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“Please, stop.”

“But I...”

“You’re embarrassing yourself, Scarlett.”

For the first time I realized all the people in line were staring at us. I didn’t think he cared about me embarrassing myself though. He cared that I was embarrassing him. I’d done what I wanted to. I’d given it one last shot. There was nothing else I could do. I’d apologized. And Jacob just...hated me. He had to, right? Because why else would he treat me this way?

I didn’t say anything else, I just turned and walked away. It was so tempting to go hang out with my dad again. But I didn’t want to give Jacob the satisfaction. So I sat down next to Sophie, instead of in my usual seat next to Jacob.

“How did that go?” she asked.

“Terribly.”

“Good. Because I’m Team Axel.”

I laughed, but it sounded strange in my throat. “I know I messed everything up. But I never took Jacob to be so...”

“Cruel?”

I nodded.

“Yeah.” She stared daggers at him in line. “Want to go hang out with Uncle James?”

“No, I’ll stay.”

Sophie smiled. “Atta girl. Now that you’ve gotten that out of your system, we need to get back to Operation Sadie Hawkins Dance.”

I groaned. “I’m not going. It’s a stupid dance anyway.”

“You’ve been planning it with student council for weeks. Speaking of which, have we found a new venue yet?”

“Sophie, we can’t change the venue. It’s always in the high school cafeteria. A better plan would be to get Mr. Halifax to chaperone.”

“I think that’s going to be a hard sell after what happened last time he chaperoned. Because of your dad,” she added, as if I didn’t know what she was referring to.

“Well, I don’t think my dad is chaperoning this one. There’s no reason to. I’m not going.”

“Of course you’re going. With Axel.”

“Sophie, my heart is broken.”

“And Axel is going to piece it back together. It’s very romantic.”

I pressed my lips together. I didn’t know if I wanted it to be pieced back together. I just wanted to go back in time.

“So back to Operation Sadie Hawkins Dance. What the heck is going on with the Mr. Nigel grandfather thing? Do you think Axel was somehow involved in us not getting the Odegaard video footage? Or was it just a coincidence that Mr. Nigel was too busy hanging out with him?”

“I have no idea.”

“Do you think Mr. Nigel could be your kiss thief?”

I laughed. “Stop it, no. He’s happily married. Haven’t we already talked about that theory?”

“Have we?” She laughed. “It’s hard to keep track. But if he’s Axel’s new grandpa, maybe he was helping cover Axel’s tracks.”

“Yeah. It’s definitely a good theory. Minus the fact that Leo has already confessed to being my kiss thief.”

Sophie sighed. “Right. Sorry, that mystery consumed me for so long, it’s hard to let it go. But all that is over now. And all we need to focus on is Operation Sadie Hawkins Dance.”