Chapter 3 – The Fool-Proof Plan. It’s bound to go wrong. It was just like the night of Haley’s party; all I could do was stare. Finally, I managed to say something. “Yeah, I um… I have to go, so I’ll talk to you later Haley.” I turned and started walking away, but Nathan stopped me. “Wait Lily, I’ll come with you, we’re going to the same class anyway.” He said, smiling. Not wanting Haley to suspect anything, I had no choice but to wait for him. He walked up to me, and as soon as we were out of Haley’s sight, there was hell to pay. “What the fuck Nathan?! Is this your idea of a good way to surprise someone? Cuz it worked!” I said angrily. “Wait Lily! Let me explain, please!” He begged. I guess he could sense how pissed I was. I thought about that for a minute. “Ok, Fine, but this had better be good.” He told me the whole story. He and Haley have been dating for about two months, and he really likes her, but he said that with me, he had felt something at that party that he had never felt with anyone else. He described it as some kind of connection. I had felt it too. The problem was, he didn’t want to hurt Haley, which I can understand because Haley is a really cool person. So his plan was to slowly drive Haley away until she realized that he wasn’t worth keeping around and dumped him. Then I asked if that was what he was trying to do to me. He smiled. I guess he knew I was kidding. So even though it completely goes against my way of thinking, I agreed to hide what was going on between us until he and Haley split. He reassured me with a kiss, and then we went to class. Turns out I had every class with him except algebra and, incidentally, the one class that I do have with Haley. When I got to science, Haley asked me what I thought of Nathan. I struggled to find an answer. “He’s… Well… I mean…” “Lily, I’m not gonna get pissed if you think he’s hot.” “Oh, well in that case… Oh my god! Where did you find him? I want one!” She laughed and said, “I don’t know, I was just lucky I guess.” I turned away then so she wouldn’t see the look on my face. I hate betraying my friends and having to lie to them, I don’t know how Nathan can take it. The way I look at it is, my friends are my family, so if I screw it up with them, I’ll have nowhere to go, no one to turn to. The worst part about it is, Haley is just starting to trust me. Trust is a big issue with me. I have a hard time trusting people, and if they give me a reason not to trust them, I just won’t talk to them at all. Not long ago, the person who was my best friend for over a year, Mona, betrayed me. I haven’t talked to her since then. I mean, I had other reasons for ditching her, including the fact that she was a total BITCH, but basically, it all comes down to trust. And speaking of bitches… Jesse and Karen were walking down the hall in my direction. I pulled up the hood on my sweatshirt to hide my face. It didn’t work. “Lily, there you are! Where have you been? What’s going on? You seem pissed at us.” Karen said cheerfully. “Fuck off!” I said, walking away.