Chapter One
Mai
“If I start taking off my clothes, stop me.”
Josie pauses with her hand on the doorknob of Jason’s house. Through the heavy wood door, I can hear the thrum of music and the loud chatter and laughter of our graduation party in progress. A rager. I think that’s the correct terminology. I’ve never been to one myself.
“Are you planning to take off your clothes?” Josie looks over my outfit. Crisp, sleeveless black button-down tunic with satin trim. Black leggings. Gray booties.
“No, but I’ve never had alcohol before.”
“How much are you planning to drink?”
Jason’s party is officially alcohol-free, but that won’t stop kids from bringing it in. Apparently, the students of Cholla High, while not known for high test scores, are geniuses at sneaking in booze.
“Enough to feel it,” I say, “but not enough to kill any brain cells. I need them all for college.”
“I’m pretty sure you’d have to kill a lot of brain cells before you started peeling off clothes.” Josie wipes at the corner of my mouth. “Lipstick.”
She pins me with a suspicious look. I never wear makeup, not even lipstick. With one exception. Her gaze says she knows that, and she’s wondering why I’m wearing it tonight. I bought the lipstick this past semester during a momentary blip of recklessness. How else to explain it?
Explain him. Anthony Adams.
“It’s in honor of graduation. That’s all.” Josie Walters, Best Friend in the Knowable World, was against my crush from the start. Of course, she hated baseball players with a passion. Now she’s madly in love with one.
She pushes open the door. Memories greet me along with a wall of sound. We were here two months ago to watch a baseball game. But really it was so I could stalk my crush.
“I’m not getting drunk, either,” Josie says. “I’m grossed out by the idea of vomit in my hair.”
“So we agree. No undressing and no puking.”
“We could stand on a table, though,” she says brightly. “Do a sexy dance.”
“Do we know any sexy dances?”
I’m distracted when someone screams my name. “Josie! Mai!”
It’s Cooper Davies. He holds up a hand for a high five. Josie smacks it, and then it’s my turn. Cooper is a Cholla High baseball player and someone I shouldn’t know.
“You were awesome today,” he tells me.
“She was, wasn’t she?” Josie agrees.
I shrug. “It was nothing. A few words I threw together.” Only Josie knows how worried I was over giving the valedictorian speech—how much time I spent writing and rewriting it. But in the end, it was a call to action: get off your butt and do something with your life. A message I needed to be reminded of. “You shaved the scruff off your chin,” I say.
Cooper runs fingers over his smooth jaw. “It was time.”
“It was past time,” I correct with a grin. “The beard was truly hideous.”
He’s grinning back when a second shout splits my eardrums. “My Mai!”
Tucker Lewis. Another baseball player who has somehow become a friend. I roll my eyes. I should slug him for that greeting, but it’s my parents’ fault for naming me Maya. It’s not a terrible name, and it commemorates the month of May when they adopted me. But everyone shortens my name to Mai, which sounds like My. I’ve been hearing the My Mai jokes since fourth grade. “Hello, Tucker.”
He holds up a fist.
“Do we have to punch hands? I’m wearing a ring tonight, and it’ll sting.”
He laughs and gives me and Josie hugs.
“You rocked it today,” he says. “Did us proud.”
I wave off the praise, but I secretly love it. “Did you actually listen to my speech?”
“Are you going to test me?”
“Yes. What was the best part?”
“The end?” He raises his eyebrows and laughs as Cooper high fives him. With their curly brown hair and constant smiles, the two could be brothers. “Kidding,” Tucker says. “It was good. I listened. I told my whole family we’re buds. Me and the smartest kid at Cholla. What are the chances?”
“Mathematically? A number less than zero.”
His eyes widen dramatically. “They make numbers less than zero?”
“Oh, child.” I shake my head as Tucker laughs again. The most improbable part is that it all started because of me. None of us would be talking to each other now if not for a game of pool chicken and the hottest set of biceps I’ve ever seen.
Biceps that I wisely broke it off with weeks ago.
“You wore your ugly shoes!”
Garrett Reeves appears in all his blond-haired, blue-eyed beauty and points a cheesy finger gun at Josie. She tries to hold back a smile, but it’s a weak effort. She is indeed wearing the ugliest pair of clunky, rubber-soled sandals ever. Garrett seems to have a thing for them. Frankly, I don’t get it. But it’s hard not to smile at the gooey looks they exchange.
He wraps his arms around Josie’s waist and lands a kiss near her ear.
Tucker and Cooper cry, “Dude!” and “G!” as if they didn’t just see him at the ceremony two hours ago. There’s laughing and bro hugs, which include chest thumping and fist bumps to the back.
I lean closer to Josie. “Guys are very strange. They say hello by smashing their chests together.”
“Girls should try it,” a new voice chimes in. “Equality and all.”
And here he is.
My breath hitches for just a second. Mr. Biceps in the flesh.
Anthony Adams appears by my side, smile flashing, brown eyes teasing. His dark hair is a tangle of messy waves, much too long…and even softer than it looks. My fingers twitch in memory. I still can’t believe I tugged that hair to bring those lips closer.
Oh Lord.
I blink away the thoughts and the past. Anthony was my first crush—and so completely wrong for me I still can’t believe I stalked him around school. He checked absolutely no boxes on my list of Necessary Qualities in a Boyfriend. And I still went weak in the knees every time he flashed his dimple. It never made sense—as Josie kept reminding me. But it was a crush. Crushes aren’t sensible. They’re meant to be a little wild and a lot of fun. And that’s what it was.
Right up until I came to my senses. It’s been over now for more weeks than it lasted, and thankfully, Anthony and I are on friendly terms.