Free 25 Roses by Stephanie Faris Page B

you yesterday to ask.”
    I stopped to think. How would word have gotten out so quickly? Sun. Sun must have told people. But who? And why?
    “She told me she was going shopping with you today,” Alex said. “We talked last night.”
    I’m not sure how long I stood there, staring at Alex like I’d never seen him before. He and Sun were all the way to “phone” status? That was huge. That was, like, one step away from dating.
    “She asked for my help,” I said, still staring at Alex. “She wanted to look better. I didn’t think you would want to go.”
    For that last part, I turned back to Ashleigh. I didn’t have to say it, did I?
    I leaned forward, speaking in as low a voice as I could, even though Alex could probably hear. “I was trying to make her look better for Alex. It was a surprise.”
    “Stop,” Ashleigh interrupted, holding up her hand, palmfacing me. “I don’t care if you have new friends. That’s fine. But if you don’t want to hang out with us anymore, you can just tell us. You don’t have to lie.”
    “Ashleigh—” Alex said. He looked at me. “She’s just hurt because you didn’t invite her. I’m sure—”
    “I think we’ve said all we need to say to her, Alex,” she interrupted. “Come on.” She marched toward Alex, stopping just in front of him. He looked at me apologetically before turning and walking from the room ahead of her. Somehow, in one afternoon, I’d managed to lose my two best friends in the world because of my lies. And they didn’t even know about the biggest lie of all—the roses.

    If I was worried about having someone to talk to at school Monday, I didn’t have to worry long. I was standing in the hallway outside homeroom, hoping Alex or Ashleigh would happen by, when suddenly I found myself surrounded.
    Trudie Kepler and her friends had ambushed me. And they were making zero sense.
    “We just saw Sun Patterson,” one of the girls said. She put a hand on each hip. “We want that.”
    “I want mine blond.”
    “I want pink lipstick. The glossy kind.”
    As her friends carried on nonsensically, Trudie said absolutely nothing. She just stared at me, studying me with her beady brown eyes. It was making me more than a little nervous.
    “What?” I asked her, shutting out all the other chatter around us.
    “I want what you did for Sun Patterson,” Trudie said. She stepped a little closer to me. I would have backed up, but my back was already against the wall. “Except I don’t want to change my hair.”
    Interesting. Because her hair was one of the first things I would have changed if someone asked. There had to be a better way than wearing it in a ponytail every day.
    “Me too.” One by one, each of her friends expressed their desire for a Sun Patterson–style makeover. I just continued to stare at Trudie in the hopes that they’d all give up and go away.
    “Oh, and I don’t have money for new clothes,” Trudie said.
    I waited for the round of “me toos” on that one, but none came. Instead they each started offering to let her borrow money. Someone said she could go to a used clothing store, and someone else said she could get diseases from wearingsomeone else’s clothing. Meanwhile, people were trying to push past them to get into the classroom. It was a mess.
    “You’ll need new clothes,” I said. Then I realized that wasn’t a very nice thing to say. “No offense.”
    “None taken,” Trudie said. I was shocked she was okay with that. “I know I don’t have much to work with here, but we don’t have the money for thousands of dollars in new clothes.”
    “There’s a great discount clothing store in the shopping center where the thrift store is,” I said. “There’s a ton of cute stuff. You’ll love it, and it won’t cost a fortune.”
    “Great,” Trudie said. She smiled. Well, what passed for a smile on her face, anyway, which was more like a look of pain. “So you’ll come with?”
    “Come with?” I asked. She was