I grin at her, genuinely thrilled to see her happy, even if I’m a miserable sack of potatoes. But then I spot Cooper walking down the hall behind her, and my smile quickly disappears as I duck my head behind my open locker door.
“Uh, what are you doing?” Sloane asks once I’m practicallyinsidemy locker.
“Is he gone?” I whisper, sinking farther in.
“Who—”
“No, he’s not gone,” Cooper’s voice says. “He’s hoping you two can talk.”
“I’ll, uh… leave you two to it,” Sloane says. I close my eyes and sigh. Then I pull myself out of my locker and face Cooper. Behind him my cousin backs away with a grimace and mouths,Sorry!
I close my locker, swing my backpack over my shoulder, and turn my attention to Cooper. “What do you want to talk about?”
“I don’t know.” He shrugs. “About the fact that I hate how awkward things are between us now. About the fact you’ve been avoiding me.”
“I don’t know what to say to you.”
“I mean, same, but can we maybe figure it out? Because not talking—not being friends—it kind of really sucks.”
I look up at him, and the earnestness on his face tugs at my heart.
“It’s not like I’m having fun avoiding you, Coop. And it’s definitely not easy. But being around you is even harder.” He drops his head, and guilt pulses through me, despitehimbeing the one who said we can’t be anything. I sigh. “ButI suppose, like you said last month, avoiding each other isn’t really possible, especially since we have mutual friends, and this town is Polly Pocket–sized.” The slightest grin appears on Cooper’s face. “So I’ll stop dodging you andtryto pretend like everything’s fine, okay?”
He stuffs his hands into his jeans pockets and looks at the floor, his smile falling. “I really wish you didn’t have to pretend.”
“So do I.” I shrug. “Maybe one day I won’t—once I get over you the way you got over me.”
Cooper stares at me like he wants to say something. But he doesn’t. Instead the tick-tick-ticking of the clock hanging on thewall over our heads fills the empty space between us in the now otherwise-silent hall.
He finally nods. “I better let you get back to Sloane.”
“Okay. I’ll see you tonight.”
My whole chest hurts when his eyes meet mine and he forces a smile. “Yeah.” He turns to go. “See you, Mitchell.”
I spend the next few hours at home dreading tonight.
“You need to chill out,” Sloane says, lying on my bed. “It’s going to be fine. You’re going to ignore Cooper. If Chloe’s there, you won’t even look in their vicinity.”
“Shoot. Do you think she’ll be there?” Of course she’ll be there. “How am I supposed to watch them cuddling during a movie?”
“You’re not. Like I said, you’ll ignore them,” she says. “You’ll focus on having fun with Jake. Even if you don’tlikelike him, he’s a fun guy. Worst-case scenario, you’ll tell him the back of the truck is cramped and suggest you guys grab a blanket and sit together outside the truck—where you won’t be able to see Cooper.”
“Yeah. Okay. You’re right,” I say. “You have to come with us. I need you there.”
“I already have plans with Asher, sorry.”
I throw on my low-rise Agolde jeans and toss her a look. “Right. And when are you going to spill the tea about what’s going onthere?”
Sloane’s face turns pink. “Nothing is going on. We’ve been best friends my whole life.”
“Mm-hmm.”
“Please shut up,” she says.
I pretend to zip my lips. If she’s not ready to tell me, I can wait. I have my own problems right now anyway.
Like the fact that Jake’s voice is carrying up the stairs. “Let’s go, Ellis!”
