18 
18 PAIGE AND TWO OF HER FRIENDS WERE WALKING toward us. They were following a waiter, who set menus down on a table just a few feet away from Heather and me.
Paige hadn’t seen us yet. I didn’t know what to do! She was going to spot us eventually, and then what? If she wanted to talk to me alone, I wasn’t sure I was ready for that. Even though I knew I couldn’t keep avoiding the situation forever, I still didn’t feel ready to talk about it. Especially not when I was having such a fun dinner.
I kept my eyes off Paige’s table and concentrated on my food. Every few seconds I felt Heather’s eyes on me. I wanted to ask her what I should do, but it wasn’t her fight. She’d already given me enough advice. And there wasn’t anything to do. If Paige had seen me, she wasn’t approaching me. So maybe she’d gotten the hint from my nonresponses to her texts that I wasn’t in a place where I wanted to talk and I’d come to her when I was.
“She has to know better than to come over here,” Heather said, her tone low. “She’s with her group of friends and you’re with me. It would be so uncool if she came over.”
Heather had just finished her sentence when movement across the room got my attention.
Paige, standing, whispered something to her friends and started walking in our direction. She, too, was dressed for Butter in a silver and black bandage dress. I couldn’t help looking at her face, and our eyes were locked as she walked over to my table.
“Sasha,” Paige said, her voice soft. “Hey, Heather.”
Heather opened her mouth, probably about to say something snarky, but I didn’t need her to get involved.
“Paige,” I said. “Heather and I are in the middle of dinner. I know you want to talk about what happened, and we will, but now’s not a good time.”
I saw the hurt on Paige’s face and it made me feel awful, but she’d been horrible to me the night of the party. I wasn’t ready to talk yet.
“Sasha.” Paige’s green eyes stayed on mine. “Please. Can we just step outside for two seconds? We can definitely talk more at school, but please, just let me talk to you for a minute.”
I paused. Part of me wanted to say yes. But a bigger part said no.
“Sorry,” I said. “I hope you have fun with your friends. But Heather and I are finishing our food, and then we’re going back to her place. We’ll talk at school.”
“Bye,” Heather said to Paige in a cheery tone.
I didn’t want Heather being mean to Paige, so for Paige’s sake, I hoped she just walked away.
And with a defeated look, that’s exactly what she did.