For a brief moment, my heart flutters with hope. Could I actually get Dominic back? Have this just be a quick blip of shit and get our Love Shot List back on track? But as soon as I think of D and Miguel together, my heart goes crashing down. They’re the couple that everyone’s talking about at school. No matter where I go in Shoreline, I’m always hearing people whisper about Miguel and Dominic, how they’re so cute together, how they’ll probably even be elected prom kings together.

“I don’t think it’s going to be that easy,” I say. “He’s already jumped headfirst into his new relationship, and people are eating it up. Dominic loves the spotlight. He puts a lot of stock into what other people think of him.”

“He sounds a bit like a blow—I mean—asshole, if you ask me.”

My stomach turns. The problem is, even though he left me out of nowhere, I don’t think D is an asshole. He cut me out like some deleted scene of his life, but that doesn’t erase any of the good times we had together. Like the day we first met. I was just coming in from bodysurfing with a few of the guys from the swim team when he waved me over and called, “Sean Nessan?” I was in a wet suit, trying not to get too worked up about the cute guy calling my name. There is nothing more uncomfortable than a hard-on in a wet suit.

“Hey, handsome,” I said, coming across way cooler than I felt.

Dominic smiled and rubbed the back of his neck. It was so cute seeing his nervous tic for the first time. “I’m Dominic,” he said. “Aaron told me to come out here and meet you. Thought we’d hit it off. He says you’re really sweet.”

I was sort of shaken at first that he would just come right out and say that he was there with the intention of seeing if sparks would fly. There was no “Is this or isn’t this flirting?” moment, just, “Are we a good fit or not?” From there we got to texting every day, then by the end of my next swim meet, we were making out in the parking lot in his Jeep Wrangler.