Page 82 of The Do-Over

And I had no idea what to expect with Nick.

Just thinking about him on the side of the house made me light-headed. It’d been a perfect day with him, ending on a perfectly hot seven-minute make-out, but every second of it had been framed with a DONC expiration date.

What was going to happen the day after? Would he pretend it’d never happened, or would he be the same with me as he was on the roof of his brother’s old apartment building?

I don’t know what time I finally fell asleep, but at three fifteen I was still lying there, rotating between swoony recollections of Nick Stark and nightmarish imaginings of what was awaiting me at school.

When I woke up at six, I got out of bed and went straight downstairs without consulting my planner. Screw the planner.

The house was quiet and deserted, and I immediately started practicing my argument because I had to be brave. After school I had to find a way to get my mom to listen. I wanted my dad to be right about her not having enough to warrant an amendment, but my stomach clenched as I worried about what they didn’t yet know.

Would she have grounds if she found out about my reckless-driving ticket?

I couldn’t bear the thought of not being able to go to my dad’s; his house felt more likehomethan my mom’s. Even if he moved and left me behind, I knew he’d send plane tickets so I could visit all the time. But if my mom convinced the judge that he was a bad influence, God only knew how often—if ever—I’d be able to see him until I was eighteen.

I unloaded the dishwasher, put in a load of laundry, and got ready for school. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t spend extra time on hair and makeup that morning. I wanted Nick to give methatlook when I walked into Chemistry, and if mascara and lip gloss could make it happen, I was all about it.

Unfortunately, I didn’t realize until it was time to leave that since I didn’t have my phone, I couldn’t ask Roxane or Chris for a ride. I was going to have to walk to school, and that sounded positively awful.

I looked at the thermometer outside of the kitchen window. Thirteen degrees.

Awesome.

CONFESSION #19

I almost drowned in the Platte River last summer on a day where my parents hadn’t even noticed I was gone. Thank God Rox was a good swimmer.

The second I walked through the front door of Hazelwood High, all hope of no one remembering the previous day disappeared.

I unzipped my coat and pulled off my hat and gloves, frozen to the core and missing my Astro van in a desperate way. I glanced at two people standing by the office, two random girls I didn’t know, and they whispered and watched me walk by.

In front of me was a group of four guys—they were dressed like burners but I didn’t actually know them—and they turned around and all smiled and chuckled at me, but in a supportive way. Like I’d done something funny they approved of.

My face got instantly hot and my vision focused sharply on the fact that everyone was looking at me. Like, every-freaking-one. That girl by the snack store, those dudes by the trophy case, the mathletes by the counselor’s office; every eye in the building was on me.

I pretended not to notice and headed for the safety of my locker.

“Holy crap, Em, you are my hero!” Chris came up behindme and I’d never been so happy to see him in my entire life. “I seriously cannot believe you. Even though the tattoo is over-the-top nutjob, the fact that you had the guts to do it—and tag Josh in your post about it—is blowing my mind.”

“I can’t believe it myself.” I looked around and no one seemed to be paying attention to us, thank God. Chris was beaming, which made me ask, “So what happened with Alex?”

“Em—listen to this. We had theperfectnight. He came over, and it felt like we’d hung out a hundred times. Like,sochill, just talking and watching movies. And then,” he said, lowering his voice and glancing over my shoulder, his eyes wide with wild-happiness, “when I walked him to his car, he pressed me against the side of that silver CRV and kissed me like… like…”

“Like he was starving and you were the only thing that could nourish him?”

His mouth dropped open and he squealed. “It sounds like something out ofTwilight, but you nailed it—that’s it exactly!”

“Shut up!”

“I cannot!” He was jumping up and down a little, and I joined him in his celebration, because nothing was better than Chris finding love. He deserved all the movie moments. “And he already texted to tell me he can’t stop thinking about me.”

“Of course he can’t; you kiss like a dream.”

“You wish you knew.”

“I don’t need to wish when you’ve told me that, like, a hundred times.”

“I do, though.” He leaned closer and said, “It’s my special gift.”

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