“I feel fine,” I sulked. He probably thought I was having my period and needed to be examined by a woman. Men. I hated all of them today.

We were studying the Spanish flu outbreak during World War I, which was, honestly, not a super upbeat topic. Not helping my mood. And I noticed Annabelle scooting farther away from me, so it was obviously giving her Covid paranoia too.

I wanted to get out of here. It would be easy enough to fake being sick, but between classes I realized I didn’t have my phone, and I couldn’t call my mom. I went to meet up with Ben by our lockers, where we normally did, so I could call Mom from his phone, but he wasn’t there. Maybe he was avoiding me. Maybe I was being paranoid. Then something hit me: You’re going to miss Merit. That’s what Ben had said. I gasped, standing there in the hallway. He had seen me kiss Merit. That was why he was so mad. He thought Merit and I were a thing now. The simplest thing would be to tell him the truth, that I’d had a crush on Merit and he had rejected me. But, come on, Men 101. They don’t want you when they think no one else wants you.

I had to get to the third floor, where Merit’s next class was. I couldn’t be in love with him anymore, but he could still drive me around. Or maybe I could be in love with him as long as I was honest with myself that he would never love me back? I had a friend in New York who was determined she was going to turn this guy straight, but that didn’t seem to work really well, so I was going to let that be. Merit and I were friends. And housemates. And he was my chauffeur. And that was it.

I was super out of breath by the time I ran up a couple of flights of stairs to find him. “Merit,” I gasped. “I need you to take me home.” I took a deep breath.

“Now?”

“Yes. Now.”

He shook his head. “Um, no.”

“Please?” I whined. “I’m having a bad day, and I want to get out of here.” The look on his face told me that wasn’t compelling enough. “I thought you loved me, and we were best friends and mommune siblings.”

He rolled his eyes. “I punched a judge for you, Iris. I’ve done my part.”

I glared at him. “Merit, I’m trying to put my family back together. I would think if anyone in the world would understand that, it would be you.”

“I care about your family, Iris, but I have mandatory football practice. If I get caught skipping school I can’t go, and then I can’t play on Friday.”