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I'm gonna go take a shower while you pick out a
movie." I went into the bathroom and started the water just in time to
mask the noise of me crying.
    As the hot water poured over me, I tried to picture Chris as
the dirt and sweat that was being washed away. It didn't work. The conversation
and the pictures kept cycling through my head. Did he really just kiss her? It
hadn't occurred to me during the conversation because I was so distracted when
he admitted they kissed, but there could have been pictures on his phone of
them going further than just kissing. And now I would never know. Will I
ever be able to trust him again?
    Stop thinking about him!
    I couldn't stop though. He had been my boyfriend for two
years. I had seen him nearly every day during that time. I couldn't just
pretend like he never existed, because without him there was a big, gaping hole
in my life.
    Focus on volleyball.
    I started running through the game in my head. Yes, most of
my mistakes had been caused by Chris, but I had also made some errors in the
first game before any of that had happened. I would have to watch the game film
tomorrow to see exactly what I was doing wrong.
    I took a deep breath. Volleyball was only a temporary patch
for the hole in my life, but it was already making me feel a little better. And
I was sure Kristen would pick a wonderful movie that would make all my problems
disappear for the next two hours.
    But she didn't.
    She had put on black leggings, a black tank top, black
sneakers, and pulled her hair back into a tight pony tail with a black
headband. She had gone through my drawers and laid out a similar outfit on my
bed.
    I looked at her and raised an eyebrow. "Are we going to
rob a bank instead of watching a movie?"
    "You tell me. What's Operation Red Rip?"
    "Uh, what? Did you do a line of coke while I was in the
shower?"
    She tossed me my iPhone. "Your alarm went off while you
were in the shower. It said to get ready for Operation Red Rip and to wear all
black."
    Did Bryce give me the wrong phone? I swiped my finger
across the screen and looked at the homepage. All the apps were the same. I
checked the texts next. Lots of missed texts from Chris. Definitely my
phone.
    Then another alarm started playing. It was titled,
"Operation Red Rip - Meet at the village square."
    "Did Bryce add weird alarms to my phone?" I asked.
    "It would appear so."
    "You don't really expect me to go, do you?"
    "No. I expect us to go," said Kristen.
"Now hurry up and get ready! We're going to be late."
    "But what about our movie?"
    "We can watch our movie any time. But we can't go on a
secret mission with your sexy new friend any time." Kristen got up and
started stretching her quads.
    "He's not my friend. He's just a guy who was nice enough
to return my phone."
    "Well, whatever he is, he sure seems to make you
happy."
    I thought back to my conversation with him on the bench. For
those few minutes, I had forgotten about everything else. And right now I just
wanted to forget. Damn it. I hated how Kristen always made so much
sense. "Fine, I'll go."
    I threw on the all black outfit she had picked out for me and
added a little eye makeup and I was ready to go. I usually would have been
concerned about going out with wet hair, but it was so hot out that having wet
hair would probably just help cool me down.
    A few minutes later we arrived at the village square. But
Bryce wasn't anywhere to be seen. There was just a trio of guys in Canadian
track suits sitting on the side of the fountain. Wait a second! That's
Bryce. Is he really Canadian? I thought back to my brief
conversation with him. He hadn't said "eh" a lot or been overly
polite. And he hadn't mentioned maple syrup or hockey at all.
    He and his two friends ran over to us. One had brown hair
that was buzzed close to his scalp and the other had perfectly coiffed dark
hair. They were both about the same height as Bryce, which was probably a foot
taller than me.
    "Hey, Alina!" said Bryce. "I'm glad you