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“Please don’t. Emotions make me uncomfortable.”
Jesse shoved his laptop into his bag, taking a second to check his text messages. He was meeting his cousins for a family meeting, but they hadn’t settled on a location before class had started.
“Ready to go?” Nicole asked as she appeared at his side.
Jesse glanced back at his desk to make sure he hadn’t missed anything. “Yeah, let’s go.”
Jesse and Nicole passed by Mr. Kingston on their way to the door, snickering at the long line of students standing in front of the resigned-looking teacher. Jesse paused when he spotted Raina, his eyes lingering on her for a moment. How many times had he waited for her after class? How many times had they walked out together? A nudge from Nicole got him moving again.
“Have your parents brought up SATs yet?” Nciole asked once they left the classroom. “My dad’s assistant sent me an email about it this morning.”
Jesse shook his head. “My parents are in Egypt, I think. Uncle Aaron will probably bring it up soon. Uncle Alex, actually. Since Uncle Aaron’s on sabbatical for a bit.”
“When I go to Cohen’s for dinner, I’m going to stop at my house after. Apparently I’ve got SAT practice books waiting for me. Oh, and I’m sure my parents want to say hello to their only child.”
Jesse ignored her sarcasm. “Why did you say yes to Raina?”
“I honestly don’t know.” Nicole gave a disbelieving laugh. “I actually kinda feltbadfor her. Which is ridiculous because she lied to you and tried to trick you, but…I don’t know.”
“Are you sure that’s what happened? I…it just—that doesn’t sound like something Raina would do. ”
“Hey, I heard what I heard.”
“I’m not denying that. I just never thought Raina would try to get me to fall for her over some stupid bet.”
Nicole shrugged uncomfortably, a common reaction when the topic of feelings came up. “It’ll be an interesting dinner, at least. Me, you, and Cohen all in the same room.”
“Yeah—wait.” Jesse froze in the middle of the hallway, frowning her. “Say that again?”
Nicole cleared her throat. “Me,” she pointed to herself, “you,” her finger flipped around to poke Jesse in the chest, “and Cohen.”
Jesse held up a finger. “Okay, pause. Since when am I going to this dinner? Does Raina even know I’m going? Does Rainawant me there? I don’t think this is a good idea.”
They were still in view of the history classroom, and out of the corner of his eye Jesse could see Raina exiting the room. Head buried in her phone, she wasn’t paying attention to where she was going and nearly bumped into a group of girls. He snapped his focus back to Nicole.
“You can’t spring this on Raina,” he insisted. “If I’m coming, you have to tell her. She needs to know.”
“So you tell her.”
“Absolutely not,” Jesse declared. He’d been doing his best to be civil with Raina the past few days, friendly but distant. It had been working because he was finally able to be around her without that plunging feeling in his stomach. But in her house? Meeting her family? “You got us into this mess. I’m not touching it with a ten-foot pole. If you and Raina want me there, fine. Butyou’regoing to have to put on your big girl panties and tell her.”
Leaving Nicole in the hallway, Jesse made his way back to his dorm. His cousins were already gathered, seated in various places around the room. From her spot on Dean’s bed, Zara banged her gavel—where had she gotten a gavel?—on the headboard.
“Welcome to Ashcroft Family Time,” Zara drawled, rolling her eyes. “First motion: let’s kick out whoever came up with that name.”
Jesse swapped his button down for a hoodie before sitting cross-legged on his bed. “Okay, so we’re kicking you out?”
Zara stuck her tongue out at him. “Very funny. Now in all seriousness, who would like to begin the weekly update and therapy session?”
“Theo will,” Dean said.
“Theo won’t.”
Jesse looked between his cousins. Obviously, he was missing something. Dean raised an eyebrow, and a look of understanding spread over Theo’s face.
“Oh yeah, I do want to go first. In our meetings—that are the delight of my week—” he said sarcastically, “dad told me he wants to have family dinner soon. Not next week since he’s got some work thing now that he’s principal and has a ton of extra work, but he said he’ll get back with me on the date. He said this dinner is mandatory and ‘not allowed to be skipped out on, I’m looking at you, Zara.’ His words, not mine. I don’t know if it’ll happen, but yeah.”
“Is it just us, or are we allowed to bring dates to this one?” Dean asked. “I think Zara and I could both benefit from having Gracie there.”
