pudding. Nicole is staring at me like I’ve lost my mind. “Have you lost your mind?” she demands. I shrug, too elated and terrified by the whole situation to even

answer. My mind races, imagining what I’ll say to Griffin on Sunday,

how I’ll act, what I’ll wear. This isn’t about Stella—this is about me. “Earth to Phoebe.” Nicole snaps her fingers in front of my face. “What?” I shake myself out of the daydream. “What were you thinking?” Her eyebrows jump up in disbelief.

“Griffin Blake is a centaur’s rear.” “I just . . .” I struggle to find something to say that won’t be a

total lie. Or the total truth. “. . . thought he could help me out.” Nicole flings her fork down on her plate. “You’re crazy.” Maybe . . . but I can’t keep the smile off my face. Troy, who hasn’t said a word since I got back to the table, stands

up and grabs his tray. “Maybe Blake can take you to the bonfire.” Before I can answer he turns and walks away. He sounded really upset. I watch him walk over to the conveyor belt, toss down his tray,

and leave the room. Without once looking back at our table. “What was that about?” I ask. Nicole stares at me. “Are you that dense?” “What?” I look at her, confused. She shakes her head. “No wonder you made a fool of yourself

over that ass. You’re clueless when it comes to boys.” She spears a bite of meat loaf with her fork. I think she is actually going to eat some of the questionable stuff, but instead she flicks it up in the air. The meat blob sticks to the ceiling for a few seconds before plopping back down on our table.

“Did you really not know what was about to happen?” she demands.

I can tell she expects me to know what she’s talking about—other than she thinks I should stay far away from Griffin, but I already know that and it doesn’t make a difference. “I don’t know—”

“Troy was going to ask you to the bonfire.”

I can almost hear the unspoken stupid at the end of her statement. Yes, I knew Troy was going to ask me. And I was even going to agree.

“We can all go together,” I offer. “As friends.”

“You could do worse than liking Troy, you know.” She glances back to the golden couple, who are continuing their bid for the PDA record. “Wait—you already have.”

I sigh, because she’s right. After everything I went through with Justin, I know how much it hurts when bad crushes happen to good people. But no matter how many times I tell myself he’s pure bad news I just can’t get my mind off Griffin. I am living proof that crushes are blind, deaf, and dumb.

“I know,” I say. “But I can’t—”

I shake my head.

I’m afraid of blowing my friendship with her—and with Troy—all because I can’t control my stupid crush on Griffin. There, I’ve said it. I have a crush on Griffin Blake.

Okay, I didn’t really say it—I thought it.

Admitting there’s a problem is the first step to recovery, right?

“I understand,” Nicole says, her voice full of sympathy. “You can’t always choose who you fall for.”

“Exactly.”

“Don’t worry.” She sounds upbeat and I’m relieved that she’s not casting me away just because my heart has bad taste. “Eventually he’ll break your heart and maybe Troy and I will be there to glue the pieces back together.”

That’s a cheerful thought.

“I hope you won’t have to.” I smile. Nicole is a true friend—which makes me think of Cesca and Nola. They would love Nicole. Cesca would love her willingness to say what she’s really thinking and Nola would appreciate how she is an individual and doesn’t care what others think of her. We would make a great foursome. Maybe one day we can all hang out together.

“So, I can’t talk you out of this?”

I shake my head. Time for full disclosure. “There’s more to this than a, um, crush.”

She lifts her eyebrows.

“I made a bargain with Stella.”

She doesn’t say anything, just keeps looking at me expectantly.

“She’s offered to tutor me in Modern Greek and to help convince her dad not to keep me here for another year.”

“In exchange for what, your firstborn child?”

“In exchange for splitting up Griffin and Adara.”

Another low whistle. “You made a deal with Hades, you know.”

“Yeah,” I say, defeated. “I know.”

“Cheer up,” she says as she stacks our trays of untouched—except for the blob she flung at the ceiling—meat loaf, “I’m going to help

you in this idiotic quest for Blake.”

“Really?” I ask, suspicious of her sudden turnaround. “Why?”

“Because I think this bargain is just your excuse.” She grins wickedly. “You want him, and the sooner you catch him the sooner he’ll break your heart. And the sooner you can recover. I’d hate for you to spend the entire year pining over him.” She picks up our trays. “He’s so not worth it. And if you break his heart instead, so much the better.”

I have a feeling that Nicole has her own motives, but I just ask, “When do we start?”

“Tonight,” she says decisively. “We’ll launch Operation Anteros at the bonfire.”