When we woke up from our sleepover at my house, Brooke fed us cereal for breakfast and we headed to school. Brooke had also discovered that we had drank all of her beer, so she got really mad at me for that. But thankfully she didn't find out about Javi and Ruben coming over.

Tracy recounted nearly every detail of yesterday's night to our friends. She couldn't stop gushing about how much of a perfect couple her and Javi were. The girls were all extremely happy for her. I was the only one who felt utterly miserable—I didn't show it, of course, but I still felt like shit.

The worst part was, Javi kept approaching her and asking to take her away from the group. Tracy always returned from their talks blushing and smiling like crazy. The girls all giggled and talked about how happy they were for Tracy.

I was having one of the worst days of my life, and I couldn't even complain to Tracy about it. Or even Astrid, because Astrid kept hyping Tracy up and was probably more happy for Tracy than Tracy herself.

At lunch, I wanted to stir the conversation away from the couple, so I started talking about fashion and gossiping. But the only gossip anyone seemed to be interested in was Tracy and Javi.

Tracy didn't talk much about Javi after telling the group about our night, probably because she was too shy to, so I decided to talk to her.

I was going to forget she was Javi's girlfriend and remember she was my best friend and talk to her.

But then, Javi came over and apparently they made "plans" to hang out during lunch so she had to go. She was blushing like crazy when they left and blushing like crazy when she came back at the end of our lunch period, so I'm guessing they were making out.

I was so tired of it all, so I was absolutely elated when school finally came to an end. Tracy barely spoke to me because she was surrounded by people and because she kept talking to Javi.

I felt like I was losing my best friend. But at the same time I felt like I hated my best friend. Ugh. I wish I had made more effort to make Javi like me before he asked her out and before Tracy got a crush on him. Then everything would've been perfect.

Javi waited with us while we waited for Mel. Javi kept flirting with Tracy and she kept mumbling back shyly to him. I guess she was embarrassed to flirt back in front of me.

Javi looked a little disappointed and I nudged Tracy in the ribs playfully.

"Why aren't you talking to your man, silly?" I said jokingly. "He obviously wants to flirt."

Javi shot me a grateful look and Tracy blushed, before starting to chat with him. Unfortunately for Javi, Tracy still seemed to be really shy.

Just then, Ruben approached us with a grin. He pressed a kiss to my lips and although I didn't like it, I smiled and kissed him back.

"Damn, you look hot," I lied, smirking flirtatiously at him. Ruben replied with a compliment and started flirting with me.

I may not be good at school, but I am most certainly a master at flirting. I flirted back with ease, and caught Javi staring at me out of the corner of my eye.

Oh my gosh. Maybe he was falling for me? I mean, I definitely was a way more experienced, popular and fun girlfriend than Tracy. It's natural that he should feel attracted to me.

Triumphant, I continued to flirt with Ruben, hoping to make Javi jealous and bored of Tracy. I probably should've taught Trace to never make a guy feel like you're embarrassed of him, but now I was glad I didn't.

Just then, Mel came to pick us up and drove us home. Well, Tracy's home, at least. But Tracy's home felt more like home to me than my actual home.

I needed to find a way to stay at Tracy's for as long as possible. And a way to make Javi like me.

On Saturday morning, Javi texted me.

Tracy was still asleep, so I just glanced at her apprehensively out of the corner of my eye before looking at his text.

Hey :)

I smiled slightly, but then a thought came to me. What if he thought I was Tracy? Ugh.

Hi, Tracys asleep lol.

I waited anxiously for his reply. After a few seconds, he responded.

Ok I don't care. This is Evies cell right?

I grinned like a Cheshire cat and quickly typed out a reply.

Yea haha

So how are you doing

I'm good lol

What about you?

Im also good

You know I've always thought u were rly cool

Haha Ive always thought u were cool too

Haha thank you

Also I was wondering if youd like to hang out sometime

I felt butterflies fluttering in my belly and I resisted the strong urge to start jumping on the bed in excitement. My fingers moved as fast as lighting as I replied.

Yea sure I'd like that

Ok great

But dont tell Tracy ok

Of course

Yes! He liked me! I mean, why else would he ask me not to tell Tracy?

Suddenly, guilt replaced that elated thought. I looked over at Tracy, and saw her sleeping peacefully, not suspecting that I was texting her boyfriend right now. But what she doesn't know can't hurt her, right? And Tracy knows I love her, it's just I really like Javi. I've liked him for a while now and it's kind of unfair that Tracy gets him, when she's known him for such a short amount of time.

I continued to text Javi, and we even flirted. I could tell he liked me. I was so happy! The guy that I liked liked me back!

"Evie?" I heard Tracy mumble sleepily. I looked over at her in sheer panic to see her eyelids flutter open slightly. I hurriedly cleared my chats with Javi and put away my phone.

"Good morning, Trace," I greeted, smiling slightly and trying my best to soothe myself. It's okay, Tracy hadn't seen anything. I calmed down.

"Morning," she grunted as she sat up in bed, before her eyes widened slightly. "It's Saturday!"

"Yay!" I enthused as I sprung out of bed. Tracy grabbed my arm before I could run off.

"Wait, Evie," she said. My heart stopped for a split second before I glanced back at her.

"Yeah?" I said, sitting back down and gripping the sheets nervously. I smiled so my anxiety didn't show.

"My mom said that Brady wants to take us to the movies tomorrow," she told me with a shy blush. "Maybe we can sneak out and meet up with Javi and Ruben?"

My anxiety dissolved in seconds and I grinned broadly.

"Yes!" I exclaimed. "You're a genius, Tracy."

Tracy grinned. "Okay um, can you text Javi again? I feel bad for not talking to him much yesterday while we were waiting for my mom to pick us up, so I wanna make it up to him. I think I'll be more confident tomorrow."

"Sure," I answered, grabbing my phone and texting Javi.

"I'm gonna go use the bathroom," Tracy announced. "You text him while I'm gone, okay?"

"Okay," I agreed readily. Tracy smiled and rushed out of the room to use the restroom, and I texted Javi.

I told him that Tracy's mom was gonna take us to the cinema and Tracy and I would sneak out and meet up with him. Then maybe somehow we would get rid of Tracy to—well—hang out.

Javi replied within seconds and said yes. I smiled exultantly and deleted our messages, just in case Tracy saw.

Tracy returned from the bathroom.

"Did he reply?" she questioned as she started changing into a pink top and jean shorts.

"I called him," I lied. "He says yes!"

Tracy and I both squealed in excitement.

"We'll have to find a way to get away from my mom and Brady at the movies," Tracy remarked. "What did Ruben say?"

"He...can't come," I lied again. I hadn't asked Ruben, and wasn't planning to. "But it's okay, I want you to have your fun."

"Okay," Tracy replied.

Later that day, I had started to feel nervous. I loved Tracy like a sister. What if she found out and she started to hate me?

In hopes of preventing that, I accidentally-on-purpose showed her an old bruise on my back from Brooke's boyfriend. Maybe then, if she finds out, she'll pity me and find a way to forgive me?

Well, I'll do anything in my power to prevent her knowing. She can't know, but just in case she does, I have to make sure she forgives me.

Saturday passed by really quickly. It was pretty eventful—we tried to seduce Tracy's friend Luke and then almost got busted for smoking. Tracy had another yelling match with Mel. Ugh.

I couldn't wait for tomorrow.

"Yeah, baby! Close your eyes!" I exclaimed, applying eyeshadow to Mel's eyelids. We were getting ready for the movies and I was doing Mel's make-up. "Close 'em, close 'em. Ooh, lovin' it. You are a gold queen!"

"Hey guys," Brady called out. I applied blush to my cheeks.

"What the hell?" I heard Tracy say. I turned around to look at Brady and saw that he was holding a chicken in his hands.

"Watch his head," Brady commanded, moving the chicken's body up and down. "Yeah."

"Oh my God!" Tracy squealed as we all giggled. Brady continued to move the chicken weirdly.

"It's Zen chicken," Brady continued. "That's weird, right?"

"It doesn't even move!" Tracy chortled as we laughed.

"Chickens are cool, right?" Brady said, raising his eyebrows.

We all shared an amused look.

After a while, we were ready and got in the car. Mel drove us downtown and we spent ten minutes searching for an empty parking spot.

"It's so crowded in here," Mel commented, furrowing her eyebrows as she examined the parking lot.

"Yeah, what did you expect, mom?" Tracy scoffed. "It's a Sunday evening. Of course it's crowded."

Mel rolled her eyes.

"I think I see a parking spot over there," I said, pointing to somewhere a few feet away from us.

"Where?" Mel asked, glancing up immediately. "Oh wait, I see it."

We parked and got out of the car.

"I'm going to meet up with a couple of friends," Mason proclaimed as he jumped out of the car. "See you guys later."

"Okay, meet us here in a couple of hours, okay?" Mel called out after him.

"Okay!" Mason yelled back, before turning a corner and disappearing from our sight.

"All right, guys, let's go," Brady said.

Mel, Tracy and I linked arms as we followed Brady to the cinema.

Brady was telling us random facts about chickens. I listened with false attentiveness and thought of a way for Javi and I to get away from Tracy. Tracy and I had already decided that we would run away by choosing a different movie than Mel and Brady. We'd have about a couple of hours of fun before we had to get back, which was fine by me.

When we had finally arrived at the cinema, we spent about five minutes choosing the perfect movie. Well, actually, we just waited for Mel and Brady to choose so then we could select a different movie.

"Let's watch this movie," Brady remarked, pointing to a picture of some weird war movie. "I've heard a lot of great things about it."

"Yeah sure," Mel replied. "We can watch it, it looks interesting."

I waited with a grin, anticipating what was about to happen.

"Mom, no, I can't see that movie," Tracy grouched, and I had to try my best to stifle a laugh.

"Why?" Mel demanded, a slightly surprised expression on her face.

"Because, it's a gross bloody war movie and I'm a pacifist like Gandhi," Tracy explained, making some gestures with her hand. Now it was my turn.

"Why don't we just go see the Jack Black movie?" I suggested, squinting my eyes slightly as I read the title of the movie. "The Misadventures of Ezekiel Balls."

"Yeah, Mom, it looks funny," Tracy agreed eagerly, pointing at the poster. "I mean, it's a giant pig."

"Yeah, I won't be seeing that," Brady protested. Excellent—our plan was working out perfectly. Tracy said that Brady hated comedy movies.

"Oh, come on, you guys," Mel said, grabbing us and pushing us along with them. "It's supposed to be family night."

"Pleaseee!" Tracy begged, and my heart sunk a little—what if our plan wasn't working? "Mom!"

"That's all right, we'll see separate movies, we'll meet here at ten fifteen," Brady said, turning to the lady on the desk for our tickets. Yes! "And I want two for the pig movie, and two for the war movie."

"Yes! Ugh Brady, you are so awesome!" Tracy exclaimed as she hugged Brady. I beamed happily at her.

"Look, I got popcorn and butter in a separate foil packet," Mel said, taking out her bag. "For the...for the little ones."

"Thanks Mom," Tracy replied a little unenthusiastically. I grabbed the bag and shoved some popcorn into my mouth. "Okay!"

"Thanks Mel!" I called out with a mouthful of popcorn. "Love you guys, muah!"

"See you all here," Mel replied as Brady and her walked away to watch their movie. "Love you."

We walked through a door to the Jack Black movie and waited for a couple of minutes. We waited until the movie had started so we were sure that Mel and Brady wouldn't spot us before hesitantly coming out.

"Bye, Mom!" Tracy called out playfully as she threw away her ticket.

"Later, Jack!" I joked as I shoved both my ticket and the bag into the trash can.

We then both ran out of the cinema with elated grins on our faces.

We strutted through the streets excitedly, and I got out a couple of cigarettes I had kept in my pocket and handed one to Trace.

I lit up my cigarette and started smoking. We had agreed to meet up with Javi and his friends somewhere near an ATM.

"Mothers, lock up your sons!" Tracy shouted, exhilarated, as I unbuttoned my coat.

We saw Javi and his circle of friends a couple of feet away from us so we approached them. Tracy lit her cigarette and put it in her mouth.

Javi and his friends were dancing and singing. One of his friends, an older guy, came up to me. I had agreed to give him some drugs for twenty bucks.

I took the drugs out of my bag and handed them to him, and he gave me the money. He then sauntered away, catching Javi's eye. Javi and I locked eyes and he started walking towards us.

My heartbeat accelerated.

"What's up, ladies?" Javi greeted, before pressing a kiss to Tracy's lips. I tried my best to not let my disappointment show—I mean, what else did I expect? "How you guys doing tonight? You guys having fun?"

I stared at Tracy enviously for a couple of seconds before approaching Javi and hugging him.

"You know I got my ass beat for what happened the other night," I said as I pulled away.

"Oh yeah?" Javi replied, before one of his friends called out for him to finish his verse.

I put my cigarette in my mouth and smoked as Tracy and I watched Javi and his friends beatboxing. Jealous after watching Javi and Tracy kiss, I decided to immediately start my "hang out" session with Javi.

"Why don't you go get us some sodas or something?" I requested as I turned around to look at Tracy. "And you know what, tell Conrad to get his ass down here on his break."

"Okay," Tracy agreed with a grin, before walking away. I didn't really care much for Conrad, but I knew Tracy found him attractive, so he could keep her away for a while.

I watched for a few more seconds as Javi continued beatboxing. He finished, and when he looked up, he instantly noticed me standing by myself.

He approached me with a mischievous smile.

"Where's Tracy?" he questioned.

"I told her to go get us some sodas," I explained, smirking slightly. "Let's go."

"As you wish, ma'am," he replied, causing me to laugh. "Where will we be going?"

"Let's just look around," I recommended. "Tell your friends we're going to the candy shop."

Javi obeyed and went away for a couple of minutes to let his friends know he was leaving. And then we walked away.

We went to a lot of shops just for fun, smoking and flirting. It was probably the funnest and most exciting life of my life. Thanks, my best friend's mother's boyfriend.

At last, we entered some random shop that had a dressing room in it. I looked around to make sure there weren't any signs of Tracy—I was being a little too paranoid.

"Looks like Tracy's real busy getting those sodas," Javi joked. I chuckled.

"I'm sure she won't mind if we do something to...you know...kill time," I whispered seductively, before pulling Javi in for a kiss. We kissed for a couple of seconds before Javi pulled away.

"Let's continue this in the dressing rooms, shall we?" Javi suggested, and I giggled as he grabbed my waist and we entered the dressing rooms.

I'd rather not go into a lot of detail about what happened in there. But we were having so much fun that I had forgotten what time it was, until I heard Tracy's voice calling out for me from outside the dressing rooms.

"Oh shit," I whispered, as Javi got up and hurriedly put on his pants.

I put on a convincing grin on my face before strolling out of the dressing room to find Tracy and one of Javi's friends. I wiped my lips on a random piece of fabric next to me.

"Damn! How are you?" I asked, since Tracy looked obviously drunk. I kissed her on the cheek as I hurriedly mustered up an explanation. "Javi spilled a Coke all over his pants and he couldn't perform so—"

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" Tracy screamed furiously. My heart sank. Oh no. Did she know? But how could she possibly know? "Do you even know what time it is? Shit!"

Oh, phew. Well, not really phew, since we would get in trouble for being late, but at least Tracy wouldn't find out about me and Javi.

As we were running back to the movie theater, Tracy cussing loudly, I checked the time on a clock in one of the shops. It was ten thirty. Oh shit.

"We need to come up with a good cover story," I said, grabbing Tracy's arm and stopping her.

"Yeah, but we also need to hurry up and get to the cinema," Tracy complained. "Fuck."

"It's okay," I reassured her, before getting out a keychain from my pocket. "Here, I got this for Mel while you were away. We'll give it to her and she'll forget about it."

I really doubted that, but I needed to comfort Tracy.

"Okay," Tracy sighed, before grabbing my arm. "Now let's hurry."

We ran up the escalator, and even though we were in deep trouble, I couldn't stop thinking about Javi. I had finally gotten him, and I felt so triumphantly happy.

We entered the cinema, and saw that it was crowded with families leaving the cinema.

"Mel? Mel?" I called out, Tracy grabbing my shoulder drunkenly for support.

"Ugh, fuck," Tracy muttered.

"Maybe we should get back to the car," I recommended. "I don't think Mel and Brady are here."

Tracy didn't reply, and kept holding her head, so I'm guessing she had a headache. I sighed and took her arm, before leading her out of the cinema.

Just then, we stumbled into Mel and Brady, looking extremely worried. As soon as Mel's eyes landed on us, her concerned expression instantly turned into one of anger.

"Where the hell have you guys been?" she exploded. "We've been worried as hell! We were just about to call the police to report you guys as missing!"

"Sorry Mel," I mumbled apologetically. Mel merely shook her head and lead us to the car.

"Mason already left for home," she informed us as we got in the car.

Brady started driving, looking disappointed. I gazed out of the window as we drove back home, trying desperately to think of a logical explanation as Mel scolded us.

"Why were you guys so late?" she demanded as we parked. "Where were you?"

"Geez, Mom, I can't help it if the movie ran late," Tracy groaned as we got out of the car.