Page 14 of Lonely Hearts Day

“Only party-throwing-to-make-a-statement social.”

“The best kind of social.” I looked around. “Where’s Sage?” She had been hanging out with us more over the last year, but to my surprise, neither of them had made any sort of move to get together. At one point, I’d asked Jack about it and he’d said,we don’t like each other like that. I thought that was only true on one side of the equation, but whatever. Selfishly, it meant that Jack could still put on this singles party with me, not be forced to celebrate love today.

“I’m not sure,” he said.

“Is she coming tonight?”

“I think so.”

“Tell her to come early and help us set up.”

He narrowed his eyes. “Why doIhave to tell her this? You talk to her too.”

I sighed. “Really? Nothing?”

“Stop trying to make that happen. You’re supposed to be champion of singlehood today. Especially after this year’s rose poem. They rhymedgreen grasswithI’ll pass.”

“If I were in leadership, I, too, would try to make the current year’s rose poem worse than last year’s,” I said. “I saw you hiding your head in third period while they read it.”

“I couldn’t help it. Secondhand embarrassment is real,” he said.

We reached the front of the taco line and ordered, then walked back through the layer of snow toward the cafeteria. The whole school was bright today with the fresh powder that had blanketed town the night before.

“Charlie and Nick from Heartstoppers,” Jack said.

“I like them too. Hey, they started out as best friends,” I said.

He looked down at his taco, unwrapping it to take a bite. “They did.”

Chapter 6

“What are you doing home?” I asked when I walked in the front door. I paused in the entry to untie my boots and leave them to dry on the tile. I’d seen my sister’s car out front and now she sat on the couch, her phone held up in front of her like she’d been watching TikToks or reading emails or something.

“Hey, just came home for a long weekend.”

“I wouldn’t call Wednesday a weekend.”

“My Thursday class got canceled and I don’t have classes on Friday. Hence thelongin my use of the wordweekend. Good to see you too.”

I smiled then walked over and gave her a hug. “Hi!”

She hugged me back. My sisters and I weren’t necessarily super close. We weren’t distant, either, though. We were the something-in-between that was produced by a seven-year age gap. Evelyn was a senior in college; that’s why I was surprised to see her. She usually didn’t come home on a random weekday mid-semester.

“Did The Parents tell you I was throwing a party tonight?” I asked.

“They did. Your anti-love party?”

“Why does everyone think that? It’s a pro-self-love party. Pro-singleness.”

“Oh, gotcha,” she said, but in awink-winkvoice like I really meantanti-lovebut didn’t want to admit it.

“I’m pro-love,” I grumbled. “Just anti-forced-celebration.” And I shouldn’t have had to constantly defend that.

She laughed. “Hang on to that pro-self-love attitude for the next month or so.” Her eyes shot to the hallway then back to me.

I looked at the hallway too but it was empty. “Why the next month?”

“Because it’s February,” she said as if that answered the question.