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matters,” I say.
    I mean it too. Being around her right now makes me too uncomfortable, too angry, too exhausted, too much of too many things to be “whatever.”
    She gets up from her chair and stares down at me, making it impossible for me to keep from looking at her. “Okay,” she says. “Then why are you being like this?”
    “Like what?”
    “Like, an unbelievable bitch!” She practically spits her words at me. “You said you were fine with me going out with Derrick. Now it’s like you want to get revenge on me because he picked me instead of you. Neither of us has him now, so why don’t you get over your jealousy and stop holding this stupid grudge?”
    At that, I’m on my feet too, and Alejandra’s eyes widen. We’re at opposite sides of the coffee table, poised as if we’re getting ready to jump into the middle of a boxing ring. “Guess what, Alejandra! I don’t care about being with Derrick and I’m not dying of jealousy. So why don’t you get over your delusions already?”
    It’s been a long time since we’ve really looked each other in the eye. What I want most is to turn away from her angry gaze, but I somehow manage to hold strong, all while standing composed with my posture perfect.
    “I don’t understand you,” she says, crossing her arms over her chest. “I swear, you have got to be the most self-centered person and the worst friend in the world.”
    “Whatever,” I say with a shrug.
    •    •    •
    I’m trying not to seem upset. I’m trying not to mope around. But after two hours, Alejandra’s words are still distracting me from the laid-back-Piper-party fun that I should be having.
    An Unbelievable Bitch.
    The Most Self-Centered Person.
    The Worst Friend in the World.
    I can’t believe she said those things to me. After all the times that I listened and tried to help with any and all of her issues. All the times that I dropped whatever I was doing justbecause she asked me to. All the times I kept my own problems to myself even though what I really wanted was for my best friend to notice just once that I don’t have it all together either. And now she’s saying this ridiculous stuff about Derrick. I mean, yeah, I liked him. Alejandra and I met him in eighth grade at the performing arts camp we go to every summer for the dance program. He’s into acting and it was always fun to gush together over his hotness and joke about all the things we’d do with him if we ever got the chance.
    But then this past July, she did get the chance. It stung that Derrick wanted her to be his girlfriend instead of me, but I got over it. What I can’t get over is that she broke up with him on their three-month anniversary and blamed it on me.
    A loud, male voice jolts me from my thoughts. “I knew it. I totally called this!”
    I glance up from my InStyle magazine and watch Noah strut into the front room carrying a bottle of clear alcohol. His parents went to bed, but if Piper sees that in his hand, she’s going to go crazy.
    Noah settles on the floor next to my sleeping bag. “I saw the stack of movies out earlier and said, ‘No way is Coley going to make it through a horror flick.’ And now everyone’s in there watching it and you’re here hiding like I knew you would be.”
    Not everyone’s in there. Alejandra stomped out after ourargument, and Hannah and Liz took off with her. Our team—especially Piper’s squad—is even more divided than before.
    “I’m not hiding,” I say to Noah.
    “Right,” he says with a grin. “So, you’ve suddenly stopped crying and running away from scary movies, then?”
    “Ha-ha.”
    Noah has an annoying way of constantly bringing up embarrassing things that I wish he would forget already. The truth is, it doesn’t matter much what they’re watching; I’m avoiding Piper and her disappointment in me as much as I am the movie.
    “Listen,” Noah says. “You’re not the only one. I got so freaked out when my dad took me to one of