“Okey-doke,” I said like a dork. “See you around.” Which was worse. I hurried out to the parking lot, unfolding Brody’s shades and slipping them on as I went.

“Hey,” Brody called behind me, but I’d had enough. I needed to get over my obsession with him. Spending time with him wouldn’t help. The more I knew about him, the more I realized he was not the guy of my dreams.

He was better.

And he wasn’t mine.

8

I CROSSED THE PARKING LOT, less steamy now that the sun had relented. As I walked, I felt strangely taller, with bigger breasts. I returned my camera to the trunk of Granddad’s car, then pulled out my second cooler full of water bottles and lugged it toward the beach.

Along the path, I stopped short and set the cooler down when I saw Will. He lay with his knees bent on a concrete bench that wasn’t long enough for him. His body was dappled in shade from the palm trees and scraggly vines that liked to grow in sand. Where the sun found a way through the foliage to him, his skin glowed with sweat. The dog lay beside him. Presumably she would have gone for help if she’d smelled death. But Will was so still.

“Are you okay?” I asked, alarmed.

He opened one eye to peer at me over his shades. “Yeah, just hot.” He eased up to sitting, his stomach muscles bunching into hard knots. Like Brody, this boy knew his way around a sit-up.

I refrained from commenting, I’ll say.

He asked, “Does your eye feel better?”

“I’d forgotten about my eye,” I said truthfully, “so it must be okay.” Actually, now that he mentioned it, it still stung a little when I blinked.

He asked, “How about the rest of you? Kennedy said he found you and Brody taking your Superlatives picture at the pavilion.”

“Was he mad?” I asked quickly.

“He didn’t sound particularly mad,” Will said. “I just wondered, because you were gone a long time. And I know how being voted something like Perfect Couple can mess with your head.”

With a sigh, I sat down beside him and handed him a thermos of water from the cooler, my head spinning all the while about what to say. I was so confused. My lips still tingled from kissing Brody, and a fresh chill washed over me every time I thought about what had happened. Will had become good enough friends with Brody that he might be able to give me some insight—if I could phrase the question in a way that didn’t expose me as Brody’s wannabe girlfriend.

I asked, “Did you know Brody got knocked out in football practice?” Brody had said his mom would make him quit if he got another concussion. That was the secret. The fact that he’d gotten hurt in the first place was public knowledge. But I hadn’t heard this until he told me, and I felt offended that the public had been keeping me in the dark.

Will was in the process of swallowing half the thermos of water in one long pull. Still drinking, he opened one eye and gave me a small nod. He wiped the wet bottle across his forehead. “Before school started, right?”

“Yes.”

“But he was okay.”

“I guess. Football players may be used to that kind of thing, but as a non–football player, I’m shocked that people get knocked out, the doctor okays them to play, and they’re back at practice the next day. Aren’t you?”

“No,” Will said, “I play hockey. So, you’re worried about Brody?”

“I’m more surprised that the class voted Brody and me Perfect Couple and then nobody thinks to tell me that my phantom boyfriend got knocked unconscious in football practice.”

Will’s brows knit behind his sunglasses. “That happened at least a week before the election.”

“Yeah.” I supposed I was just fishing for Will to confirm some connection between Brody and me that wasn’t even there. “Who did you vote for?”

“Nobody,” he said. “The election was the first day of school. I couldn’t remember anybody’s last name except Tia’s. And, of course, Sawyer had made an impression by then too.”

Of course. “Well, knowing us a little better now, would you put Brody and me together?”

“The way you look and act at school, no. But I’ll say this. Brody likes pretty girls. Today, you definitely fit into that category. Not that you weren’t pretty before, but now, wow. I don’t want to get in trouble with my girlfriend, but you look beautiful.”

“That’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me, Will.”

“You’re not hanging around the right people.”

“Okay.” I laughed.

“Seriously, you’re not. I think you and I are a lot alike. You’re good at school. You get used to praise from teachers and your parents about your academics. Sometimes you forget about the rest of your life.”

I took a long drink from my own thermos of water. “Yeah.”

“Then you get elected Perfect Couple, and you realize that other people see you as something more than a walking, talking brain. Or, something different. That’s how I felt when I was voted Biggest Flirt. I mean, hello? I was so worried about what my parents would think. I wanted a title that said ‘Achievement.’ ” He spanned his hands in front of us, like framing his title in lights on a movie marquee. “Not . . . I don’t know.”

I framed my own movie title. “ ‘Social Life.’ ”

“Yeah. I wasn’t known for that at my old school. So I understand if you’re kind of . . .” He trailed off, afraid of offending me.