Free 25 Roses by Stephanie Faris

and demanded she show me theoutfit. She wore the shirt and jacket with her baggy jeans, so it was hard to tell.
    “You’ll be fine,” I said. “Try these on.”
    I handed her a stack of cute skinny jeans in every size I thought might fit, along with a stack of shirts, and stepped back. This was kind of fun.
    My cell phone rang the second after Sun closed the dressing room door. It was Ashleigh. I stared at the screen for a long time, debating what to do. If I answered, I’d have to tell her where I was. She’d freak out if I told her I was with Sun Patterson, but I couldn’t lie to her.
    Could I?
    Turns out, I could.
    “Hello?” I whispered. I was walking away from the dressing room, but I was still afraid Sun would hear me.
    “What’s up?” she asked. “I’m bored.”
    “Just waiting for my mom at the grocery store,” I said, wincing. I hated lying to my BFF. I felt like she could see me through the cell phone signals. “You coming over tonight? It’s pizza night.”
    “Sure,” she said. “I was wondering if I could come over a little early, though. We could hang out and chat before dinner.”
    “I’m not sure how long we’re going to be,” I said. Even asI said the words, I was hoping with all I had that she wouldn’t creep over to my house early. If she saw my mom’s car in the driveway, she’d know I was lying. “Mom has a lot of errands to run.”
    If we really were at the grocery store, we’d have to go straight home. We’d have ice cream and frozen peas and milk—all of which would have to get to the refrigerator and freezer instead of being carried around town in Mom’s trunk while she went everywhere. But luckily, Ashleigh didn’t seem to think about any of that.
    “Just call me when you get home,” she said. “Alex may come over.”
    Alex lived a few streets over from Ashleigh, but they never, ever hung out without me. I felt a pang of jealousy at the thought of him going to her house and me not being there. But I couldn’t blame her. I was hanging out with someone completely different, after all.
    “Okay,” I said . . . because there was nothing else I could say. If I was going to help the population of Stanton Middle School, my friends’ lives would go on without me. What else could I expect?
    “Can I stop trying on clothes now?”
    Sun had snuck up on me so suddenly, I didn’t have achance to prepare. I spun around to find her standing there, empty-armed, wearing the clothes she’d been wearing when this whole shopping outing had started.
    “Who’s that?” I heard Ashleigh say through the earpiece of my phone. “I thought you were at the grocery store.”
    “Um . . . yeah,” I said. “That’s . . . my sister. We’re at Mega-Mart.”
    Mega-Mart was the big grocery-store-slash-department-store in town. It was totally possible we’d gone shopping with Mom and now were trying on clothes.
    “That’s not your sister,” Ashleigh said. “Whatever. I’ll talk to you later.”
    I still had my mouth open to argue with her when the phone went silent. I looked at the screen and saw CALL ENDED on the screen right above the photo I’d taken of her so her face would flash whenever she called. I’m not sure how long I stood there, staring at that flashing photo, before Sun waved her hand in front of me.
    “Hello?” Sun said. “You in there?”
    I looked up and nodded numbly while pocketing my phone. I’d just have to find a way to deal with Ashleigh later. We had a hair appointment to get to.
    “Where are your clothes?” I asked Sun.
    “In there.” She pointed at the dressing room she’d just exited. I followed her pointing finger before looking back at her again.
    “You aren’t buying any of them?” I asked.
    She wrinkled her nose. “They aren’t me,” she said. “I think I should stick with the clothes I have already.”
    I crossed my arms over my chest. Oh no. I was not going to waste an entire Saturday on this and possibly make my best friend