Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god.

Max Monahan is walking toward me. He’s looking at me. Is he still looking at me?

I flick my eyes upward.

Yep. Still looking. Still walking this way.

Oh, my god. Oh, my god.

“Hey.”

Oh, my fucking god.

“Hello there,” Jackie greets him. “And who might you gentlemen be?”

My neck twitches my head back up. I didn’t even notice Thad Hemsley towering over his shoulder.

Turns out, Max isn’t the only Belle Academy hunk to get a little better with age. I remember Thad as that bumbling sidekick in the back of the class that heckled the teachers. Shaggy, dirt-blond hair that always fell over his sunglasses. He must have discovered a barber at some point… and a very chic tailor.

They both stand on the opposite side of the table from us, their eyes locked on me.

Max leans forward an inch and my heart stalls. “You’re Phoebe, right?” he asks me.

I nod. “Ye— Yeah. I’m Phoebe.”

“I’m Max.”

“Yeah, I know.”

Thad waves a stiff hand. “Thad.”

“Yeah, I know that, too…” I clear my throat and gesture at Jackie. “And this is my friend, Ja—”

“Bone,” she says over me, offering her hand to Thad across the table. “Jackie Bone.”

He shakes it slowly. “Well, that’s an interesting name.”

She nods. “It’s been screamed at many, many ceilings.”

He blinks with amused confusion.

Max continues staring at me, his eyes soft and oh-so-green. “So, what have you been up to?” he asks me.

I hold up my empty glass. “Drinking,” I say, letting a piece of my giggle slip out before I shut it down.

“No…” He chuckles. “Not tonight. Since graduation. I think you’re the only one here that doesn’t plaster my feed with updates.”

I lay my palm on the table to keep from falling over. “You want to know what I’ve been up to?”

He nods. “Yeah. That’s what tonight is for, right?”

“I guess so,” I say weakly.

“So, tell me.” Max holds my stare. “What does Phoebe Pink do now?”

“Uh…”

My mind goes blank and I’m eighteen again. The last ten years never happened. I have no idea who I am. I’m just that pockmarked loser gazing at Max down the hall while Sally hangs on him in a skirt that barely covers her ass.

Jackie kicks my ankle beneath the table.

“Books!” I spit out, wincing at the sudden shock.

“Books?” he repeats.

“Yeah.”

“You do books?”

I pause. “I think so?”

He squints, but smiles. “Well, I do law.”

“Yeah,” I say, my voice squeaking on the way out. “Monahan.”

“I do planes,” Thad adds, holding a phantom steering wheel out in front of him.

“You’re a pilot?” Jackie asks. “How cool.”

“First Officer,” he says with a nod.

I slump a little against the table. Just five words and she’s far more articulate than I am.

Keep it together, Pink.

Jackie grabs her clutch off the table. “Well, if you’ll excuse me…”

I snap in her direction. “Where are you going?”

“To the lady’s room, clingy.” Her words are rough and pointed, obviously indicating me to stay and talk like a damn human being. “Back soon.”

She turns and walks off. Thad’s head spins about one-hundred and eighty degrees as her hips sway away but Max’s gaze never wanders far from me.

“So, that girl…” he says, gesturing over his shoulder. “Is she your…?”

His voice drifts off but I easily pick up the rest of the question.

Oh, good. Questions. Questions require answers. Answers require words that come out of my mouth. I just have to say one word at a time without tripping over my tongue. At least he seems interested, for some reason…

“No,” I say, shaking my head. “We’re not… together. She’s my assistant.”

“Your assistant?” Thad snaps back. “Why do you need an assistant?”

“I run a publishing company in Burbank,” I answer.

His brow rises with interest. “Which one?”

“Fortnight Press.”

“No shit?”

I nod, pausing to study his wide-eyed stare. It’s not exactly the reaction I usually get. “No shit,” I repeat.

He leans in, stealing my focus from Max. “That’s so weird. I’ve—” He stops mid-sentence, his gaze briefly landing on Max before sliding right back to me. “I’ve never met a publisher before. That’s cool.”

“Oh, it’s not nearly as much fun as it sounds,” I say, feeling my stiff shoulders loosen up a bit. “Not like being a pilot, I’d imagine.”

“Eh…” He waves a hand. “Flying is a whole lot protocol. You get too creative in the cockpit and you get fired.”

I glance at my empty drink. “There’s not a whole lot of creativity in what I do, either, unfortunately. It’s a lot of dream-killing, to be honest.”

Thad’s eyes grow softer on me. “Are you a writer?” he asks.

“Yeah but I’ve never been published.” I chuckle as my nerves build up. “I don’t get a lot of time to write anymore with my hours but I love my job, don’t get me wrong…”

Max taps my hand and fire shoots up to my elbow. “What are you drinking?” he asks.

I pull my eyes off Thad and point a quivering finger at the bottle by Jackie’s chair. “We were working on that thing,” I say with a quick giggle, “but it is a fierce beast.”

“Want some help?” he asks.

“Sure.”

Max spins around and walks to the bar, leaving me alone with Thad.

“So,” I say, “are you a writer, too?”

He blinks. “Me? No.”

“No?”

“No, no. Me? No. Not a writer. No way.”

I raise a brow at his fumbling response.

Max returns and lays two new shot glasses down. “All right,” he says. “Let’s tame this beast, eh?”

I slide the bottle toward him, keeping one eye on Thad but he avoids my gaze. Max fills our glasses along with Jackie’s for whenever she finally gets back from wherever the hell she really ran off to.

He sets the bottle down and looks me straight in the eyes as he raises his shot glass. “To growing up,” he says.

I lose myself in his stare. I’m not sure if it’s the major dent I’ve already put in this bottle or if it’s just the effect he’s always had on me. Maybe both.

Howling laughter steals my attention. The blurry world around him comes into focus as I follow the sound to the table across the gym. Several people sit around it, each one twisted in their chairs, and staring at me.

Sally Sweet. David McNally. Carter Queen. Names that always seem to creep from the back of my brain and roll off my tongue tasting like battery acid. Thad Hemsley, too. And Max, I suppose.

The group spins around the moment they realize they’ve been caught. That dread in my insides spreads throughout my body as I lower my glass to the table.

Max pauses. “You okay?”

This isn’t real. There’s no way Max Monahan and Thad Hemsley wandered over here just to see what I’ve been up to these last ten years. Part of me knew that already. I just needed to hear the howling of hyenas to make myself accept it.

To growing up?

Guess not.

I shift back from the table, glancing from Max to Thad to my shoes. “Jackie’s been gone a while. I’m gonna go find her. Excuse me…”

Max turns to look over his shoulder, instantly confirming my suspicions as he stares directly at the table of jerks. I’m not sure what bullet I just dodged but I’m not going to stick around and find out either.

I head toward the hallway and another round of laughter grows behind me. Maybe I’m just being paranoid. Maybe someone just told a funny joke that had nothing to do with me at all but the girl with braces just wants to bury her face in her locker and die.

The hallway is empty and quiet. The old music fades off as my heels clack beneath me. Memory guides me down the hall to the nearest bathroom.

This place. Belle Academy. Ten years have gone by and it still hasn’t changed at all. I thought I’d changed, though. I thought I’d created a bubble strong enough to block out the bullies and haters but apparently not.

I need to get out of here.

I find the ladies’ room and reach out to grip the door handle but the door flies open before I can react.

The handle collides with my fist and I wince. “Ow! Shit…”

Jackie halts in the doorway with her clutch in one hand and phone in the other. “Watch your language, young lady,” she quips. “This is a school.”

“Jackie…” I shake the pain out of my wrist. “What are you doing?”

She gawks at me. “What are you doing? Why aren’t you talking to Max?”

I sigh. “You mean why aren’t I voluntarily reliving years of emotional trauma at the hands of my tormentors?”

“What happened?”

I cross my arms and step back to lean against the nearest row of lockers. “We were all talking and it was fine but then I noticed that the cool clique was staring and laughing at us from across the room. Max and Thad were just… hell, I don’t know. Probably a stupid dare or something. Honestly, don’t care.”

“Jesus.” She scoffs. “How old are we?”

“Old enough to know that when a train is hurtling toward you, you step off the track. Can we please go now?”

“If you want to…” She tilts her head to look behind me. “Or we could wait and see how this plays out…”

I glance over my shoulder to see Max at the end of the hall. He starts in our direction at brisk, steady pace and my chest twists even tighter with dread.

“Talk to him,” Jackie whispers.

“No, I don’t want to,” I snap back. “I just want to—”

He interrupts me. “Phoebe…”

Jackie yanks my arm, forcing me to twist around and look at him.

“Yeah. Hey, Max,” I mutter at the floor.

“Listen, I…” He glances between us. “Can we talk for a minute?”

I hesitate. “Sure.”

“Privately?”

Jackie throws on a smile. “Okay, I’ll just go get the car warmed up—”

“It’s September in LA,” I point out. “It’s already warm—”

“And I know a security guard in desperate need of my phone number.”

“Jackie—”

“Bye!”

I lunge for her hand but she dodges me as she whips out her car keys.

Max waits for her to round the corner before speaking. “You guys leaving already?” he asks.

“Yeah…” I say, staring at the old, linoleum tiles. “Just a touch too much Memory Lane for one evening.”

“Look, Phoebe, I’m sorry if they made you feel uncomfortable in there. Some of them never quite grew up, you know?”

I scoff. Some of them? What about you?

I look up at him, ready to say it all out loud, but the kindness in his eyes holds me back.

“It seems that way,” I say instead.

He stands a little taller and smiles. “Hey, do you have other plans tonight?”

Movement catches my attention behind him as Jackie pokes her head out from around the corner. She stares at me with wide eyes, urging me to answer his question.

“Uh… maybe.”

Jackie throws up her hands and mouths silently at me. “What are you doing?”

“Why?” I ask him.

He pauses for a second, looking me up and down. “Wanna hang out?”

I stare at him. “Hang out?”

“Yeah.”

“You want to hang out with me and Jackie?”

“No, I want to hang out with you,” he says. “No offense to her but I’d rather continue the conversation we were having somewhere a little less… hectic.”

Jackie nods furiously at me and holds her hands in prayer. “Do it,” she mouths. “Do. It.”

I can’t stop the excitement building in my chest. Max Monahan is standing in front of me in a dim and lonely hallway, asking me to hang out with him… but what about what I just saw in there?

“I live nearby,” he says. “Just a few miles up the 405.”

I blink as Jackie nearly bites a hole through her bottom lip. “You want me to go back to your place?” I ask slowly.

He nods. “Yeah.”

“Alone?”

“Well, Thad will be there. He’s sleeping on my couch this weekend but I don’t think he’d mind the company.”

Alcohol tosses my senses into confusion but a little logic manages to slip through it. “You’re not going to murder me, are you?”

He laughs. “No. Honestly… and I’m sorry if this is too forward, but…” he leans in, lowering his voice, “I can’t stop wondering what it’d be like…” he drops to a much softer whisper, “to kiss you.”

My jaw hits the floor. “Huh?”

He raises one hand, slowly easing it up to rest below my sagging chin. With a careful nudge, he closes my mouth and holds it there. “Do you mind?” he asks.

“Hgnnph.”

“Is that a yes? Or a no?”

I clear my throat. “Uh…”

Max chuckles softly and leans over to connect his mouth with mine for one blissful second.

He’s kissing me. My lips. His lips. Max Monahan is kissing me.

I’m kissing Max freaking Monahan.

I slip backward, nearly crashing into the line of lockers beside me but Max grabs me before I fall over.

“Whoa—” He exhales a laugh, flexing and holding me in place. “You okay?”

“Yeah, totally. Why do you ask?” I say quickly.

He keeps his hands on me, smiling wide. I’m happy he does. There’s no possible way I could stand on my own right now. I’ve wanted this since I was fifteen years old…

“So, what do you say?” he asks, still whispering. “You wanna come back to my place with me, Phoebe Pink?”

I shiver as my name passes over his lips. “Okay,” I say, my voice as weak and wobbly as my knees.

Jackie emerges again, silently thrusting her fists into the air in victory but I ignore her.

Max’s eyes lock me in place again, blocking out and silencing everything.

Including that dread in my gut.