"You like Nate?" Nessa repeated for the tenth time, managing the same amount of disbelief each time. 

After begging her dad to let me stay, Nessa and I went up to her room. We were on her floor, her bed currently covered in laundry she needed to put away.

"I think we covered that already." I buried my face in my hands.

I knew it was going to happen. From the moment he stepped into Caked Me Up I felt it. A little seedling sprouted in my chest. And I immediately squashed it. But every time I thought the stupid little crush was dead it sprung back up.

"I'm sorry, I just—I thought you hated him?"

"I wanted to," I said, dropping my hands from my face. "I really wanted to."

The harder I tried to focused on his flaws, the harder it was not to admire them.

Yes, he was obsessed with his game, but that intense look on his face was hard not to stare at.

And yeah, he might've been spaced out when he was working, but it wasn't like he had anything else to do with no customers. But when someone did come in, he gave them his full attention.

He walked me home after I yelled at him and apologized to me after I accused him of fat-shaming.

I was doomed from the start.

"He does have a nice face," Nessa said, grinning and making her eyebrows dance.

I laughed despite myself, but quickly sobered up when I remembered one small detail. "He also has a girlfriend."

"She dumped him."

"That's an even bigger reason I need to put an end to stupid crush," I said, leaning against her bed. "I can't get obsessed about someone who doesn't want me. Not again."

Nessa grabbed her journal from her dresser. "I won't let you do that," she said, opening to a blank page. "That's why we're going to pack this summer with so much fun shit you won't have time to think about what day it is, let alone think about some boy."

I watched as she wrote "Summer Bucket List" across the top of the page.

I laughed, shaking my head. "This is like the third version of this freaking list."

"Third times the charm...and Nessa," she laughed at her own lame joke, then wrote it down in smaller letters under the title.

One hour and a dance break to As If later, we had a list of about 100 things to do that summer.

The top three were the most important.

1) DISNEYLAAAND!!!
2) Save Cake Me Up
3) Get Over Nathaniel

♡ ♡ ♡

I left Nessa's house with a renewed energy. My bike, plus a short bus ride, got me to my aunt's apartment. She was surprised when she opened the door.

"What are you doing here?" She asked, letting me inside.

Her cat, Confetti, was living up to his name and destroying a sales paper on the kitchen floor.

Aunt Mimi's apartment was a little less colorful than Cake Me Up. Simple Ikea furniture and plants took up most of the small space. The brightest thing in the room was a sky-blue couch. She always said the apartment was temporary and that's why it lacked personality. It'd been three years and she showed no sign of moving.

"It's about the shop," I said, moving some recipe books off the couch so I could sit. My legs felt like jelly after all that biking.

Her eyes popped wide, she clutched her chest. "Why? Did something happen?"

"No," I said quickly. "The shops fine."

She let out a breath, chuckling as she sat on the couch. "I thought I made a mistake giving Nate the keys."

Just hearing his name made me lose sight of why I was there for a few seconds. I shook the thought of him away and focused on my aunt.

"So, why are you here?" Aunt Mimi turned to me, tucking her legs under herself.

In all the time it took me to get there, I hadn't actually thought about what I'd say to her. Yes, I wanted her to sign up for Bake-A-Palooza, but how did I bring it up without her completely shutting me down?

I could feel her watching me as I played with frills on my shorts. Screw it. "Why won't you do Bake-A-Palooza?"

She scoffed, rolled her eyed, turned away from me and crossed her arms. "Not this again."

"Why are you so against it?" I asked. "The bakery is suffering. You should be doing everything in your power to save it."

She looked at me like I told her the sky was green. "You don't think I know that?"

I just stepped on a landmine.

Her brows bunched together in a scowl, her voice raising. "Who do you think is doing the finances every night? Who do you think is getting the bills? Me!" She poked herself in the chest. "I'm well aware of how much my bakery is struggling. Thank you very much."

She let out an angry breath, falling back into the couch.

"Sorry," I said, but I didn't know if she heard. Obviously, she knew more about her bakery than I did. But she acted like she didn't care whether it succeeded or failed. "But...why aren't you trying to fix it? Why are you so against online marketing and Bake-A-Palooza?"

She stared blankly ahead at the wall in front of her, letting out another breath. "Because I know what the internet can do." I waited for her to explain, instead she shook her head. "I don't want to get into it right now, C. Do you need me to take you home?"

When she turned to me her eyes were pleading for me drop it. But that didn't stop the questions from flooding my brain. What did she mean I know what the internet can do? Did something happen to her online or because of the internet? Was it trolls? Or a stalker?

I made myself dizzy thinking about what she could've meant as I found a seat a nearly full city bus. My mind was so deep in theories that I jumped out of my skin when my phone vibrated in my hand.

It was notification from Instagram. The Cake Me Up account had a new follower. I clicked through, fully expecting it to be another spam account.

I scrolled through pictures of sunsets and statues and food until one post made me pause. It was a photo of Nate in a black suit, a gorgeous girl in a gold dress kissing his cheek.

"My baby ❤💋", the caption read.

My eyes darted up to the username across the top: Janaeisdreaming1133.

If I believed in signs than maybe I'd be a little worried about Nate's girlfriend following the account the same day I admitted to the universe that I liked him.

But I wasn't worried. The whole thing was a coincidence. It meant nothing. It wasn't like Janae had psychic powers and could feel me getting too close to her "baby".

The picture was posted a couple months ago. Maybe it was from prom. I stared the photo. Zoomed in on his face. Then continued to scroll through Janae's feed.

She mostly posted pictures of herself—sipping umbrella drinks by the pool, sitting pretty in fancy restaurants, holding the hand of someone out of frame as she laughed.

That hand was Nate's. I recognized the beauty mark. He wasn't lying when he said he was a good camera man. He probably took every picture of her. It was like she was his muse, too beautiful not to capture in the moment.

I continued to scroll, lingering on any shots of Nate. There weren't many and he didn't seem to have an account himself.

I scrolled so far down her feed that I found a picture of her and another guy. He was kissing her cheek and she was glowing. The guy looked familiar. It was Andrew.

She dated both Nate and Andrew?

In my attempt to zoom in on the photo, I made the most armature stalker mistake ever.

I double tapped.