“Fine. Yes. A blind rage.”
“I’ve never seen you in a blind rage.”
“Me neither.”
“Which seems kind of unfair, right?” I went on. “Nothing about that moment should have made you so mad.”
“Seeing you kiss Finn made me mad.”
“I wassupposedto kiss Finn! That was the whole point of this whole plan.”
“I know.”
“So I don’t see why I’m suddenly in trouble for achieving our joint goal.”
“It was your goal, JoJo. It was never mine.”
“Clearly!” I said, speeding up.
“Can you slow down?” Cooper said. “We really need to talk.”
“I agree. That’s what I was trying to do the other morningwhen you jumped ship.”
“I wasn’t ready to talk then,” Cooper said.
“Are you ready now?”
“No. But I’m doing it anyway.”
Wait—hold on. What did he want to talk about? Did he want to tell me his version of Sock Night?
Because wow—holy cow—did Inotwant to know about that.
I felt a hiss of fear in my body. What if he told me something I couldn’t bear to know—and then I had to know it for the rest of my life?
At that thought, I didn’t just start walking faster. I startedfleeing.
“Hey,” Cooper said, following me. “Where are you going?”
“You know what?” I said. “We don’t have to talk.”
“JoJo. We do.”
“I’m good,” I said, turning down a utility hallway.
“JoJo,” Cooper said, still on my heels. “What are you doing?”
“We don’t have to talk about anything, Cooper,” I said, now desperate to escape.
But Cooper had no intention of letting me do that. “Hey,” he said, reaching out and grabbing my arm, pulling us both to a stop in front of a door to some utility stairs.
I looked up into his face—that face I’d adored for so long.
I shook my head.
I didn’t want to know.
And so when Cooper took a breath and said, “JoJo, I need to confess something to you,” I did the first thing I could think of to stop him.
