The Other Side of Perfect by Melanie Florence

Author:Melanie Florence
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.

Autumn ran like someone was chasing her, but neither Connor nor Mia came after her. She ran around the block and away from the house, not wanting to go home. Not wanting to stop and think about what she had just seen.

She pumped her arms and ran faster and farther away from the two people she had trusted. She ran until all she could hear was her heart pounding and her feet slapping the pavement. She ran until her lungs ached and she got a stitch in her side, then she turned and headed back toward her house.

Autumn was shaking when she got home. She felt sick. Like she was going to throw up. She tried to fit her key into the lock but her hands were trembling so badly she couldn’t make it work.

“Darn it!” she hissed as her key skipped over the lock for the third time.

The door opened suddenly.

Her mother stood there, bathed in the warm light from the hallway behind her.

“Autumn?”

That’s all it took. Autumn burst into tears and threw herself into her mother’s arms.

“Autumn, what is it?” Her mother backtracked down the hall and into the living room, holding Autumn tightly as she moved. She pulled her down onto the sofa and stroked her hair, murmuring softly that everything was going to be all right until Autumn’s tears slowed to hiccups as she caught her breath.

Autumn sat up, rubbing her eyes with her sleeve and reaching for a tissue. She blew her nose with a loud honk.

“Sorry. I think I snotted on you.” She sniffed.

Her mom shrugged. “You’ve gotten worse on me.” She smiled gently. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Autumn thought about it.

On one hand, she didn’t. She wanted to never talk about the sight of Connor and Mia kissing on Mia’s bed so she could forget it ever happened. She could go back to school in one of her best Mia-approved outfits and sit with her friends and laugh at the boys and pick at her baggie of baby carrots and bottle of water the way Mia and Aliyah did.

Or she could tell her mom that the boy she was pretty sure she didn’t even like—at least not as a boyfriend—cheated on her with her best friend—who wasn’t much of a friend when you thought about it—and she could find a new place to sit at lunch, wear the clothes she actually liked for a change, and pack a ham-and-cheese sandwich and some freakin’ Oreos!

She took a deep breath and made her choice.

“I walked in on Mia and Connor kissing,” she told her mom.

“Oh.” Her mom frowned. “Wow. You must have felt really hurt.”

“Yeah,” Autumn agreed, but that wasn’t really it. “Well, maybe not hurt. I was surprised. Definitely. I didn’t know they liked each other, obviously. But I’m not even sure I like him. And she hasn’t really been much of a friend, so I’m not even that surprised. I think it just kind of proved that maybe I made a mistake.

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