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“Yes,” I said. Because that would be the end of that. There was no proof. Other than the things I made up in my head about how Axel looked at me.

“Well, did you ever figure out what that countdown in Axel’s notebook was?”

I shook my head. “I looked at it a few times, but I couldn’t figure it out. And then I started dating Jacob...”

“Yeah. Screw him. Okay. Let me see it.”

I unlocked my phone and handed it to her.

She plopped her chin in her hand as she stared at the picture of Axel’s notebook that we’d snapped. “Okay, yeah, I have better things to do than solve this nonsense.” She hopped off her stool and walked out of the kitchen.

Where was she going? I shook my head and took another bite of pizza. Wait. She wasn’t just going to ask Axel, was she? Crap!

I got off my stool and started to run out of the kitchen, but Sophie appeared with RJ in the doorway. “What is happening?” I asked. “You didn’t ask Axel, did you?”

She laughed. “No. RJ will figure it out. He’s great at puzzles. Loop him in.” She handed RJ my phone.

“I really hate involving RJ in my love life,” I said.

RJ smiled. “Baby doll. Don’t you trust me?”

“No, not really.”

He laughed and sat down in the stool I’d been sitting in. “So...what am I looking at exactly?”

I walked back over to the kitchen island. “Remember when I snuck into Axel’s room?”

RJ nodded. “Yeah, and needed my help breaking back in.”

“Right. Well, the first time we snuck in, I found one of Axel’s notebooks with some weird countdown.” I pointed to my phone.

“Is this all of it?”

“No?”

“No? Why did you answer that like you were asking me? It’s a yes or no question, Scar.”

I sighed. “No, it’s not all of it. It was just the day he was currently on.”

RJ shook his head. “Well, I can’t solve it if I don’t have all the facts. Plus there might be some other kind of clue in the notebook for deciphering this nonsense.”

“Can’t you just give me your best guess? We think it’s a countdown to a certain day.”

“Well, when did it start?”

Sophie and I looked at each other. I couldn’t remember the original number. So I just shrugged.

“It was over 2,000 days ago,” Sophie said.

RJ made a face. “A countdown with that many days? That’s psycho.”

“Focus,” I said.

“Okay. When did you take this picture?”

“Um...”

RJ sighed and stared at the picture on my phone. He opened up the details to see when I’d taken it.