Page 24 of The Do-Over

“Got it.”

More quiet.

“You don’t have a class this hour, Macy?” Nick asked, looking at me as if to point out how sketchy this seemed.

“I’m in Carson’s class with Josh, so I just told him that Josh needed help carrying the drinks.”

“Ah.” Nick, still looking at me, said, “That’s convenient.”

“I texted you earlier to see if you wanted something,” Josh said to me, turning on his blinker and switching lanes.

“Oh, yeah—my phone is dead.”

“I always forget to charge mine, too,” Macy said.

“I actually dropped it in the toilet,” I said, instantly regretting sharing that little gem. “I mean, not a dirty toilet—it wasn’t dirty. I mean, yes, all toilets are dirty, but I mean there was nothing in it.”

Shut up, shut up, shut up!

“Holy Christ,” Nick muttered at the same time Macy said, “Oh my God.”

Yes, we were all calling out to the Lord in response to my phone’s disgusting swim.

“Right?” was all I could manage.

Josh pulled into Starbucks, put the car in neutral, flipped his sunglasses up on his head, and looked at Nick, who was looking out the window. Josh had that debate-captain-superiority look on his face as he asked, “Okay, so I know what the girls want. What about you, dude?”

Nick didn’t even look over. “I’m good, but thanks. Dude.”

Josh glanced at me, like he was looking for an explanation as to why Nick Stark was with us and being a jerk, and I smiled and shrugged. As if I had any clue what was going on in life anymore.

After Josh came back with the drinks, we sped back to school, with Josh cranking up the radio so conversation was impossible, which I appreciated.

As we pulled into the parking lot, Macy turned down the radio and said, “What is that smell?”

And she put her perfect little nose in the air and started sniffing.

I sniffed, but didn’t really smell anything other than coffee.

“You’re right, it smells like feet in here.” Josh put the car in first, pulled up the emergency brake, and turned off the engine while wrinkling his nose.

Oh no. I scrunched up my face and pretended to be disgusted, too. “Josh. Did you maybe leave some socks in here or something?”

That made Josh glare at me. We both knew that he spent countless hours—every weekend—buffing and loving up on that tiny little car, before he said, “There are no socks in my car.”

“You sure?” Nick asked. “Because it really smells like dirty socks.”

Josh looked like he wanted to kill Nick. “Why would I have dirty socks in my car?”

“I have no fucking idea.”

Before their noses could hone in on my booties I said, “Can you guys let me out? My legs arebeyondcramped.”

We filed out of the car, and the four of us went back into the school. Josh gave me a little peck—the obligatory goodbye kiss—when we had to go our separate ways. I held my coffee and watched him and Macy walk away.

I may have successfully kept them from kissing, but that coffee run definitely didn’t feel like a win. The bell rang at that moment, destroying my train of thought.

“Thank you for inviting me,” Nick drawled, startling me from my thoughts as he gave me an amused smirk. “Witnessing that level of awkwardness was downright entertaining.”

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