The Map from Here to There

o act like Mr. Cool Guy about it.”

“Huh.” Max sat back, like he was having a revelation. “The first time I’ve ever been called cool. It’s a strange sensation. Powerful.”

In the morning, I woke up to a text from Max, inviting me over for breakfast, and I pressed my smiling, ridiculous face into a pillow.

You were missing out.”

He looked over and said, seriously, “I really, really was.”

How to explain why I kissed Max Watson, for the third time ever, in full view of our closest friends? I don’t know. I couldn’t not.

Happy.” The way he looked at me when he said it—with a sigh and the slightest smile. Being together was like sharing a docking station, finally able to rest and refuel.

I’d needed to jump back in on my own. But when I did, I wore Max’s belief in me like wings

When she looked around, she seemed briefly surprised that the rest of us were still there

To Laurel King and her reign at Northwestern, which begins tomorrow. You will …” She paused, searching Laurel’s face for the right word. “Dazzle them.”

Okay,” I said, smiling. “Ready.”

Max blinked at me, then nodded back up to the car. “Well, now I think we should definitely ditch these guys.”

I’d never kissed anyone like this, like Max right now—familiar but entirely surprising.

He stopped over to say hey, but promised he wouldn’t tell anyone. So I’d say there’s a fifty-fifty chance that everyone already knows.”