Ashes to Ashes by Jenny Han

expectantly, like I’m going to read it out loud or something. I give her a bitchy look and she leaves.
    The bell rings, and then I gather up the flowers and the card and head to my locker. I stick them inside because I’m notparading that shit around for everyone to see. And later, once the next period starts, I discreetly open my card.
    Dear Kat,
    It was hard to hear, but you were right—my Lillia Cho oeuvre was definitely junior high material. If not for your musical kick in the ass, I don’t know if I would have ever found the guts to quit writing songs about Lillia and just tell her how I really feel.
    Here’s to having “No Regrets.” (See what I did there?)
    Rock on,
    Your friend,
    Alex
    Oh shit. Shit, shit, shit.

Chapter Seventeen
LILLIA
    B ECAUSE IT’S V ALENTINE’S D AY, I’ M wearing a salmon-pink sweater and tomato-red cigarette pants. My mom says I look like something out of a 1960s Italian Vogue , and she insists that I wear my hair pinned up on the side with her pearl pin. I’ve always liked to dress up special for Valentine’s Day, but now everyone does it and it’s slightly annoying.
    The student council starts delivering roses during homeroom. It’s part of it—you get your flowers in the morning, and then you carry them around all day for everyone to see. Red for love, yellow for friendship, pink if you have a crush on someone.Rennie and Ash and I always send each other two yellow ones and one pink.
    Last year I set the record for most roses ever received by a girl at Jar High. Twenty-four! A dozen from my dad, Rennie’s three, Ash’s three, one from Alex, one from PJ, one from my chem lab partner, Tyler, and three from a group of freshman guys I gave a ride home to once after school because they missed the bus.
    I already know I won’t be getting a rose from Reeve, and it’s not just because we’re keeping things on the down low. It’s a point of pride for him—that he wouldn’t ever waste his money on something so cheesy and meaningless. I’ve heard him give the speech every year, how Valentine’s Day is complete bullshit. Also, in the past he’s always had more than one girl he was flirting with at a time, and it would have been drama if he’d sent a rose to just one girl or to all the girls. So his policy is to send none. Junior year, Rennie begged him to send her a rose, and he still refused “on the principle of it,” and she wouldn’t speak to him for days.
    Jamie Cochran, a junior girl from the squad, comes into our homeroom with an armful of red roses.
    Jamie stops at my desk first. She drops a dozen onto my desk and keeps moving. I open the card, and it reads, Happy Valentine’s Day to my darling. Love, Daddy .
    Jamie goes back to her pushcart in the doorway and comes back with a big armful, all different colors. She walks aroundthe room, plucking out stems and handing them to the other students. And then she heads back to my desk.
    Jamie hands me the last bouquet in her arms, three roses—two yellow and one pink—which I know are from Ash. She walks back to her cart and picks up an enormous bouquet of roses, all red. It’s so big, she has trouble carrying it. She stops in front of my desk and hands them to me, all of them. “Fifty red roses,” she announces loudly, and I hear people in the room gasp. “Looks like you win most roses again, Lillia!”
    What!
    As soon as Jamie walks away, I tear open the card.
    I’ve wanted to say this for a long time, only I didn’t have the guts. But life is too short. So here goes. I’m in love with you, Lillia. Always have been, always will be.
    Alex
    Whoa. I can’t believe it. I put my hands on my cheeks, and they are warm. I always knew Alex had feelings for me, but never in a million years did I think he’d put himself out there like this. It’s just . . . beyond.
    And I’m