Glass Flowers

“Absolutely not.”

The words fell from my lips resolutely, and I crossed my arms and stared her down, daring her to argue with me.

When my best friend, Chloe Abrams, returned from her summer-long vacation in the UK, I wasn’t surprised to learn that she had met a guy there.

Chloe had a tendency to attract a lot of them. It had always been that way, from the moment we started noticing boys, to when puberty hit us and we started growing boobs, to now. And why wouldn’t it be that way? Chloe had the kind of looks that most girls our age would kill for. With her petite frame, sun-kissed skin, strawberry blonde hair, bright blue eyes and heart-shaped face, everyone looked awfully plain standing next to her. Was it any surprise that girls loved to hate her?

By all accounts, I should hate her too. Chloe was someone everyone remembered, while I was just the girl known as her best friend. In fact, much of my childhood was spent standing in Chloe’s shadow, watching her grow up and blossom and get more beautiful with every passing year. April Lin tended to fade into the woodwork, which had always been fine with me. Being plain was my specialty, after all. If I didn’t at least have that, what did I have?

So when Chloe told me about her new beau and decided to drop this bombshell of a plan on me, could anyone blame me for not sharing her enthusiasm?

Agreeing to this plan would be to pretend like I haven’t spent the last eighteen years of my life being April “Plain-Jane” Lin.

Chloe, of all people, should be able to attest to the fact that I was plain. We had known each other since we were barely out of diapers. The two of us went to the same daycare, and even back then, at the tender age of four, I was shy and awkward, preferring to draw and color pictures with crayons rather than kicking anthills and playing on the jungle gym. Even as a child, I wasn’t much for making friends.

It was Chloe who had reached out to me on that fateful first day of daycare. I was that one kid who cried for their mom, having never been separated from her before. I remember sniffling in the corner of the classroom, watching the other kids have fun and wishing that my mom were here to take me away from this strange place. I probably would have continued wallowing in my self-pity, the way four year olds did, if it wasn’t for a bright-eyed little blonde girl. Chloe was beautiful, even back then. She had a cherubic face, her rounded cheeks framed by gentle blonde waves. Her hair was tied in pigtails that day, and as she smiled at me and told me that daycare was a fun place, and that my mom would be back to pick me up in no time, I realized that I could trust this girl. In that innocent way that kids made new friends, I had made my first friend that day.

Since then, the two of us had been inseparable, going through everything together, from crushes to puberty to middle school to high school. It was hard to believe that we were graduating this year. It seemed like only yesterday we were sitting in my room, right before the start of freshman year, talking about all the things we hoped to accomplish in high school.

The two of us were like sisters in so many ways. We had always been there for each other. When I got picked on throughout elementary school, Chloe stood up for me and made my bullies cry. I, in turn, looked out for her and helped keep her in line (and God knows she needed it; Chloe always had a tendency to get herself into trouble). So really, Chloe coming to me for help wasn’t anything new. This time, however… this was different.

I was brought out of my musings as Chloe turned her big doe eyes to me, lips set in one of her signature pouts. Normally, I was a sucker for that face, but this was something she could not, absolutely could not, ask of me. My mind was screaming at me to shoot down this ridiculous plan of hers before she could get any more ideas.

I was all for helping her out whenever she needed me. That was what best friends were for, right? But the current favor she was asking of me?

Yeah, I’d never go for it. Never in a million, trillion, quadrillion years.

As if I could pull it off, anyway. Me? Get close to a guy, and not only that, but get him to like me? The notion was utterly ridiculous.

What kind of sane girl asked another girl to get close to her boyfriend?

Not for the first time in the last five minutes, I wondered if Chloe had her head screwed on correctly.

“Please, April? Please! I really, really like him. I might even… I might…” Chloe trailed off, pink dusting her cheeks, and lowered her eyes to her lap.

“… love him?” I finished for her. She jerked from her spot on my bed, as if I had physically slapped her. When she met my eyes again, I saw that hers were laced with panic, desperation, and fear.

Her mouth opened and closed a few times, as if she was summoning the words but couldn’t quite voice them out loud. After a while, she settled for nodding and lowering her eyes again.

“Let me get this straight. You’re saying you might very well love this guy-“ At the mention of the L-word, Chloe tensed, “-and you want me to… get him to fall for me?”

Wow, when I said it like that, her plan sounded even more preposterous than before.

Chloe shot out of her perch on my bed, ready to correct me. “You wouldn’t have to go that far. I just want to make sure he won’t stray. All you have to do is get close to him, learn his secrets, whatever it takes.” She looked at me seriously.

“I want you to get him to trust you. Get close enough to him that he won’t be afraid to tell you all his secrets, confide in you… I want to know what he thinks about me, how he feels for me.”

“Couldn’t you just ask him yourself?”

At my question, Chloe scoffed. “I can’t just ask him that, April. He wouldn’t tell the truth. Or at least, he wouldn’t tell the whole truth.”

Maybe I just didn’t understand relationships. Chloe made it sound like you had to dance around important questions and hide your feelings from your significant other, and for some reason, my mind couldn’t quite follow her way of thinking.

I thanked my lucky stars that I had never been in a relationship. Too complicated.

“I still don’t think you have to resort to bringing me into this. If you really love him, you should trust him not to stray.”

This time, Chloe sighed in exasperation. Then, as if she was explaining a very simple concept to a child, said, “You’re not getting it, April. I’m not even sure that I… love… him yet. I said that I might. But I want to be sure! I want to make sure he’s just as committed to this relationship as I am. I couldn’t bear it if he turned out to be another Jared.”

At the mention of that name, I clenched my hands. Jared was the dick who had cheated on her a few months back. Chloe had never been quite the same ever since their split, which was why I was so happy for her when I learned that she had found another guy.

That could have only meant that she must have moved on, right? If she was able to get into another relationship with someone new, that meant that Jared was an issue best left in the past.

I guessed not.

My resolve wavered a bit. Chloe must have sensed this, because she tried again.

“Please, do this for me? I just want to be sure that I can trust him with my heart. I’d never ask this of you if I didn’t feel like I needed this.”

She had never looked so vulnerable before, not since right after the breakup. Her eyes held a subtle hope in them that I couldn’t bear to take away from her.

Cursing myself in my head for what I was about to say next, I sighed. “Fine. I’ll do it.”

Like the sun breaking free from the clouds, Chloe flashed me her hundred-watt smile. “Thank you so much, April! You’re the best!” Bouncing over to me and wrapping her arms around me in a brief embrace, she let me go and stepped back.

She was all seriousness again. “Just… promise me one thing.”

“Promise what?”

“Promise me that you won’t fall for him.”

The genuine fear in her eyes that I might fall for her boyfriend made me snort, and immediately the fear was gone, as if it had never been there.

“Believe me, Chloe, that is a non-issue. I couldn’t do that even if I tried.”

And so the plan was set into motion. I was to get close to the teen heartthrob and member of famous boy band One Direction, Harry Styles.