Page 27 of The Do-Over

Maybe my “I love you”utterance would change everything.

“Listen, Em,” Josh said, not even bothering to hide his annoyance this time. “I don’t know what this is, but I’ll talk to you later. Ihaveto go.”

“Okay. Well, um, I just wanted to tell you that I love—”

“Chicken.” Nick pulled open the door, making me stumble backward, and he popped up beside me. “She loves chicken and thought you, her boyfriend, should probably know that.”

Josh looked back and forth between Nick and me before saying, “Who even are you?”

Nick smiled. “I’m Nick.”

I pushed Nick out of the doorway. “I don’tlove chicken, I love—”

“Look, I have to go, Em. We’ll talk later.”

He walked away, and I saw Owen looking at me like I was a pathetic, clingy loser. Which I was. I turned around and Nick was leaning against the wall and shaking his head, and Chris was staring at me with his mouth wide-open.

“I cannot decide whether to hug you after you humiliated yourself so badly, or kick your ass.”

“Please,” I said, turning away from the Mock Trial door and walking into his chest. “Kick my ass.”

Chris wrapped his arms around me and I buried my face in his hoodie. He said, “There, there, Em,” and patted my back for five seconds before saying, “Now get off and let’s go before our ride ditches us.”

“Idoneed to go,” Nick said, and Chris gave him directions to our houses as we walked down the hall and exited the building.

Ihadhumiliated myself. I knew I was forcing things, but I was right. I was right about Josh and about love, and how to break out of this time loop.

The only upside was that I’d probably be waking up to the same day again tomorrow, as every attempt to change the day had resulted in a trainwreck, so at least it would be forgotten, and I’d get my do-over.

As we buckled up—Chris in the middle this time—he asked, “Is everything okay, Em?”

I shrugged and clicked my belt in place. “I, um, I justreallywanted us to have a big Valentine’s moment.”

“I’d say you succeeded,” Nick said, putting his truck in first before pulling out of the parking spot.

“Shut it,” I replied.

“I’m not going to say anything bad about Joshua because I respect that you like him, but don’t you think he was kind of… prickish to you just now?” Chris glanced over at me and said, “I mean, yes, you were acting… oddly, but he was a bit of a tool.”

I glanced over at Nick as I quietly said to Chris, “Maybe we can talk about this later…?”

“Oh, come on, Emmer.” Chris gestured toward Nick and said, “After he witnessed that pathetic display of lovesick tomfoolery, I’d say he’s fine to be grandfathered into this discussion.”

“Did you talk to Alex today?” I asked.

“Nice subject change,” Chris said to Nick, and then he said tome, “And of course I did—I’m not a wishy-washy little baby bitch.”

Chris had had a crush on Alex Lopez for months now. They were friends—they both ran cross country so they knew each other pretty well—but Chris was afraid of ruining their friendship by asking Alex out. He’d decided that on Valentine’s Day he was going to see if Alex wanted to hang out. The plan was to pull one of those “Valentine’s Day is lame when you’re single so since we’re both single and alone, do you want to get a pizza and watch old movies?” kind of things.

I gasped. “You seriously did it?”

He smiled a little secret smile and said, “I stumbled into it. At first I totally choked, but then he said he felt like a loser for having no plans, so he left me the perfect opening.”

“That’s amazing!” I laughed as his face transformed into happy sunlight. Chris liked to act too-cool, like, all the time, but he was one of the more vulnerable people I knew underneath it all. “So what are you going to wear?”

“No.” He held up a hand and shook his head. “I’m not ready for the stress yet. Can we just take a moment and picture his adorable face? Like, when Alex is all serious about a topic and goes off, the combo of intensity and boyish cuteness is just too much.”

I nodded; he was so right. “I knowexactlywhat you’re talking about. Last year I had him in Halleck’s American Government class, and after he popped off on Ellie Green because, well, she was being so super Ellie-ish, I was obsessed with him for days. Adorable plus intense equals holy crap.”

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