Page 92 of The Do-Over

I dropped to a squat and grabbed my Chem book out of the bottom of my locker, adding it to my already bulging backpack. “It should only take a sec.”

I straightened, shut my locker, and we started walking toward the office. It should’ve felt like something, walking with him after the turmoil, but I felt really detached from the whole thing.

“What do you have to do at the office?” he asked.

“Well,” I said, giving him a half-smile, “I have to schedule my detention for bullying you.”

He gave his head a confused shake and said, “You’re kidding, right?”

“Nope. Apparently I violated the student bill of rightsanddid it over the intercom.” I smiled at Mr. Bong as we passed him and he didn’t smile back. “And then I have to pick up my deposit for the Northwestern summer program.”

He looked stunned. “Why?”

“Well, for starters, I found out that the applications were scored incorrectly and I didn’t actually get accepted.”

He looked super stunned. “For real?”

“For real.” I gave aheysmile to a girl from my Government class as she walked by. “But I’m actually kind of glad. After I thought about it for a while, I realized that I’d really like to just chill out and relax this summer.”

His eyebrows went down. “Relax?”

I’m sure he couldn’t fathom that sentiment. I said, “I know—I can hardly believe it myself.

Josh waited outside of the office when I went in, and things went fairly smoothly, for what it was worth. I apologized to the principal and scheduled the days for my detention, which he was surprisingly cool about, and then I popped over to Mr. Kessler’s office.

He looked nervous to see me after my outburst the day before, but once I apologized and said I was no longer interested in joining the program, he turned into the guy who was once again wildly enthusiastic about my future plans.

When I came out of the office, Josh was still standing where I’d left him.

“Thanks for waiting,” I said, hitching up my backpack.

“Yeah,” he replied, giving me a weird look like he was trying to figure something out. He didn’t say anything else as we walked to his car, but as soon as he started it and buckled his seat belt, he said, “So here’s the thing, Em.”

I was a little distracted looking at his car, because the last time I’d been in there, I’d been wedged between him and Macy and my boots had smelled like garbage.

“The reason I wanted to talk is because I owe you a huge apology for Macy.”

Wow—thatwasn’t what I’d expected. No denial? No blame? “Really?”

“I care about you, Em; you’re seriously one of my favorite people and I hate that I hurt you. She asked to go along on the coffee run and I knew she liked me—I was wrong to take her.”

I looked at his face and felt… unfazed.

“But you have to believe me that nothing happened.”

I thought about what he was saying, and the weird thing? I genuinely believed him. Even though I’d seen him kiss her on other cosmic days, I believed him that he hadn’t onthatday. And really, hewasn’tthe kind of guy who cheated.

That being said, if I still wanted him, his words probably wouldn’t have mattered.

I would’ve been too hurt to forgive him.

Like I’d been on the first Valentine’s Day.

But now—meh.

He wasn’t finished explaining, though.

He said, “I don’t expect you to forgive me—I was totally in the wrong and you have every right to hate me. But I just want you to know that you’re amazing. I was totally happy with you.”

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