Page 23 of The Do-Over

My head swiveled around and my words stopped when I heard Josh’s voice. I felt Nick’s gaze follow my own as Josh and Macy walked in our direction, and I grabbed Nick’s sleeve and pulled him behind the plants with me. I couldn’t have him drawing their attention to my lurking. Josh was talking and Macy was smiling—beaming, actually—and Josh was walking a little sideways so he could face her better.

I mean, no big deal. They were friends, right?

“Come on, Josh.” Macy’s eyes were animated as she said, “If you let me come along, not only do you get the joy of having me ride shotgun in your James Bond–mobile, but I will allow you to make the call on what we do with all that time.”

They stopped in front of the doors and he smiled down at her. Icould tell he was enjoying the attention. “That sounds like alotof power—I’m not sure I can handle it.”

“Oh, Iknowyou can’t.” My heart was pounding in my chest and my stomach dropped out of my body as she leaned closer to him and said, “But you should try.”

He said, “I guess Icoulduse someone to hold the drinks.”

“Told you.”

“And all your help will cost me is a tall vanilla latte?”

“I can’t believe you remember my order,” she said, and laughed.

Why couldn’t she believe that? It was everyone’s Starbucks order, for the love of God. Every girl at this school probably had the same drink at least once. It didn’t make him freaking Einstein.

He looked charming, and sexy, and I kind of wanted to punch his pretty nose as he said, “I remember everything, Mace.”

“Uh, you sure he’s your boyfriend?” Nick whispered, and I kind of wanted to punch him, too.

Josh pushed the doors open and he and Macy started walking outside, and I don’t know what came over me.

“Wait!” I yelled as I grabbed Nick’s sleeve, pulling him with me as I ran after them, pushing through the doors and jogging as they both stopped and turned around. I saw Macy glance nervously at Josh but my boyfriend slid into a confident smile as he said, “Em!”

I realized as I stumbled to a stop—with Nick at my heels—that I had no idea what I was doing. No plan, other than to yell and scream and stop them, with Nick as some kind of a buffer. Now that I was in front of them, I was clueless. I cleared my throat and said, “Are you going on a coffee run?”

Macy’s face relaxed and Josh said, “Yeah. You know Mr. Carson—needs it every day.”

“Awesome.” I nodded. “Nick and I are dying for coffee and need to get out of here. Care if we come with?”

I glanced at Nick, waiting for him to ruin it for me, but he just frowned, which wasn’t too different from his usual expression, actually. Josh looked at Nick, clearly confused about what the guy was doing there, and Macy said, “Of course.”

Josh, still squinting at Nick, said, “You know how big my car is, Em. You up for riding in the middle?”

“Sure,” I muttered, regretting all of my terrible decisions as the four of us silently walked to his car. I shot Nick a look, raising my eyebrows as if to say,Pretty please just go along with this. Surprisingly, he rolled his eyes and walked beside me, which didn’t even make sense because there was no way he actually wanted to ditch school to go to Starbucks with us.

We weren’t even friends.

But despite his attitude that morning, I found his presence comforting. Something about his I-don’t-give-a-shit hotness and the way he said whatever he was actually feeling made me feel like I had an ally.

Weird, right?

Josh’s car was a tiny little two-seater, so when he unlocked the door, I had to climb—in a dress—across the passenger seat and into the tiny spot in front of the gear shift. Macy got in beside me, Nick had to squish in beside her, and the four of us jammed together in the world’s most awkward sandwich.

I turned and put my legs on Macy’s side of the floorboards, so as to not be straddling the stick shift, making our legs touch and upping the embarrassing horror of the outing.AndI had to put my arms over the backs of the seats so I wouldn’t flop around on top of them every time we turned a corner. I accidentally touched Nick’s shoulder, making him look over at me. Leaning back so Macy couldn’t see, I looked at him and he mouthed,What. The. Fuck.

In the midst of the awkwardness, a tiny part of me wanted to laugh. Instead, I mouthed,Please help me,which made him sigh in a way that I hoped meant he found me ridiculous but would help me.

Josh flipped on the heater and left the parking lot, and it was the worst kind of quiet in the car.

What was I even doing?

“How many coffees are you getting today?” I tried to sound utterly unaware of the dynamic as we drove toward Starbucks. “Big order?”

Josh turned the corner, making me dig my fingers into their headrests in order to not fly out the window, as he said, “Just five. Ours and his.”

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