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“Are we done here?” I ask, despite getting zero answers as to why he’s standing in front of me as if I personally wronged him.

“Not at all, Lopez.” He moves around me, grabs a handful of my notebooks, and stuffs them into my bag.

“Hey.” I try to reach around him. “Stop that.”

Every time I try to move, he maneuvers himself so his stupid, hard, wide back and shoulders block me. I jump, hopping on his back, but he must remember the first time we wrestled like this because he’s sturdier. Theo just keeps moving despite me putting him into a headlock.

He gathers my remaining items in his hands and shoves them into my bag, then holds it in his hand and starts walking us down the boardwalk. “Theo.” I smack at his chest. “Give me my stuff.”

“Say please.”

I tighten my choke hold, but he reaches over and tickles my side. A traitorous laugh escapes me and I lose my grip, landing on my feet. He loops my tote through his arm and presses it tightly against him.

“Fine.” I roll my eyes. “Please.”

He stands proudly. “No.”

“Oh my God,” I say. “What are you doing? Why are you doing this? I’m going to shove you into the water.”

He glances back at me, still walking away. “First, I’m bringing you to get food. Your stomach is growling so loud it’s like scratches on a chalkboard. Second, because I want to.”

I press my hands onto my stomach. “It’s not.” But then it growls, this time sending pain signals to my brain that it does, in fact, need food to survive. I feel my body go hot with embarrassment. “And, well, I don’t want to do whatever you want.”

He pauses and turns to me. “Do three things with me and I’ll help you with your math.”

“Excuse me?”

“I saw your work; you’re stuck on the quadratic formula. Math is my best subject. I’ll help you study for the quiz. But you have to do three things with me first.”

A sliver of embarrassment slides down my spine at the fact that he saw my multiple failures trying to figure out the work myself. I really want to say no, I do—there’s no way I want to willingly spend time with Theo seeing as how I’m supposed to betray him and all—but I do have to think about my academic career.

And after some late-night stalking, ahem, studying, I found that Theo has an entire grade higher than me in our class.

“What three things?” I ask.

He shrugs. “Agree or don’t.”

I blow out a breath, wishing I was still in the position to choke him. “Fine, agree.”

When he smiles, I pretend the heat that floods me is from my anger and nothing else.

He does an about-face and walks toward the festival. “Keep up,” he calls to me when he picks up the pace.

I match him and we walk side by side back to the boardwalk. After a few moments of silence, I speak. “I’ll need you to write down your math advice and also let me record your explanation so I can revisit it later if I need to.”

“No,” he says.

“What, why?”

He grins at me. “Because if you need my help again, I want you to come to me.”

“What if I push you into the creek?” Part of me meant to keep that in my head; the other half wishes I did when the only effect my remark has on Theo is him barking out a laugh.

“Speaking of the creek,” he says, grabbing my wrist and leading me to an opening from the boardwalk to the thin dock just a few feet below. “That’s our first activity—after we get some food in you.”

“Oh, no, no, no,” I say, trying to add more weight to my feet, but we’re already on the shaking dock, and now I grip him for balance. “I can’t swim.”

He lets go of my wrist, but I yank his back into both of my hands. His brows pull together slightly, but he lets me hold on to him, then points with his free hand to a railing by us covered in colorful life jackets. “We won’t be going in the water, but we can put you in a jacket for peace of mind.” He maneuvers our hands to link them, fingers intertwined, then points behind an empty miniature yacht, where two small paddleboats float. “We’ll be going slow and steady.”