“
Itzy Fisher?" Delia accused when I sat back down. "You like her?" And then she got up and ran out of the cafeteria.
Groaning, I flopped my head down on my arms. "I isn't make that card for Itzy. It was for Delia."
"Delia?" Fitz said.
"You wouldn't understand."
Fitz stared right at me. "What makes you think that?"
In the thousands of times I have replayed this moment over the years, I realize what that happened next could have gone a different way. That had Fitz been less of a best friend, or more competitive, or even more honest with himself, my life would have turned out very different. But instead, he asked me for a dollar.
"Why?"
"Because she's pissed at you," he said, as I finished into my lunch money. "And I can fix that."
He took a Sharpie from his binder and wrote something across George Washington's Face. Then he crested the bill the long way. He brought up the bottom edge and then the halves, turned it over, and tucked in both sides. A few more maneuvers and then he handed me a dollar folded into the shape of a heart.
When I found Delia, she was sitting underneath the water fountain near the gym. I handed her Fitz's heart. I watched her open it, read the message along with her: If all I could ever have is you, I'd be a billionaire.
"Itzy might get jealous," Delia said.
"Itzy and I broke up.
”
”