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And next thing I know, I’m climbing into the passenger seat of Sebastian Murdoch’s shiny Jeep Wrangler.
Chapter Twenty
Caroline
Myheartfeelslikeit’s beating a mile a minute. I’ve never been alone in a car with a guy before. I have no idea what to talk about, or how to act or—
“You like Drake?” Sebastian asks, turning the music up.
“Oh, um, sure. Yeah,” I say. Only the words sort of stumble out of my mouth and land in one big heap, so it sounds more like “O-umshorya”.
Seb’s head is turned now, as he starts backing out of the driveway, one arm stretched across the back of my seat and the other on the wheel. But he glances over at me for a second, his forehead slightly wrinkled. “Uh, what?”
“Oh… Um, I said ‘sure’. Drake is fine.”
His eyes stay on me for another second, and he nods, then resumes backing up. And a second later we’re on the road and on the familiar route toward the town center.
And yet nothing right now feels familiar. In any way.
I glance around the Jeep, expecting it to be kind of messy, if it’s anything like his backpack. Or his overall approach to life, really.
It is a mess. There’s an open box of Band-Aids stuffed into one of the cup holders, as well as a bunch of change, and a pink tube of watermelon lip-gloss. There are discarded Gatorade bottles on the floor, a couple of hoodies strewn on the back seat, and an open bag of… marshmallows? I think? Also, a crumpled pillow and a stick of deodorant.
“Are those marshmallows?”
Seb glances at me. “Huh?”
“On the back seat. It looks like—”
“Oh.” He laughs. “Yeah. Beach party last weekend.”
“You should probably tie the bag,” I tell him. “Marshmallows will start to lose their moisture and go hard if they’re exposed to the elements for too long.”
Sebastian gets this look on his face, like he’s trying not to laugh. “Okay, then. I’ll make sure to tie the bag up when I get home.”
He glances over at me again, his lip between his teeth. Our eyes meet and he kind of smiles at me.
“That was probably a stupid thing to say,” I blurt.
It was definitely an awkward thing to say. And why am I so awkward around him, suddenly?
Okay, I’m always awkward around him. I’m justmoreawkward right now. And super, super aware of it.
Sebastian shrugs. “Hey, someone’s gotta look out for the marshmallows, right?”
I give an awkward laugh. And then double-down on the awkward comment. It’s like I have no control anymore over what comes out of my mouth.
“Did you know astronauts put marshmallows up their noses during high pressure lift-offs to protect their nasal linings?”
This time, Sebastian laughs out loud, his upper body hunched over the steering wheel with the force of his laughter.
I love his laugh. It really is totally uninhibited.
“How do you even know this shit?” he asks once he’s stopped laughing so hard.
“I have no idea, honestly… Reading, I guess?” Then, after a second, I say, “I don’t know why I’m telling you this stuff. You must think I’m such a dork.”
“You’re definitely a dork.” He smiles. “But it’s great. Tell me more marshmallow facts.”
