Page 89 of The Do-Over

“He told me that Alex said he didn’t want to freak him out, but he thought he was already in love with Chris.”

“What?” That brought my eyes back to her. “Seriously? Wow.”

She nodded and looked curious. “Are you ever going to tell me what happened with Stark on Valentine’s Day?”

I thought about it for a second. “Um. Basically we had an amazing day together and now he wants to pretend I don’t exist.”

Rox shook her head. “What a dick.”

“Yeah. But that’s what makes it so shitty—he’s not.”

And then I did what I promised myself I wasn’t going to. I sat there, at our favorite Starbucks window table, and told her everything. Not about the repeating days—I was pretty sure I could never tell anyone about those—but every little detail about what happened on the DONC.

When I was done, I don’t know what kind of reaction I expected, but I was met with her pitying face. She took a deep breath and said, “He told you all day that he didn’t want anything more than that day, and what do you do? You assume he’s hurt or wounded. Afraid to put himself out there. I love you and I thinkhe’s a ginormous prick, but he called his shot, sweetie.”

“Yeah, but—”

“And you got your phone back, right?” She gave me a look that was 100 percent a reality check. “Were there any messages waiting for you from him? Did he even apologize for making you cry after school?”

My eyes itched again, becauseof courseI’d checked the second my phone had been given back to me by my mother. “No.”

“No.” She lifted her cup to her mouth and said, “But I’m glad. Now you know, so you can get on with it and not look back.”

Because she was an amazing friend, she slid right into listing off fifteen reasons why he was not nearly good enough for me, followed by ten amazing things she loved about me. I was still super bummed about Nick, but she’d made it marginally less awful.

On Monday, I wore jeans, a T-shirt, Chuck Taylors, my glasses, and a messy bun. I was serious about the whole living-for-myself thing, and I didn’t feel like making an effort.

I didn’t even know where my plannerwas.

I breezed through the first couple of hours of school, and then before third period, I turned a corner in the hallway and walked right into Lauren, Lallie, and Nicole. How were theyalwaystogether? Their gazes met mine and I knew I was dead.

“You guys.” I took a deep breath and blurted out, “I’m sorry for being a bitch last week. I shouldn’t have freaked, but I felt bad for Isla when you were talking crap on her.”

Lally blinked and said, “Oh.”

Lauren said, “Were we talking crap on Isla?”

And Nicole said, “It’s whatever.”

She gave me the brush-off, like I wasn’t worth her time, but they didn’t destroy me.

I couldn’t believe it.

Then, on the way to my following class, I saw Josh. He spotted me from the other side of the commons and headed straight for me.

“Em!”

I grasped the books in my hand and said, “Yeah?”

“Can you talk after school?”

“What?”

“I need to talk to you. Will you meet me after school?”

“Um—”

“Please?”

---