“We could just start over.” He lets me go, but I can still feel the ghost of his hands on my hips. “Pretend last night never happened.”

We could. We really could. If I could just move past the unnerving certainty that something has changed between us. If I could just trust him without proof, one way or another. But I can’t. Because what if I’m right? What if he cheated on me and everyone knows it? What if they’re all talking about me behind my back? Again?

I have to know.

“I can’t.”

I can’t trust that he’s telling me the truth, but I can’t trust that I’ll be able to resist him either. Not while he’s standing so close.

“I’m sorry about your car. Really.” Then I turn and run for the building, my backpack bouncing against my spine, because as much fun as breaking into Jake’s car and almost getting arrested has been, this is the end of my semiofficial skip day.

While today’s seventh period French test is open-dictionary, the makeup exam will not be. So I don’t dare miss it.

I head into the gym through the double doors and pass the closed snack bar in the lobby on my way onto the basketball court, which is deserted, because the PE classes have been given a week-long reprieve in study hall to accommodate the “update” of the girls’ locker room. I’m halfway across the gym when a group of guys comes in from the other direction, headed for the boys’ locker room.

Basketball players. Jake’s friends. They’re laughing, and I wonder if they know we broke up. That I took most of the day off so I wouldn’t have to see anyone.

I still don’t want to see anyone, so I veer to the right and duck into the girls’ locker room, hoping they haven’t spotted me.

The heavy door squeals as it swings shut behind me, the rusty hinges having obviously been overlooked in the renovation. I haven’t been in here since freshman year, when I took my mandatory PE class, and the sweaty, mildewy odor I remember has been temporarily overshadowed by the sharp scent of fresh paint—a caustic smell that swells my sinuses shut and triggers a pounding deep in my head.

No one’s supposed to be in here for another two days, while the paint fumes dissipate, but I’m not going back out there until I’m sure Jake isn’t in the gym telling his friends that I broke into his car. That I almost got arrested.

That I’ve lost my mind.