RJ shrugged. “No. Why? Do you need a date for something, Scar?”

Was he...offering? I thought about his burner phones. And the fact that he’d hacked the cameras in my apartment. And that he was taller than me. And that he wouldn’t stop calling me baby doll. He was definitely a little pervert. Oh my God. No. Noooo. He couldn’t possibly have kissed me. Right? Gah! What was happening?

“No, we’re just curious,” Sophie said.

“I’ll keep my ears open,” he said.

“Atta boy.”

“RJ,” Axel said as he finally looked up from his phone. He slid it into the inside pocket of his blazer. And it seemed to be the only one in there. No secret burner phones in sight. “That kind of violates bro code.”

I was barely paying attention to what he was saying. There was no burner phone on Axel. But apparently RJ had a ton of them. And I was too busy panicking about the fact that RJ might have kissed me. And then texted me very forward things? But there was no way my actual cousin had kissed me, right? Or had he heard about Phase Incest somehow and taken everything too far? RJ always took things too far...

“So you’re saying someone has mentioned having the hots for Scar?” asked Sophie.

“Bro code,” Axel repeated.

Jacob shrugged. “My abuelo always says that bro code means hoes before bros.”

I laughed. “There’s no way Mr. Tanner says that.”

Jacob laughed. “Actually he does.”

“Well, he’s wrong,” Axel said. “Obviously.”

Jacob didn’t agree or disagree.

Sophie leaned in to whisper to me. “Someone has definitely said they have a crush on you in the locker room. Or more accurately they said they wanted to bang you. It is a locker room after all.”

I knew my face was scarlet.

***

Sophie laughed when I told her my theory about RJ. “Why would you want RJ to be your kiss thief, weirdo?”

“I didn’t say I wanted it! I just asked...what if?”

She laughed even harder. “Could you even imagine? You having the hots for your little cousin?”

“It’s not funny. And I don’t. I didn’t say anything about my feelings toward him.”

“And what are your feelings toward my brother?”

I shouldn’t have voiced my fears out loud. I ignored her as we walked toward the stadium.

But she just kept giggling.

“Sophie, I don’t have the hots for my cousin.”

“Um...false. You have the hots for both Axel and Jacob.”

“They’re not my cousins.”

“They’re practically your cousins. Who’s to say you didn’t take the leap to your blood cousin?”

“He’s 14.”

“I know, you’re totally robbing the cradle.” She was laughing so hard now that tears were starting to roll down her cheeks.

“I’m not robbing anything.”