BooksBarbecue
Back Admission
Chapters (56)
  1. Cover
  2. Also by Julie Buxbaum
  3. Dedication
  4. Epigraph
  5. CHAPTER ONE
  6. CHAPTER TWO
  7. CHAPTER THREE
  8. CHAPTER FOUR
  9. CHAPTER FIVE
  10. CHAPTER SIX
  11. CHAPTER SEVEN
  12. CHAPTER EIGHT
  13. CHAPTER NINE
  14. CHAPTER TEN
  15. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  16. CHAPTER TWELVE
  17. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  18. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  19. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  20. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  21. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  22. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  23. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  24. CHAPTER TWENTY
  25. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  26. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  33. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  34. CHAPTER THIRTY
  35. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  36. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  37. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  42. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  43. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
  44. CHAPTER FORTY
  45. CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
  46. CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
  47. CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
  48. CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
  49. CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
  50. CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
  51. CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
  52. EPILOGUE
  53. AUTHOR’S NOTE
  54. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  55. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  56. What’s next onyour reading list?

PhinnyB: I’m so scared. I can’t go to jail

Me: I’m scared too

TheIgster: Me too

ALC: Me too

PrettyPen: You guys are pussies. There are six production companies who want my film rights. Just you watch, this will be the best thing that’s ever happened to us

Slyse: Can we drop Penny from this group text?

TheIgster: Done

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Then

On Saturday night, my parents head out to some charity auction, Isla sleeps over at a friend’s house, and so for the first time since our shift in status, Levi and I will be alone, indoors, possibly in a room with a bed. When I swing open the front door, he’s leaning against the wall, fresh from the shower, so handsome it makes my soul ache and my insides quiver.

We have plans to “watch a movie,” and so I lead him downstairs to the screening room. I figure this is the way to go, not directly up to my bedroom, which seems too forward, especially because I don’t know what I want to happen tonight. With his hand in mine, me leading him like I know where we’re going, this seems naive and I feel overwhelmed, which is how I feel all the time lately. Like I’m constantly living that recurring dream I have where it’s finals week and I’ve forgotten to go to math class all year.

“Don’t worry. Levi’s totally a virgin,” Shola said yesterday when we were eating Friday tacos, which is what we do every week and is exactly what it sounds like. Eating tacos on a Friday, not tacos made out of Fridays, which Shola has posited would be totally better: Imagine if we could package the feeling of Friday last bell into a taste? We’d be gazillionaires. “Based on national statistics and popular belief, teenagers have way less sex than pop culture suggests. Also, Levi has no time to get it on. He’s too busy trying to take my spot at Harvard.”

“You’re both getting into Harvard.”

“He’s a legacy, he’s president of our class, he’s on the tennis team, and he fences, which my parents wouldn’t even let me try because the gear is like crazy expensive, and he obviously doesn’t need financial aid, so he can apply early. You know what’s messed up? Levi probably thinks I’m trying to take his spot.”

“You’re both getting in,” I said.

“This is a zero-sum game. There are only so many spaces, and most of them are reserved for full-paying kids like Levi, again contrary to popular belief.”

“Popular belief seems to be very unreliable.”