Magnolia.

Magnolia is your school's it girl. It's like she floated in on a cloud and everyone was in love with her. Girls wanted to be her. Boys wanted her. People would trip over themselves just to see her open her locker. She's always wearing dresses and her hair is always down, framing her face beautifully. She's perfect.

Guest is honestly the exact opposite. She's mostly a loner, with a small circle of friends. She smokes, she cusses, she doesn't draw inside the lines like Magnolia does. And her best friend is Nicholas Galitzine.

Nicholas Galitzine. School heartthrob. Every girl's crush. People ship him with Magnolia all the time. In theory, they'd be the perfect couple. And Nicholas knows it. But he has always been in love with his best friend. The girl who'd cuss him out for stealing her food. The girl who'd tease when he had a new crush in middle school. The girl who wasn't perfect. The girl who had flaws.

The girl.

But, he's terrified of ruining the friendship, so he says nothing. Instead, he acts like he's in love with Magnolia. He's always talking about her to Guest, gushing about her like she's his prom date. And he actually did take her to prom. Twice. Because his mom forced him to, and he felt pressured to by his friends. Peer pressure at its finest.

Currently, it's a breezy day on campus and Nicholas and Guest are hanging out in their normal spot. The willow tree at the very back of the school, the one you have to climb out the janitor's closet window to get to. Nobody other than them knows about this spot. It's been their spot on their high school campus since freshman year, when they accidentally discovered it when trying to sneak out of school together.