“Maddie?”

It isn’t Gabriella, but Kiersten.

I lift my feet off the grimy floor and press them against the door. There’s no way I can hold this position for long without falling into the toilet.

“Maddie, I know you’re in here.”

Smack-smack. I can see her flip-flops in the spot beneath the door.

Knock, knock, knock. “Maddie, come on.”

My feet creep down the door. It’s that or fall into the toilet, and as bad as today has been, falling into a toilet would actually make it worse.

“Did you know?” My voice sounds so small in here. Like a mouse is on the other side of the bathroom door from Kiersten. Not a person, not me. “Are they together?”

“Maddie…”

“No. You have to tell me. You’re my best friend. You’re supposed to tell me things.” But the matching dresses. Another sign. “But you don’t…you’re not.”

“I’m not your friend? Well, that’s news to me.” Kiersten sighs. “Can you just come out here so we can talk face to face like normal people?”

“No.” My voice wavers. I’ve read about how having your period makes you cry. But that’s not why tears stream down my cheeks. I wish it were that simple. That it would all go away in three to seven days.

But when my period is over, all my problems will still be there. Adding up and multiplying, growing all the time like the worst word problem ever. First no house, no Hank, having to start all over with nothing, then Kiersten ditching me for Gabriella, and now Avery, too. Avery and Gabriella. Again. It was never just that one dance.

Kiersten sticks her hand under the door.

“What the heck are you doing?”

She’s got her whole arm coming through now, bending at the elbow, reaching up for the lock, but she’s not even close.

“Maddie, please.”

The next thing I know, she’s sliding under the door, headfirst.

“Kiersten! Do you know how dirty that floor is?”

“It’ll come off in the pool.”

“Yeah, and everyone swimming in it will get some infectious disease, thanks to you.”

I unlock the stall door while Kiersten picks herself up off the floor. She sits up on the sink. I wipe my eyes.

“So, are they? Together?”

Kiersten shrugs. “There was this pool party at Gregg’s house the other weekend—”

“At Gregg’s? Why wasn’t I invited?”

“Don’t look at me, I wasn’t invited either. It was everyone who went to soccer camp together. Look, maybe it wasn’t even a party. They were just hanging out. She talks to him, you know? She acts like she likes him, like she’s interested.”

“And I don’t talk to him? Kiersten, I live with him. I talk to him all the time. I see him every day.”

But it’s not entirely true. There have been plenty of times when I don’t talk to him, even when I want to. Times when he’s sitting by himself watching TV and I go right upstairs. Or when his door is open and he’s reading on his bed and I continue on to my room. I wimp out. I second-guess what I want to say. I decide it’s easier just to walk away.

And what did today prove? Even when I do try to talk to him—try to flirt—it’s a disaster.

“I know. I mean, I know you like him. But that’s because you told me. You tell me everything. But does Avery know?”

How could he not?

The bathroom door opens and in comes Gabriella, with her purple dress back on. She takes one quick look at me. “Maddie, what’s wrong?”

I glance at Kiersten, but she doesn’t answer for me. Maybe Kiersten’s right. Maybe I’m supposed to say how I really feel.

“You knew I liked him,” I tell Gabriella. “And you went and did it anyway.”

“Did what? Wait, with Avery? Maddie, we were talking.”

But she wasn’t just talking. She was hair-flipping and leaning into him and touching his arm, while I basically ran my cheese-curl-dust-covered fingers through my hair like a total moron.

“You like him.”

“Are you still upset about the dance? Maddie, that was over a month ago. And it was just one dance. It would’ve been weird if I said no. And anyway, you danced with Gregg.”

“But that’s different!” I say, practically shouting. “You know it is. I don’t like Gregg. I mean, he’s Gregg!”

The bathroom door opens again but then shuts so quickly I can’t see who tried to come in.

“Maddie, did you have to shout it?” Gabriella says.

I look to Kiersten for an explanation. She mouths, “Gregg.”

I grab the door, and when I look down the hallway, I see Gregg’s bare back, Gregg’s red swim trunks, going into the men’s room.

Gabriella pushes past me to leave the bathroom. “Way to go, Maddie.”