She could still take her words back.
“I didn’t think you even liked the guy,”Seb’s face said in front of her.
Did she? She looked at Jack and tried to remember what she liked about him. His sloppy kisses, his insistent hands, his constant self-brags, his non-existent sense of humor, his laundry list of insecurities? Now that the cat was out of the bag, she couldn’t remember why she was ever with him.
“I want to break up,” she finally said. This time, she said it loud enough for him to hear her.
“Why? Because you’re into Sebastian now?” Jack accused.
“What? Of course not!” Emily was deeply offended by the accusation. The fact that Jack asked that just proved he didn’t know her at all.
Jack didn’t look convinced, or he was just too angry to listen to her. He stood up. “You know what! Fuck you!” he spat before storming off, leaving Emily alone and without a ride back to her house.
Emily would always blame her hurting heart, leading to the brain fog that made her call Seb. He was there within fifteen minutes. He politely handed her an entire tissue box when she settled in the passenger seat of his beat-up truck.
“It’s all your fault,” she declared.
“I know you love me, Em. But I’m with your best friend. Our love is forbidden,” Seb said dramatically.
Emily gave him a withering look through tears that started flowing around the time she saw the tissue box, and they refused to stop.
“Okay, how is your bad taste in boyfriends my fault?” Seb asked.
“He wasn’t bad, or at least I—” she blew her nose. “At least I didn’t think he was,” she finished.
“Well, he was, and you’ll thank me one day if it really was because of me,” Seb claimed confidently.
“That day is definitely not today,” Emily said and continued crying.
“Aww! You want to go to Ray’s?” he asked.
“Yes,” she said between wiping her face and nose.
***
In the end, she got over Jack surprisingly quickly. She didn’t feel a thing when he came to her house and pleaded with her to give them another chance.
She felt absolutely nothing when he started parading around another girlfriend a week later. A girl from her math class. She was pretty, too. Emily was proud of herself.
She felt lighter and happier after a month, probably more than she had in years. She didn’t tell Seb, though. But she caught him staring at her sometimes when he thought she wasn’t looking.
High school passed too quickly for any of them to really grasp time. Between exams, college applications, classes, and the stress to have fun, they were already sad about it all ending soon.
The end was coming sooner than expected. One day, when they were hanging out in the pool area at Emily’s house, Ray announced, “I got accepted into CalTech. Full ride.”
Emily screeched in excitement. “I knew you would!” she shouted and jumped on her.
“That’s awesome, babe!” Seb said and hugged her when Emily let her go.
Emily emptied her water bottle on their heads. So, Ray pulled her into their hug, making her wet too. They jumped into the pool, clothes and all.
“I’m worried I won’t get into NYU. Dad will be so disappointed,” Emily said after a while.
“Of course you will, Little Miss Perfect,” Seb said, dunking her head into the water.
“Stop it!” Emily shouted, trying to dunk Seb once her feet were back on the ground. But he wouldn’t budge until Ray joined her from his other side, and together, they were victorious.
“That’s cheating!” Seb said when he was back on the surface. “I can’t believe you’d betray me like that,” he pouted, turning to Ray. He wrapped his arm around her and dunked her, too.
