"Your turn," Sean said. "Flora, what's the worst thing you've ever done?"

Gee, where should I start? There were too many. "I cheated on some tests in middle school."

He rolled his eyes.

"Alright. The things I did were more along the lines of petty crimes," I started. "Let's see...I smoked pot with Raymond one summer and we got so stoned we rushed out in the middle of the night and did a bunch of silly stuff, like dancing around the lamp posts and peeing down from trees. That's him, by the way.

I was out one night after Max dumped me, and I saw this guy painting on a wall with a spray can. I joined in the fun and I wrote Max's name along with all the profanities I know and cursed him to no end.

I got busted once for the fake id I used to buy vodka. I tried to pay my way out of it which only got me into bigger trouble. I almost got arrested." I paused, seeing the look of surprise on his face. "I had a lot of teenage angst," I explained.

"Yeah, I thought people usually get over it by slamming their bedroom doors, but I guess there are other ways too," he said, but he didn't look too bothered by my stories.

"And you remember my friends Sarah and Jess?"

"Yes, your friends from your private girls' school days." He nodded. "The other two of the Charlie's angels." Sarah had a mass of blond curls and Jessica was Chinese.

"Yes. We got back from a beach party once and we were all so wasted, and when we passed a fountain in the middle of the city, Sarah dared us to skinny dip. We took off our bikini tops and we swam right in that fountain."

His eyes widened, then he smiled and said, "Damn I wish I had been there."

I laughed. He didn't seem to mind how crazy I had been.

"Wow, you're only seventeen but you have enough materials to star in your own reality TV show," he said. "Let's see...illicit drug use, public nuisance, vandalism, forgery, public drunkenness and nudity...I think you're a hazard to society."

"I was...but I'm your responsibility now. Are you okay with it?"

He nodded. "You were pretty wild, but at least you were never deliberately mean," he said. "I guess your little misdemeanors never hurt anyone."

This is my opening. I have to tell him now. In chick flicks the bet always comes out, and I wanted him to hear it from me. In retrospect, I knew I started that bet just to convince myself it was okay to get close to him, and deep down I never really planned on breaking his heart.

All I wanted was to have Sean like me again, because I never stopped loving him.

I knew he was going to be mad, though. This wasn't something I could wriggle out of by tugging on his sleeve and pouting, but at least I got him stranded near a lake and he couldn't leave without my car.

"First you have to promise not to freak out, and you have to know I really do like you. I mean it."

He smiled easily. "Nothing you say can possibly freak me out."

I took a deep breath. "Okay. Here goes. I was once really in love with a boy, and when he broke up with me I was so hurt and angry, I cooked up an elaborate plan to make him fall for me again so I could dump him and show him how it felt. But halfway through it I decided to abort the plan because..."

My voice trailed off when I saw that Sean got it right away, and the light in his eyes scared me. It was of shock and betrayal, piercing through me unforgivingly like icy shards. His jaw clenched and something cold in him forced me to swallow the rest of my sentence.

He drew a shaky breath. "That's why I got a kiss and a date."

"No! Well maybe that's why you got a kiss but I really wanted to date you. I've already decided to forget it--"

"Flora, when are you going to dump me and tweet about it?"

I felt tears starting to well up. I knew it. He would be so mad he wouldn't listen to me, and I sucked at delivering bad news. "I'm not going to dump you! It was just a stupid plan. I didn't know what I was doing."

"That actually makes a lot of sense. Now I see why you were acting so strange." He shook his head, like he didn't hear a word I just said. "I can't believe I'm so stupid."

"Sean...the point is, it was only in the beginning. I genuinely want to be with you now." I reached out my hand to touch him on the wrist but he drew back so fast like I electrocuted him.

I could tell he was lost in a dark place, pulling memories out and sorting through them one by one like a case file. "Is that why we went out for sushi? And why you agreed to throw the party for me? And that weird ice-cream date we went on...and the phone conversations....and that's why you played hard-to-get...Jesus, Flora. You even came to my house to have dinner with my parents."

"Those weren't exactly lies...I meant everything I said to you and I really enjoyed throwing the party for you." I closed my eyes briefly to let the tears roll down. They were blinding me. "I don't have to tell you this, you know. I can just go on being your girlfriend and I'd be so happy."

"Then why did you tell me?"

"I told you because I don't want a lie between us."

"You don't want a lie between us. That's good to know," he smiled scornfully, but there was no trace of humor in his voice.

"And...I was afraid you might accidentally find out from Sandy."

"Sandra is in on this too?" he said sharply.

"I made a bet with her that I could make you fall for me, but I already admitted defeat because I like you too much!" I wiped my tears away with my sleeve. "I only did it because you crushed my world when you left me. I just can't get over you and I thought maybe I could do it by getting revenge."

"You and Sandra really believe all that crap about getting revenge to move on," he said in disgust. "I don't deserve this."

"I know...I'm so sorry..."

"You're crazier than I suspected. I know you're competitive, but to go through so much trouble just to get even?" He looked so disappointed in me I couldn't breathe. Anger I could handle. But the look he gave me made me want to curl up and die. He gritted his teeth. "You know what? This...this really hurts."

He stood up and turned around, taking a few steps away from me.

I stood up too, hugging myself as I cried behind him. "Sean, can you give me a little credit by coming forward? I know my initial incentive was wrong, but I backed out in time. It's just...you don't understand how it feels to want someone like this! Breaking up with you... it tore me apart. I've never felt like this about anyone before and I don't know how to deal with it."

He didn't answer me.

"Come on. Forgive me. I did a stupid thing but I did it because I care about you too much." I came up behind him to clutch his arm, and he held up a hand to stop me.

"Give me a minute to think."

"Okay," I whispered miserably behind him. Who ever said honesty is the best policy? I should have just ended the conversation with the skinny dipping.

He was silent for a while, then he turned to face me. The expression on his face had softened a little. "I know how it feels."

"Huh?"

"You thought I wasn't in pain after we broke up? I went through hell trying to get over you." His eyes blazed. "I was just putting up a cool front because I didn't want you to know."

"Really?" I blinked.

He heaved a sigh. "To be honest, I knew you were up to something but still I can't resist you. I want to get back together too much. So if this is about getting even, about winning," he said sadly, "then you already won. I was never any match for you." The little-boy look in his eyes made my mother instinct kick in at once. I couldn't remember ever wanting to hurt him.

"I didn't know that. I always thought you didn't care that much about me."

"You really are an idiot, Flora. I was--am--crazy about you."

I bit on my lips. It didn't make any sense. I was convinced that The King got tired of me just like he did with all his previous conquests, and somehow us working together had rekindled his interest in me. I never felt that he was crazy about me, especially when he cold-bloodedly executed our relationship back in junior year, without a backward glance. "But...if you feel that way why did you break up with me? You know I didn't want to."

He stared pointedly at me, and what came out of his mouth was as unexpected as a flying unicorn. "Because you cheated on me."

I gasped. "What? I never did!" I would be less surprised if he told me he was a secret assassin and he only did it to protect me. Of all the possible reasons this had never even entered my mind.

"Don't lie," he said, irritated. "Part of the reason I didn't say it before is because I know you'll just lie to me again. I don't want to give you that option."

"I'm not lying. I never even considered cheating on you."

"Come on, I know. With Raymond Corbett," he muttered as if the words were painful to form.

I racked my brain and drew a blank. I had hung out with Raymond millions of times in the past but we never even held hands. Cheating on Sean with Ray? Wasn't that like cheating on Bradley Cooper with that short guy with full beard in The Hangover?

Well there was this one incident where I hadn't been honest with Sean. "He came to my apartment one night and we got wasted together. I didn't tell you right away because I knew you wouldn't like it, but I was planning on coming clean once...wait." A fog had shifted, and the memory was becoming clearer now. "It was before your physics test because I was so mad at you...oh my God...is that what you were referring to?"

He nodded.

I felt dizzy like all the oxygen was sucked out of my brain. "But that's everything that happened. He brought beer, we drank, we gossiped, then he left. When we got outside he tried to kiss me goodbye. It didn't mean anything because I know he always gets a little touchy-feely when he gets drunk. He didn't even remember it."

Sean looked at me in a speechless daze.

"It's true. You were studying. How did you even know?"

"Because I staked out at your house like a lunatic. That's how crazy you made me. I knew you lied on the phone and the next day you lied again to my face," he said in a low voice. It was hard to tell what he was thinking.

I felt a fresh wave of tears pushing to get out. It wasn't because I had been wrongly accused of cheating, but what must've gone through his head at that horrible night. What it must've looked to him. When I imagined Sean coming over to see me, waiting outside the building only to find me and Raymond giggling on the stairs in our drunken bliss, I wanted to puke. He didn't deserve to find out this way.

"I'm so sorry you had to see that. I was feeling frustrated about us, and when he called and suggested meeting up I thought it'd take my mind off you for a second. I never thought of cheating on you, but I'm sorry I lied."

Sean appeared as if he believed me, on top of getting a stroke. He dug one hand into his hair and his face contorted slightly. "I just assumed...that's what happened?"

I nodded. After all this time, I finally knew. I always thought he was cruel and heartless and my friends all thought he was the bad guy. I never even imagined that he could hurt too.

Sean's eyes were wide with panicked realization, like a shot deer. I thought he would be glad to know the truth, but he looked like Luke Skywalker when he found out about his real father. Without the screaming and crying, of course. "So you never cheated on me," he repeated, testing the sound of it on his tongue.

"Never."

I could see him blanch. He inhaled and exhaled several times. "Then I'm a fucking idiot," he concluded finally. "We broke up over nothing."

As his words hit me like a slap, I felt a new surge of emotion engulfing me like diving into a Jacuzzi of hot chili sauce.

I shoved him hard on the chest. "That's why we broke up? That's why we broke up?" My voice was shrill and foreign, and my head was filled with so much fury I could feel a headache pressing in. So many teary, sleepless nights and so much sorrow for such a stupid reason.

How could he be so stupid?

He caught my fist when I tried to hit him again. I was pretty sure I didn't hit him that hard, but he winced like he was in a lot of pain. "Flora, I don't know what to say. I'm so sorry. I saw what I thought I saw and I jumped to conclusions."

"You don't trust me at all! And you thought I was a cheater! I may not be a saint like you but I've never cheated in my life!" Besides, what was the point of cheating when I could just switch boyfriends?

"It's not that I don't trust you but...why did you have to lie to me?"

"Why didn't you just ask me?" I shrieked. "I was going to tell you the truth but I never got the chance, because you broke up with me!"

Sean let out a frustrated grunt and lowered himself back to the grass. He tentatively tugged on my wrist to pull me down with him.

"Flora, look, listen..." He struggled with his words. By then I was hyperventilating and in a mess of tears, faintly feeling relieved that my Helena Rubinstein mascara was as water proof as advertised. Too much information at once made my brain teeter on the brink of exploding.

Did he know how many times I cried for him? How I went through our broken relationship shred by shred, trying to figure out what I did wrong? How I spent my days blaming myself and then him, and then back at myself?

Did he know how I drifted through summer in an empty shell, watching him hover over Leslie like I was a mistake? How I fret about his injury but wasn't allowed to stay with him, and could only worry over him when no one was watching?

I wasn't that coherent, needless to say. I threw out my accusation between angry sobs, and Sean wanted to comfort me but I didn't give him a chance. I cried my heart out for a good ten minutes, at least, while he watched me helplessly, begging me to stop with the guilt on his face.

"I know now, Flora," he said softly. "I'm so sorry."

"You should be."

"I am. This is all my fault. I made a mess of everything." He tried putting his arms around me again and this time I let him, too exhausted to push him away. I whimpered quietly, gradually calming down, and he proceeded to apologize for about eight billion times until it sounded like a mantra.

"You're really stupid, Sean."

"I know." He stroked my hair and rocked me very gently. "Forgive me. Please forgive me."

I sniffled, pulling back to look at his face.

"I didn't ask you because...because it hurt to talk about it," he started softly, but I could hear the anguish in his voice, like he was forcing the words out. "I honestly thought I didn't mean much to you. If I had told you, you would've known how much it affected me. I didn't want to give you the chance to hurt me even more and...and I was scared to hear about the details." He lowered his eyes and stared down. "I just wanted to walk away with some dignity."

This was the first time I ever saw any trace of vulnerability in him and I suddenly couldn't stay mad at him anymore. The King wasn't always so mighty after all, and it was because of me. I made him this way.

A hot guy with a little bit of insecurity is just so...hot.

"And when I finally decided to approach you, you told me I bore you to tears and that you wasted three months of your life on me," he recounted. "Then you threw the keychain away, which led me to believe that you really didn't care about me."

"I was just angry because you dumped me!"

"And then you went out with Liam Turner right afterwards. It was like two weeks after we broke up. I could barely got out of bed but you were already moving on."

"I was...I was honestly dating Liam to spite you," I muttered, feeling defeated and incredibly immature. I was a bigger moron compared to Sean, obviously. My impulsiveness and competitiveness had ruined my chances with the only guy I liked, and during the process I had apparently put him through hell.

"I don't want to admit this, but I don't have that much confidence in front of you. You're wonderful and out of my league," he started talking again, his voice low and hesitant. "I just got lucky for a while, and I guess I always anticipated that you'd lose interest in me, so when I saw you that night I wasn't even surprised. I was kind of just waiting for it to happen."

I sighed, bewildered and touched at the same time. "Why would you think that, Sean? I was the one waiting for you to get tired of me."

"Well, you're very popular, you have a crazy schedule, a million friends, a long list of ex-boyfriends, and you're always talking on the phone. It's like...you are my priority but I'm only one of your options."

How could I have sent out such a wrong impression? I ran my fingers through my hair in exasperation. "I don't believe this. You are my top priority and I thought you're supposed to be smart!"

"I'm not smart around you. I can't think. You made me feel like you're a super rock star and I'm a crazy groupie."

"But...but that's a ridiculous illusion! I worship you. You have so much going on and I feel shallow and stupid next to you. I always try to impress you, but you're so effortlessly cool," I said. "I guess I'm even a little intimidated."

"Intimidated?" He raised his eyebrows.

I fidgeted. "Yeah, because you're The King." It sounded so juvenile out loud. "That's what I call you in private."

"The King?" He laughed in surprise. "Is that short for The King of Nerdy Tests or something?"

"No. Just The King. That's what I think of you."

He looked embarrassed. Or maybe flattered. "Wow. I don't know what to say."

We were both silent for a brief moment, each absorbing the newly-gathered information.

"Why didn't you tell Janet the real reason we broke up?" I asked.

"I don't want her to judge you."

My eyes widened. "You'd rather she judge you?"

He shrugged. "Trust me, after we broke up, what people think of me is the last thing on my mind."

He was worried about my reputation when all I had been doing was cursing him to get fat and grow a zit. There was no debate about it; Sean was just altogether a much better person than I was.

A thought hit me suddenly. "Wait. So...you were willing to get back together even though you thought I cheated on you?"

He nodded. "Yeah... I always go against my better judgment because I can't stay away. When you like me it's...it's the best feeling in the world." He looked at me shyly as he said it. "I don't want to ever go through you ignoring me again."

I never imagined I'd hear that from him and at that moment I was thankful that we were sitting down. My knees would have betrayed me.

"Sean. You have no idea how much I like you and I never stopped." I reached out my hand to caress his face. "I think there's a lot of misunderstanding between us."

He gazed in my eyes and sighed. "Flora, I'm sorry for putting us both through this. Being with you has this bizarre effect on me and...anyway, I'm really sorry. You can hit me again if you want. It was all my fault."

It was not all his fault, and now that I calmed down I realized that I probably made more mistakes than he did, only Sean had the grace to accept all the blame. He was noble as always, exactly the guy I knew I fell in love with.