Page 113 of What I Like About You

“Nash.” I reach for his hand. Cover it with mine. “Your parents seem worried. I really think you should—”

I stop short. What?I really think you should tell your parents about NYU?Because I totally am an authority when it comes to honesty.

“I know,” Nash says. “If I get in.”

“Okay, but—”

“Halle.” Nash rotates his hand in mine so our fingers intertwine. “Please. Can’t we just watchStranger Things?”

Then Nash leans in and kisses me and I know I shouldn’t let him off the hook this easily, but it’s literallyimpossibleto focus when his mouth is on mine, so I do. Of course I do. Because this TV time is the only time we’re alone for, like, an entire week. I didn’t realize until I wanted to spend all my free time kissing Nash’s face that we are never, in fact, alone.

Nash breaks the kiss and stands up and I don’t know why because weliterallyjust got down here.

“Pause. I want to show you something,” he says. “I’ll be right back.”

I sit up and wrap my arms around my knees. “This’d better be good.”

Nash runs up the stairs two at time. I run my fingers through my hair to detangle its unruly waves. Count the beats of my heart until it steadies. Then I use the moment alone to check the stats on the latest OTP post. Kels’s hiatus is over, but besides keeping up with One True Pastry’s post schedule, I’m quiet online. My NYU app is in, my numbers are maintaining, thanks to Kels’s response to the Alanna drama being overwhelmingly well received. It’s never been better to be Halle, so it seems like as longas I’m actively posting engaging content, no one really cares if I reply to every tweet.

Every day I’m with Nash, Kels feels less and less real.

I almost forget I still have a very real problem.Almost.

The basement door swings open and I swipe out of all Kels content. Nash reappears at my side with his laptop and a sketchpad.

“Hey,” Nash says.

“Hi.”

He opens his laptop and swallows before turning the screen toward me.

I freeze and breathe because I need to react in a normal way, in aHalleway.

It’s REX—the very first panel he posted two years ago. I’m so invested in the current series, I’ve never gone back to the beginning. It’sgood. Of course it’s good. But it’s also cool to see the improvement from the more amateur early work to his current stuff that, well, looks professional.

It has 454K views.

“I’ve never shown you …” Nash’s ears turn pink and he lets out a nervous laugh. “Um, yeah. This is kinda why I’m online so much. It gets better, I swear.”

“I know,” I say before I can stop myself.

Nash blinks. “You do?”

This is not an appropriate Halle reaction.

“I mean …” I stall, trying to grasp a logical explanation out of thin air. “I already read it. I found it the first day of school, after everyone was gushing about it at lunch.”

“Oh,” Nash says, closing the laptop and setting it on the floor beside him. “I forgot about that.”

I exhale.

“You never told me you read it! It’s because you hate it, right? Do you hate it? Sometimes I think dinosaurs are, I don’t know, juvenile, and no one is going to take me seriously and—”

“Nash.”I grab his hand and intertwine his fingers with mine. “It’ssogood.”

He looks at me. “Really?”

I nod. “I never said anything because it readssopersonal, you know? Like, especially once I knew about Nick. I guess I just figured you’d show me when you wanted to.”

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