Page 77 of The Do-Over

“It’s undercover. Hiding in plain sight, and all that.”

He took the box in one hand and set the other hand on the lid. “Can I…?”

I rolled my eyes and nodded, nervous to let someone see all those past vulnerabilities but confident that Nick was safe to share it with.

He opened it and picked up a paper strip. Read the words, then raised his eyes to me. “You threw potatoes in your neighbor’s pool?”

“They were out of town and I was bored. I wanted to see if I could make it into their pool from our deck.”

“And?” He was looking at me like I was about to confess to murder.

“And I did. Chucked fifteen spuds in a row.”

His grin returned with a vengeance. “Did you get caught?”

“No one ever even suspected me.”

He reached into the box and grabbed another strip. He immediately started cracking up when he read it and I had to shush him as I laughed, too, and waited to see what he’d read.

He was still laughing as he asked, “You have a performance video on YouTube with a hundred thousand views?”

I nodded and bit my lip, trying to quiet my giggles. “I wasin seventh grade at the time. It’s not under my name and I was wearing a disguise, so you’ll never find it.”

“But you’ll show me, right?”

“Maybe someday.” I shrugged, trying to be light and flirty but the awareness of his impending amnesia about all of this almost made it impossible. I said, “You have toearnthat privilege.”

“Is that right?”

The way he said it, his voice quiet and his eyes hot, made breathing difficult.

I just nodded.

“At least tell me what song.” He put the strip back in the box and asked around a smile, “What song did the little bookworm deviant sing?”

I cleared my throat before whispering, “?‘Lose Yourself’ by Eminem.”

He didn’t even blink. “You’re joking.”

I raised my chin and met his gaze, which made him smirk and shake his head.

We went through a few more confessions, but had to stop when Nick cracked up upon learning I’d used my dad’s credit card to send flowers to Justin Bieber’s hotel room, and we were afraid of waking up my dad. And just as I was tucking away the box, we heard footsteps upstairs and we both froze.

Waited.

Whoever was up there seemed to be pacing, or walking in circles, and finally after a few minutes I whispered, “Let’s just go.”

“You sure?” he whispered back.

I shrugged, remembering it was the DONC. There had been times that day when all I’d been focused on was the Day of No Consequences, yet at other times, I’d forgotten about it entirely.

But the bottom line was that tomorrow wouldn’t count, so tonight was all I had.

Tonight was my everything.

He grabbed my hand and we made it out of the house undetected. By the time we got to Grandma Max’s, I was glad I’d stopped for the key because the lights were all off like she was already asleep.

Nick looked down at me under the yellowy glow of the porch light as I stuck my keys in the lock. He opened his mouth and got out “Well” before I covered it with my hand for the second time that day. If he was never going to remember this, I was going to tell him how I felt.

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