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That was a way more loaded question than Avery probably realized, so he just shrugged and changed lanes, since the left lane was finally opening up.

If his luck held, maybe he could get all the way back to Itasca without having to admit the truth.

Chapter Three

Avery

Avery and Theo had a routine on their road trips: He drove, she DJ-ed. It didn’t mean they bickered any less—that was roughly sixty-five percent of their friendship, according to the Grace-Tommy-Harper trio—but honestly, Avery wouldn’t have had it any other way. She liked when Theo would complain about how much she loved bright, dance-y pop while she made fun of his broody folk-rock playlists. Sitting in the passenger seat of his stepdad’s ancient Corolla—Theo had bought it off him late last year—arguing about whose playlist was next felt familiar, while the last few months had been anything but. College was fun but overwhelming, and it wasn’t until Theo had walked through her door to take her home that she’d really let herself admit that.

Fortunately, it seemed like Theo felt the same way. “I really thought people were exaggerating when they said ancient Greek is harder than Latin,” Theo was saying. “Latin is tough, but Greek is going to kill me. I’m going to be lucky if I skate by with a C.”

“You? You haven’t gotten anything lower than an A− since Geometry.” Avery was the only person who knew that Theo had gotten straight A’s throughout his high school career. The entire school, save her, was shocked that he got into the University of Minnesota, since his entire reputation at Itasca was more or less that of a burnout—albeit a burnout who would occasionally take an AP class and then seem to sleep through it. But Avery had known just how hard he worked every day, because she also knew how desperate he was to get out.

Theo had arrived at Itasca High their freshman year from the exotic-seeming Twin Cities, and a new kid was something of a rarity in their small town. Most people had known each other since preschool, like Avery, Harper, Grace, and Tommy. Nearly all of their classmates found Theo intimidating in a way that Tommy liked to call “very Brontë-esque.” (As Tommy was the only one in their group who had bothered to read all of Wuthering Heights when Mrs. Gomez assigned it, Avery just took his word for it.) Theo’s penchant for black leather jackets didn’t help, and his formidable scowl usually did the rest of the work of scaring people off. But Avery didn’t scare easily, and Theo had felt refreshing. Different. Intriguing. And she couldn’t deny that it felt good to be the only one who really knew the other side of him. Even though they didn’t necessarily make sense as friends to most people, given how different they were, most of the time Avery didn’t care. But sometimes she secretly wondered if maybe someday Theo would find the people he really clicked with and leave her behind.

“Yeah, well, that streak is officially busted. If I don’t ace everything else, I’m screwed.” He squinted through the windshield at the snow, which was falling more thickly than even an hour ago. Usually, the drive to Itasca only took four hours, but thanks to the weather, they were three hours in and had only reached Brainerd. “We should stop and get something to eat,” he said.

“We’re already running late,” Avery countered. She didn’t exactly want to get home quickly, given how things currently stood with her parents, although she did want to make it to Grace’s before midnight. Besides, she hated not being on time. She’d always gotten in trouble with her mom when she was late, so it made her anxious—unless she was making Theo wait, of course. Theo was safe like that.

“Yeah, and whose fault is that? Besides, I’ve seen you hangry and I’d rather not deal with that for the next hundred miles,” he said with a crooked grin.

She couldn’t help but return it. “Okay, fine. There’s a diner at the next exit.”

The diner was an old-fashioned sort of place, made to appeal to both tourists on their way to their lake houses and truckers driving up to Canada. They served breakfast all day, which meant Avery couldn’t have loved it more at that moment. They sat in a booth next to the window, and Avery watched the snow falling in the parking lot, the flakes slicing through the cone of light thrown by the lone streetlight out in the middle of the lot. The menu was plastic and a little sticky, and the ketchup bottle near her elbow was mostly empty. The waitress brought her the stack of pancakes (Theo was having a cheeseburger) and topped off their coffee.

Theo looked warily at her phone that was lying near her elbow, like he was expecting Cameron to jump out of it. “Izzy’s coming to Grace’s tonight,” he said quietly.

Avery stuffed her mouth with a giant bite of pancake rather than respond right away. “How are you feeling about that?” she asked, once she’d bought herself some time.

He shrugged. “Weird. When we broke up, I guess I didn’t think about this part.”

While Theo had always barely stifled his annoyance with Cameron, Avery had genuinely liked Izzy. She was perfect for Theo: Unlike most of Itasca, she wasn’t scared of him, and Theo had always seemed really happy with her. They made sense together—Izzy with her art and refusal to buy into the drama of high school in a small town, and Theo with his attitude and slightly surly disposition. Avery had been shocked when he told her he was going to break up with Izzy before they left for college. According to him, he couldn’t afford to fly out to California to visit, and with the time difference and the number of credits he was taking, plus how much studio time her fine arts program would require, it would be nearly impossible to make time for each other. But he’d been more melancholy than usual the week after he broke up with Izzy, refusing Avery’s attempts to cheer him up before she left for orientation.

Avery looked across the Formica table, sizing up the man who had been her best friend since they both tried to get out of freshman PE five minutes into dodgeball by claiming menstrual cramps and a “possibly torn ACL,” respectively. He looked worried, and she didn’t like that. “What’s the matter?”

Theo looked out the window, but it was so dark out she could see only his reflection. He really was handsome in a sort of brooding way, she had to admit. She didn’t remember noticing that before. “I don’t want her to transfer just for me. Which sounds conceited as hell, I know,” he said, forestalling her interruption with a wry grin. “But she told Tommy, since I’m single, maybe we could fix things—get back together.”

Avery idly nudged some spilled salt crystals around on the table, arranging them into a line for no particular reason. “Isn’t that good? You only broke up because of the distance.” Theo didn’t respond, and she pursed her lips. “Didn’t you?”

“I dunno,” he said and picked at a chip in the table with his thumbnail. “Distance was part of it, but I don’t know if I want to get back together anymore. Except telling her that—it would hurt Izzy so much, and I don’t want to do that. But I also don’t want her to move back here just for me, you know? I can’t give her false hope.”

Avery didn’t like the look on Theo’s face, half wistful and half sad. “So don’t,” she said matter-of-factly.

“And how will I manage that?”

“Make it impossible to get back with her, so if she does transfer it won’t be for you. If she’s asking around to see if you’re single, just tell her you have a new girlfriend.”

“A new girlfriend Tommy doesn’t know about? She’ll figure out that’s a lie in a second.”

Avery sank back in the booth. Theo was right. Tommy was their high school’s biggest gossip and Theo’s closest friend after her. If Theo were dating someone—or even just thinking about dating someone—Tommy would know. “Unless . . .” she said, thinking out loud.

“Unless what?”

“Unless whoever you’re dating is someone you wouldn’t want Tommy to know about.”

“Who wouldn’t I want him to know about?”

An idea hit her like a bolt of lightning and she sat up straight. “Me.”