Free Now You See Her by Jacquelyn Mitchard

because telling anyone would make it seem like I was a slut.
    When we were finally dressed, he didn’t walk me home. He put my coat around my shoulders, and we went out to his car. He drove me to town. He had his own car, because seniors were allowed. We went to Chatters, and we ate.
    Logan said, “You know that meant something to me. I hope you didn’t think I was just trying to take advan- tage of the moment. I hope it meant something to you, too. I don’t want it to be something that ends.”
    “I wouldn’t have done it if I hadn’t wanted to,” I said, but I was starting to freak out a little. I was starting to realize that, just like Juliet, I had given my virginity to a
    guy right away. If it hadn’t been Logan, I would have been scared. I said, “I don’t ever want it to end.”
    It was close to midnight when we got back, and Lisa, my dorm advisor, had to unlock the door. She came swooping down on us like this big spider.
    “Brook Emerson kept us late,” Logan told her. I didn’t say anything. I was sure she could see it all over me, what we’d done. It’s true. You do look different, and I could see how jealous she was.
    Lisa was probably in her twenties, really a lot older, but she was all over Logan. She asked, “Are you Logan Rose?” and Logan was like, yeah, sort of humble, and Lisa said, “I saw you in Miss Fortune . I think it’s cool that you’re finishing school here.”
    He said, “People who don’t finish are stupid. They end up zoners half the time.”
    Lisa asked, “Are you going to college or right to L.A.?”
    “College. If they’ll have me. There are no guarantees in the business,” he said.
    “Yeah, but you’ve already been in a movie and on TV,” she was saying, all gushy. “You know you could go to any college.” He just sort of nodded. “Would you take a year off if you got a part in a movie?” He nodded again. “That’s totally understandable,” Lisa said.
    She would have gone on talking all night, and I just
    wanted to be alone in my room and relive the whole thing, and I knew Logan did too, so I started to squeeze past her and go upstairs so my poor Logan could finally leave. Lisa said then, “Hope. Your mother called, like, ten times, and I didn’t know what to tell her. You’ll have to be written up. . . .”
    “You won’t write her up,” Logan pleaded, getting down on his knees. “Blame me. Write me up.” Lisa blushed like she was my age or something. Logan knew what to do in any situation.
    “Well, not this time.”
    I ran upstairs and tore off my clothes. I was going to jump in the shower like I always did, but who would want to wash Logan away? Then I opened my window and leaned out so my cell phone semi-worked and called my mother. Okay, so I wasn’t supposed to have a cell. But it was a stupid rule.
    “What the hell is going on?” she yelled at me. “It’s one in the morning! Tryouts were over at nine!”
    “I had to stay late, and Mom, there was this guy.” I had to make something up fast. “It was when I was cross- ing the road, and he followed me in his truck, and we had to run—”
    “We, who’s we?” she asked. “What do you mean, fol- lowed you?”
    “Like in a creepy way. And ‘we’ was Logan Rose.
    Mom, he’s been in a movie with Ben Stiller and he’s been on Wailea Alive and he’s eighteen and he likes me. He’s here to finish senior year, and he’s going to be Romeo.”
    “Oh,” she said, and I could hear the excitement in her voice. “He likes you, like, a girlfriend?”
    “Yes, but that’s not all.” I paused and breathed in the moonlight. “Mom, I got Juliet.”
    “Oh my God, Hope.” She started to cry. I could hear her yelling for my father, and him in the background, all slurring, obviously having had his customary four “dirty” martinis. Him saying, “Way to go, Bernadette!” “You mean, they didn’t give it to a senior?”
    “No, me! Well, there’s this one girl who’ll probably do some