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“What the hell?” Jacob said and stood up.

“Oops,” Liam said. He sounded very insincere about it.

Yeah, sometimes I really liked my little brother.

“You okay?” Axel whispered.

I wasn’t sure which was worse. Jacob so vehemently denying my request to the dance. Or him so joyfully accepting Olivia’s invitation. And the way he’d stared at me before he had. Like he’d wanted to hurt me.

But either way. I was seconds away from crying.

“I gotta go,” I said.

“What?” Axel whispered.

“I just...yeah.” I stood up and walked away from the table. I wasn’t sure what I’d been thinking. Eating with my dad was so much better than whatever that was.

“Wait up!” RJ yelled as he caught up to me.

We both walked out into the hall.

“By the way, Axel was about to run after you, but I told him I had it. He’s totally into you.”

“He’s not. Would you please just stop? I just want to be alone.”

“Baby doll.”

“Stop calling me that!” Yelling made the dam break and my tears started streaming down my cheeks. “I’m sorry. I...”

RJ hugged me. “It’s okay. Let it all out, baby doll.”

I laughed and sobbed at the same time into his shoulder. When had RJ gotten so tall?

“And he is into you,” RJ said.

“Really, stop.”

“I’m serious. The countdown is to your birthday.”

Wait, what? I pulled back to stare at him.

“Your birthday. Valentine’s Day. I don’t know, I was trying to get to the bottom of it, but I formed that question really poorly. I should have asked, what do you think of when you think of February 14th? But then I gave him two choices. And I’d already been asking him about Valentine’s Day and your birthday.” RJ sighed. “I might have messed that up. And I’m pretty sure Axel thinks I’m into his sister now which is definitely not the case. That little twerp.”

“He’s counting down to my birthday?”

“Yeah. Or Valentine’s Day. But I can’t see why that would be important, right? It must be your birthday. Even though his answers back there were a little suspect. He even insulted your princess themed birthday parties.” RJ shook his head. “For the sake of argument, let’s just go with it though. Why is this birthday suddenly so important? Because you’re turning 18 or something?”

Axel’s answers were definitely suspect. I wasn’t sure he was counting down to my birthday instead of Valentine’s Day. But it certainly seemed more fun to focus on the birthday thing. “I don’t know,” I said. “Did you figure out when the countdown started?”

“Years ago. But I’m doing some more research about that. I’ll let you know soon.”

I slowly nodded. So if this was right, Axel had been counting down the days until my 18th birthday for years. But...why?

“Be careful though,” RJ said. “The countdown still has serial killer vibes if you ask me. Crap. And now I’m on Axel’s shit list too. Freaking Parker. I can’t wait to tell her I’m not taking her to the dance.”

“Be sweet.”

“She kicks me!”