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“Hey,” Liam said. He was wearing his practice gear, covered in a thin layer of sweat and dirt. He looked me up and down the same way I was him, and suddenly everything felt too short and too tight and like an incredibly bad idea.

“Hey,” I managed back. Why hadn’t I brought a coat? What had I been thinking?

“You ready?”

“Always,” I said, even though I wasn’t, and followed him to his car.

Liam drove his brother’s hand-me down truck—Colton’d gotten a new truck from some pleased alumni. I tried to sit in a way that wouldn’t make my borrowed skirt hitch higher. Hailey’d always managed to. She’d had sexily wholesome down to an art.

“So what do you think you need help with?” I asked, hauling my backpack up to cover my lap.

“Uh—” He glanced over at me. Had he—was that—nerves? Couldn’t tell now, his eyes were back on the road. “This last chapter—the formulas just aren’t clicking.”

“What’s your grade so far?”

“A solid C.”

That, I could work with. He pulled into the take-out window of a Shax competitor. “I’m starving—you want anything?”

“No. I’m kind of burgered out.”

He deflated. “Sorry—I forgot where you worked.”

“It’s okay—I’ll take a Diet Coke.”

He nodded and ordered for both of us, and we drove up.

I’d been at the Shax so long, I’d forgotten that we weren’t the only high schoolers trapped rowing behind assorted burger stations, and so I was surprised when Emily leaned out to hand our order to us.

“Hi Liam!” she said with a smile and a wave and maybe a little leaning too far. Then she saw me in the cab of his truck and gasped.

“Hey Emily!” I said brightly. The night was getting better.

“Hey,” she said, having apparently forgotten my name.

Liam missed all of this, and turned to hand my Diet Coke over to me. It was all I could do not to wave at her like a prom queen as we drove off.

I started taking long sips of my soda, then realized that I needed to conserve it, that it might be the only beverage I could be sure was safe, once I got to Liam’s. It was a sobering thought, one that sent me staring out the window until we pulled up.

These were not the circumstances I’d imagined visiting his place under. In my middle-school fever dreams, there was always more lead up, more flirtation in the halls, more him realizing I was amazing, and then him finally bringing me home in triumph, either to meet his parents and famous brothers, or for more R-rated things.

Or X-rated.

I wasn’t a prude, I was just picky.

But knowing that this was where Lacey’d been hurt— I got out of his truck and slammed the door a little too hard.

“My mom’s at her church group tonight, and my dad’s watching the game,” he said, opening up the front door. I could hear the muffled sound of a crowd cheering from a few rooms away and feel the waves the TV was putting out—its power draw was several magnitudes larger than my trailer’s tiny one.

He led me up a wide set of stairs, announcing, “This is our floor.” It took me a moment to realize he didn’t mean him and I, but him and his brother’s, from when they’d all still lived at home. There was a den of sorts, with another huge but currently off TV, a table with chairs spread around it and…

The couch.

I walked up to it with reverence—and fear.

The couch was the last place I’d seen Lacey looking happy.

“I’m gonna shower, but you can set up there—I’ll be out in ten—have some fries if you want,” he said, disappearing into one of the side rooms.