Page 118 of Nothing Like the Movies

“Y’know what? We’re gonna have a five-way FaceTime group chat. Right now. Call me back when everyone’s on,” I demanded, standing to pace around the room. The rest of my suitemates weren’t home, so it was nice and quiet.

“Oh God,” she laughed, and she was still laughing when I disconnected the call.

Three minutes later, I was looking at the faces of my friends on my MacBook.

“Seriously, though, dumbest lines in a song ever,” Noah was saying, looking disgusted. “?‘You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen, Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen. But do you recall the most famous reindeer of all?’ Like, if you know the rest of them, obviously you’d know ‘the most famous’ of all of them. Stupid freaking question, dude.”

“It’s un-American to slander Rudolph, you asshole,” Adam said.

“Blasphemous, really,” Michael agreed.

“Can you stop being stupid for five seconds?” Sarah asked them.

“Why do we have to?” Noah replied, obviously confused by the change of topic.

“Because Wes is wondering if he should push forward with his plan to romance Liz,” Sarah said, smiling like I was a toddler who amused her with my nonsensical adorability. “Or if heshould pump the brakes since the first attempt didn’t work.”

“Pump,” Noah said without pause. “It’s not gonna work.”

“It is too,” Sarah said defensively. “You don’t know.”

“Joss said Liz was super pissed about Wes’s whole I-didn’t-cheat confession,” he argued. “There is no way she’s going to find cheesy romance—fromhim—to be charming.”

I said, “Well, I—”

“Yeah, but Liz is Liz,” Adam interrupted knowingly, like he had it all figured out. “She loves that stuff, right?”

“Not anymore,” Noah said. “According to Joss, she’s, like, anti-romance now.”

“Bullshit,” I said, half to myself, because I refused to believe that.

“Regardless, he needs to try,” my sister said. “What does he have to lose?”

My phone buzzed, and the last thing I expected to see was a text from Liz.

Liz: I have a question for you.

I have never texted as quickly as I texted:Continue.

“Who are you texting?” Sarah asked, forever nosy.

“Liz, so shut up,” I muttered, staring at the conversation bubbles on my phone.

Liz: The last time we spoke (before yesterday in the weight room), we were yelling at each other. So why would you think it was a good idea to climb a balcony with flowers after that?

That… was not the question I’d expected her to ask.

“What is she saying?” Michael asked from my laptop screen.

“Yeah, Wes,” Sarah said. “What’d she say?”

“She wants to know why I’d bring her flowers on the balcony when we were fighting a few days ago,” I mumbled, trying to think of a good answer.

“Fair question,” Noah said.

I texted:Just because we were yelling doesn’t mean my feelings have changed.

“What’d you say?” Sarah prodded.

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