James blinked. "Wait, what?" His brows shot up at the confession. He had never considered the fact that Mao might have ever had feelings for him in their years of friendship, despite having known for a decent portion of it that his best friend was interested in both girls and boys. "You used to like me? When was this?" He felt a twinge of guilt with how liberal he had been with his girl stories. That couldn't have been great for Mao.
"Lizzie's cool. We've been hanging out lately." Lizzie was clearly immune to his charms, unlike her friend Eleanor who seemed to embrace them whole-heartedly. "Not crying, though, more like avoiding dealing with our problems together."