“You should’ve said yes. Get her off his back.” I thought about it again. “Fake dating Jamie for the summer might not be so bad, in the grand scheme of things, you know. It’d help in ticking Dalton off.”
Daisy’s lips spread into a grin. “That does sound nice, doesn’t it? Nah, I need someoneswoonierthanJamie. No offense to James, but Dalton would see right through it.”
I nodded, understanding.Swoonywas not a word I’d used to describe him, either. “Well, I’ll keep an eye out. And hey, if things with Carter fall through…”
Daisy swatted at me. “You should go in,” she said, jutting her chin at her windshield. “Someone’s feeling left out.”
Instead of going inside without me, Jamie was waiting at the front door, watching us from the stoop, like a little puppy left out in the cold. Despite the heavy conversation, I couldn’t help but smile a little at the sight. “See you Monday?”
She saluted me, and I climbed out of her car.
Jamie didn’t ask what Daisy and I had talked about, which surprised me, given that he looked so pouty on the porch. He swung into the kitchen and grabbed two cups from the cabinet. “Tonight has been eventful,” he said, going to the fridge and pulling out a two-liter of orange soda.
I sat down at the breakfast bar, propping my head on a fist. I felt far too wired to go up to my room. “Did Daisy pull out any of Raelynn’s hair?” I wanted to see whathe’dsay about it.
“She was about to.” Jamie set my cup in front of me. “Raelynn took my book and was going to use it as an excuse to talk to me again. Or, that’s what Daisy said she was going to do. It’s funny how fired up she gets.”
“Zero toone hundred, our Daisy.”
“Our Daisy,” Jamie agreed quietly, seeming to get lost in thought.
I sipped at my pop. “Hopefully our birthday party is more lowkey. And that there are no adults doing shots to T-Pain in the background.”
We turned eighteen the day before our high school graduation, and Mom had rented the ballroom for our party. Jamie cringed, tipping his cup back and draining his soda. He moved toward the dishwasher. “I can’t believe you want to have a party. At the country club, no less.”
“Of course I want a party.” This is the last year it’d be normal. Next year, who knew where we’d be? Where all the kids our age would be? “Maybe Dad will come.”
Jamie didn’t reply, but I knew exactly what he was thinking.Don’t get your hopes up too high. He took my now-empty cup and placed it in the dishwasher before closing it.
I didn’t get up from the breakfast bar, just watched him start to walk out of the kitchen. At the last second, he paused in the doorway. “I meant it, though,” he said, not quite looking at me. “I think you put too much pressure on yourself. Perfection is impossible to achieve, Nell.”
“Doesn’t mean I shouldn’t try.”
Jamie didn’t have a rebuttal for that. Something strange passed over his expression. “Beck said he’s going to Stanford.”
“Yeah?”
“The spring quarter at Stanford doesn’t end until the beginning of June.” And then, guiltily, he added, “I checked.”
That was strange. If the spring quarter wasn’t over, Beck should still be in classes. “You think he lied? About going to Stanford?”
“Why would he? He doesn’t care about impressing anyone.”
True. Besides, the adults at Alderton-Du Ponte wouldn’t have considered it impressive, not as much as the bigger Ivy Leagues.
“Maybe he finished early?”
Jamie shook his head. “Not a whole month early.”
Ms. Jenningshadsaid that the last quarter of college had been rough for him. Maybe there was more to that than she was letting on.
Jamie excused himself for the night, and I sat at the breakfast bar for a long time after that, tracing the streaks in the marble countertop, skin tingling. Or crawling. Tingling felt too positive a word—it was definitely crawling. The plan I’d had for the night had fallen apart before it could really even begin, and I knew that once I checked my phone, I’d find messages from Carter, asking where I was. I’d bailed on him, and the guilt of that soured my stomach.
And then I thought about Carter and Lydia.
And then I thought about Beck.
I couldn’t keep doing this with him. It was time to pull the plug and make a clean break.
