Chapter Two

Nora's POV

"Nora! Open up, your favorite's here!"

It was noon the next day. Spencer was yelling through the front door, hitting the doorbell again and again.

I opened the door. He was standing on the step holding up a white bakery box, still in a T-shirt with his team number on it. Chloe stood right beside him holding two iced lemonades, and she flashed me a sweet smile.

"From the place on Maple Street. Lemon. I snagged the last box." Spencer pushed it into my arms. "I almost got into it with the guy behind me in line over this."

The two of them walked right in like they'd done it a hundred times. Spencer tossed his car keys into the bowl by the front door like this was his house.

He sat down right next to me at the kitchen island and bumped my shoulder with his. "You hung up on me and then ignored my texts last night. What was that about?"

"I was tired. I went to bed early."

He shrugged and reached for the cupcake box without asking anything else.

My mom invited them to stay for lunch and baked a big pan of mac and cheese.

Between bites, Spencer told us his parents were already talking to a real estate agent. Once he left for school in the fall, they were selling the house and moving to the Bay Area. "They said since they're gonna be empty nesters anyway, they might as well move somewhere sunny."

Chloe jumped in to say her parents had flown out to California last week just to look at a bunch of apartments in Palo Alto.

My mom couldn't stop smiling. "Well, once Nora's out there too, all three of our families can do Thanksgiving together in California."

"Obviously," Spencer said, winking at me. "She's the valedictorian. Stanford was lucky to get her."

Chloe propped her chin on her hand and looked at me. "Just picturing the three of us taking classes out in the California sunshine gets me so hyped I can't sleep."

I pushed the mac and cheese around my plate with my fork. I couldn't get a single bite down.

After lunch, the garbage disposal jammed again. My mom asked Spencer to take a look, and he rolled up his sleeves and crawled under the sink.

I took my lemonade out to the backyard. Chloe followed me.

She sat down on the patio swing and rocked it a couple of times before she spoke up.

"Nora, I saw this movie last week. It was actually pretty interesting. Wanna hear about it?"

I didn't answer, so she just kept going.

"So there's this girl who grew up with the guy, and she thinks that means she gets to keep him all to herself. Then a new girl transfers in and starts dating him, and the first girl still won't back off."

"The guy's out of options. So to put his girlfriend's mind at ease, he secretly messes up the other girl's college application, and then he and his girlfriend go off to school out of state."

She tilted her head and blinked at me. "So what do you think? Good movie?"

I looked down at her. The sun was hitting her blonde hair, and her smile was sweet. It was the kind of sweet that said she was waiting for me to make a fool of myself.

"Terrible movie," I said.

The swing stopped.

"A guy who can't put his own girlfriend's mind at ease, so he trashes somebody else's future to prove he's loyal? That's not romantic. That's just brainless."

"The girlfriend's even worse. If she's scared he'll cheat, she should be keeping an eye on him. Instead, she goes after someone who didn't even do anything."

"A girl like that would treat her boyfriend like some kind of prize even if he was a piece of junk nobody else wanted."

I took a sip of lemonade, and the ice knocked against the glass.

"If you ask me, those two psychos are made for each other. They should stay chained together so they don't wreck anybody else's life."

Chloe's fingers tightened around the swing chain until her knuckles went white.

"Oh, and one more thing," I said. "If I were that girl, I'd save all the evidence first. Then I'd call the cops."

She opened her mouth, but before she could say anything, the back door swung open.

Spencer came out shaking water off his hands. He looked at me, then at her. "What are you guys talking about? Why so serious?"

"Nothing," Chloe said quickly. Her smile was starting to slip.

"A movie," I said. "And whether secretly messing with somebody's college application counts as a crime."

The smile dropped right off Spencer's face.

He turned and stared at Chloe. She wouldn't meet his eyes. She squeezed her cup so hard it caved in, and lemonade ran down her wrist.

In less than five minutes, Spencer had grabbed his keys out of the bowl.

"So, uh, I've got practice this afternoon. We should get going."

When they got to the driveway, he looked back at me.

I kept scrolling on my phone and didn't look up.

Right before the car door shut, I heard Chloe mutter something, talking fast.

I couldn't make out a single word.

But I didn't need to. I already knew it wasn't anything nice.

Over the next two days, Spencer kept texting me.

"So you ended up confirming Stanford, right?"

"Everything looks okay on the portal?"

"No reason. Just asking."

I only wrote back two words. "What's up?"

Half an hour later, he finally replied. "Nothing. Don't overthink it."