Page 54 of Let's Get Textual

“What kind of club?” I ask.

“Embody Positivity. It’s there for students who don’t feel like they belong, for anyone having issues with a fellow student, issues at home, whatever. It’s a bubble of positivity. There are all kinds of rules for how you’re allowed to act or talk inside the bubble, ya know, no negative speech and no excessively negative attitudes. You’re there to build yourself and others up, that’s it. I hate the action that created it, but I am beyond happy with the end result.”

“That sounds like a remarkable place. I wish we’d had something like that in my high school. Could have protected so many kids.”

He nods. “I feel like it does.”

“So!” I clap my hands together, changing the gloomy subject to something much more appealing. “Who’s getting grape and who’s getting strawberry?”

“You pick. I’m fine with either.”

“Strawberry for me then.” I grab the sandwich with a big G on it and hand it to him. “Doritos and PB&J? That sounds…odd.”

“You ever had them together before?” I shake my head, and Zach drops me a grin that makes my insides do flips. “Well, prepare to be stunned.”

He unwraps his sandwich and opens the bag of Doritos—family size, because apparently he’s a smart man. Then, like a total weirdo, he puts the Doritos on the sandwich.

“See? Now you.”

“I don’t know…”

“Trust me. Try it out. Do one or two small chips right on the corner. It’ll change your life.”

I twist my lips back and forth, contemplating this barbaric method of PB&J consumption. “Just the corner?”

“Yep. A chip or two. It’s delicious, I promise.”

Unwrapping my sandwich, I frown. “You made it wrong.”

His brows furrow. “The PB&J?”

“Yes!”

“How…” He tilts his head, a frown lining his lips. “How do you make PB&Jwrong?”

“You didn’t put enough peanut butter on it. You’re supposed to put it on both slices of bread. That way the jelly doesn’t leak through. That’s it!” I throw my hands over my face. “We’re over. We’ll never make it if you can’t make PB&J the right way. This is a travesty!”

He titters. “That is simultaneously the most ridiculous and the most ingenious thing I have ever heard.”

Zach reaches toward me, and the moment his fingers collide with my body, a shockwave pulses through me. If I weren’t already sitting, I’d be knocked flat on my ass.

He lets out a gasp, and I know he feels it too. His fingers graze against my skin, the touch hot and soft and not enough.

He lingers a moment, and it feels like he wants to flip my hand over and hold it.

I want that too.

All too quickly, he takes his hand away, busying himself with unwrapping his own sandwich.

“The movie should be starting soon,” he comments in attempt to distract us both.

“What are we watching?”

“On the schedule for tonight isTransformers.I hope that’s okay.”

“The first one? Isn’t that movie kind of…old?”

“You know, I’m not sure. The calendar just saidTransformers.”

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