Page 103 of Class Clown

Nico shrugged. “Who doesn’t?”

“She really, really loves sugar,” Cole said. “She’ll chew your hand off if you try to take the last candy bar.”

I gave Cole the stink eye. “Shut up. He’s trying to profess his feelings for me.”

Cole rolled his eyes and walked away, greeting a parent with a smile as he moved to where a group of kids were saying goodbye to each other.

My heartbeat was in a spiral over the things Nico had said, out loud, to my brother. Things I didn’t know he felt. It explained why he was willing to jump in with both feet. I felt like I was still catching up a little.

I made my voice light when I said, “Anything else you want to tell me about how wonderful I am, and how hopeless you are against yourfeelings?” I asked, facing forward again, keeping up the professional façade for the parents who were picking up their kids.

“I think I covered it with Cole.”

“You really think all those nice things about me?” I pressed. He nodded. “Quinn wasn’t my first stalker?” I squeezed his hand.

“Yeah. I really understood the little guy and where he was coming from,” Nico replied.

“Wow. Stealing my picture is pretty next level.”

“It was the snapshot they had on the mantel of you holding a fish you’d caught.”

“Ugh, Nico. I was maybe fifteen, with braces, and hadn’t figured out that I had to wash my hair regularly,” I moaned.

“It was a crime of convenience. I wanted your senior portrait, but it isn’t easy to sneak an 11x14 framed picture off the family room wall.”

I tapped my arm against his. “You know I have to replace it with something better.”

“Oh, I’ve been taking candid pictures of you all summer. While you were sleeping, eating, dancing the hokey pokey . . .”

I turned to him, my mouth dropping open. “You have not.”

His grin was sly. “Wasn’t it you who told me at the start of camp that you were going to take my picture whether I liked it or not? I thought you’d understand.”

“I’ve created a monster,” I whispered. “A super good-looking, secretly nice, weirdo.”

He laughed. “Lucky for you, this weirdo is coming home with you.”

The drive from Windsong Summer Camp outside of Flagstaff, Arizona, to Logan, Utah takes roughly ten hours. Ten hours is a really long time, and I was thrilled to have Nico all to myself for the first time ever, even if I was still slightly off-center over him confidently loading all his things in my car in order to come home with me.

He was content and easy while I was overthinking all of it. My little car chugged down the dirt road toward Flagstaff at the terrible hour of six a.m., and I hadn’t slept a wink the night before. Between the excitement ofroad-tripping with my guy, and the worry that he’d discover he didn’t like Utah, it had been a rough go. My eyes stung, my hands gripped the wheel, and my knee was bouncing around of its own free will.

Nico sat calmly looking out the window, not talking to me, which was a point in his favor. He knew I wasn’t a beautiful morning princess, and respected that. I was tired and angsty, feeling a little tender after saying our goodbyes to Cole. I’d loved being with him for the summer, and I’d miss him.

The goodbye with Kristy had been harder, because her feelings were still hurt and mine were still guilty. We’d hugged and promised to keep in touch – we wouldn’t – and Gina hadn’t even bothered to come say goodbye at all.

Nico had been stoic about all of it, offering me a one-armed hug after Kristy had marched to her cabin in the dark last night. He’d carried that peaceful mentality through this morning too, quietly going about the last packing details and loading up my car. He hadn’t even acted weird about seeing my bags next to his, or asked me which route we’d be taking.

I was being kooky enough for both of us. My free-spirited self was whooping it up. My anxiety-riddled self had grabbed onto this idea that Nico and I had skipped the necessary steps. Usually it was meet, flirt around a bit, talk some, go on dates, and more dates, and then establish your mutual regard after seeing each other in a variety of situations. That should take months.

But nope, not us. We’d been thrown together as surprise roommates, lived together for the summer, flirted a bit, kissed some, and now we were going to show back up in my town as a couple.

The dirt road met pavement and my shoulders bunched.

“Bee?” His hand rested lightly on my shoulder. “Breathe.”

I shook my head. “I don’t do nearly as many nice things for you as you do for me.”

“That’s not true.”

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