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looking at his feet.
    â€œKnow what?” I asked. “What’s going on?”
    â€œI figured she would have told you,” Xander admitted finally. “We broke up. A few hours ago.”
    I looked down at the remaining rice pudding in my bowl, which looked anything but appetizing. Alex’s friends were all pissed at him for hanging out with me. Now Alex was squirming and clearly weirded out about missing post-breakup dude time. Worst of all, my best friend was probably sitting at home alone,heartbroken and miserable. And right before Valentine’s Day! Poor Camille.
    And did this mean I was now the only one in my circle of friends to have a boyfriend? That definitely wasn’t going to make my balancing act any easier.

Chapter 5

A LATTE WITH A SHOT OF ATTITUDE
    The next morning, I set my alarm forty-five minutes early so I could be dressed and ready to hang with Morgan before school. We were meeting at Agata & Valentino’s café on Seventy-ninth Street, and I didn’t want to be late.
    Ever since I’d enrolled at Thoney in January, Morgan had been a funny, comforting presence in my life. In fact, she’d been the very first person to be nice to me when I showed up shaking in my Moschino all-weather boots as a Thoney infant. I remember how nervous I was, not knowing how to get anywhere in the unfamiliar building. If it hadn’t been for Morgan’s peppy fashion compliment, I might still be frozen in the marble Thoney foyer.
    My first month at school had kind of been a trial by fire—complete with an all-out election war over Thoney’s coveted Virgil coordinator with KennedyPearson and Willa Rubenstein (longtime frenemy and newfound enemy, respectively). But now that I was happily comfortable in my school life, I knew that I owed a big chunk of that happiness to my friendship with Morgan. Recently, though, I could tell she’d been kind of down. Last month, she’d gone on two dates with a random Exeter boy, only to hear that he’d been seen making out with a sophomore at a party three days later. None of our friends had even known she liked him that much, but there had definitely been a downward shift in the fun rating of the music she downloaded to her iPod.
    For the past two weeks, she’d seemed to be actively trying to burst her eardrums with gloomy Cat Power music. I knew that her bubbly, indie rock–loving former self would be ashamed at some of her current musical choices, so recently, I’d been brainstorming ways to get the old Morgan back in business. I’d been meaning to plan something really fun for the two of us to do together over the weekend.
    But now it was another Monday morning. How had a whole two days passed with us barely speaking? Morgan
had
been at her family house upstate on Friday night, and I
had
been with Alex on Saturday … and Sunday.
    But this week I was determined to focus on our friendship.
    I stepped into the newly revamped café of Agata & Valentino. It used to be just your run-of-the-mill gourmet grocery store. My mom and I would swing by for rotisserie chicken and grape gazpacho after she picked me up at my grade school, Miss Mallard’s. But last year, the owners expanded the store to double its former size. Now there were a chic little coffee bar and pastry shop on the opposite corner from the grocery store. The place was always a little hectic with stroller pushing mothers and UES museum curators, but it was still the best spot in the neighborhood for a pick-me-up before school.
    When I found Morgan in her gray Vera Wang toggle coat, she was waiting at the head of the line for her soy latte with hazelnut syrup.
    â€œMorning, sunshine,” I said, tapping her on the shoulder.
    She turned and gave me her usual air-kiss, but she looked unusually tired.
    â€œI’ll believe the sunshine bit when I see it,” she said, gesturing outside at the dismal gray February morning. “Can we make that