you confused with his cousin the first time he met you, and when he told me Dennis gave him a message—oh wow, I thought he was confused.”

“What do you mean?”

“Grandpa started showing signs of dementia right after my grandma’s stroke. My aunt doesn’t want to talk about it, but he can’t be alone anymore.”

“Oh wow, so you’ve been dealing with losing your grandma and him being sick, as well?”

“Yeah, it’s been a lot to handle. Probably why I thought life made more sense and felt in control with all the New Age crap. I was counting on my bracelets to keep me safe and grounded.”

“So numerology and horoscopes might be off, but I have been getting some signs about you,” he said. He said he had been hearing Sweetie Gals songs on the radio all the time, too, like I had. “It’s either some sort of sign we’re supposed to be together, or the group is getting back together.”

“If only they would reunite,” I said. “But getting back to us—why didn’t you ever tell me you had a feeling about us being meant to be before?”

He shrugged. “Didn’t want to creep you out. I just had this gut feeling you and I were meant to be, and then there’s the fact every single day my intuition was basically saying, ‘Stupid, go get her.’”

“You always managed to call or be around at the right moment, too, but I didn’t realize you had been feeling anything as well.”

“Do you remember the day I was on a plane, and we had all that turbulence? When it dropped, all I could think about was you. I’ve never been so scared in all my life, and yet all I could think about was you. I told my dad about it the other day, and he said he had a similar reaction before. He said near-death situations take away all the fake stuff and make you realize what matters. Then he said it was why he backed off on micromanaging Jayson. He said Jayson’s attempt made him realize all that matters was Jayson being happy and well. It didn’t matter where he ended up.”

“So maybe he’d be open to hearing about your dream,” I said.

Brendon shook his head, smiling. “I just told you my near-death experience made me think of you, and you come back with wanting me to talk to my dad about pursuing my dream?”

“Trust me, the first part was not lost on me, but I want what’s best for you, too.”

“Maybe the first part was a little overwhelming?”

I laughed. “A bit, but I liked it.”

“Well, it’s something.”

“And I wouldn’t mind if you started looking at schools a little closer. No pressure. I’m not mapping out our future, but I wouldn’t mind spending time with you next fall.”

“You’re more likely to map out our destinies in the stars anyway,” he said, laughing. “But I got to admit, I like where you’re going with this.”

“Well, I’ll leave the horoscopes alone for a while, but I do think I’ll check my intuition from time to time.”

“Is that what it’s called? You’ll have to tell me more,” he said, leaning in to kiss me. “Does this mean we’re not reading each other’s minds? Because I was starting to wonder.”

“You know, maybe you could stop reading my mind between eight and ten at night so I can watch my favorite TV shows,” I said, and he shook his head and kissed me again. “Well, at least you could telepathically help me with my math tests.”

“I’m not advanced with telepathy yet, but I’ll work on it. After all, my horoscope said I’m supposed to involve myself in a new project,” he said. “But you never answered me about your number five year—did you find your soul mate?”

“You know, I think I just might have.”

“Well, I know I did.”

I kissed him. “Good to know.”

“Oh, and I downloaded an application to another school…it’s forty minutes away.”

“That far?”

He cracked up. “Willing to try a long-distance relationship?”

“I think we can make it work.”

“You don’t need to check the stars first or get a sign?” he asked.

“Nope, all signs point to yes.”

“That’s what I like to hear.”