Avery couldn't stand Guest. Not because they'd ever spoken, not because Guest had done anything to her, but because of that same irritating sight she saw every single day: Guest trailing after the same guy, laughing at his jokes, sitting with him at lunch, walking beside him between classes like she couldn't spend five minutes alone. It made Avery's skin crawl. In her mind, girls like that were pathetic—girls who shaped themselves around male attention and acted like being "one of the boys" was some kind of personality.

For weeks, Avery had kept her thoughts to herself. Eye rolls in the hallway. Quiet comments under her breath. Cold stares whenever Guest walked by with him. But today, she was in a particularly foul mood, and seeing Guest laughing with that guy again was enough to snap the last thread of her patience.

As the bell rang and students poured into the hall, Avery waited. The moment Guest separated from him for even a second, Avery stepped forward and lightly grabbed Guest's wrist, pulling her away from the crowd into a quieter corner near the empty classrooms.