“You remember that?” We’d exchanged schedules for like a half a second last week.

He winked. “I have a frightening memory for things that are virtually useless to me.”

I laughed. “Good to know.”

“So did you skip already? You bad, bad girl.”

Wincing, I shook my head. “Yes, but I was running late, and I hate going into a classroom after class starts, so I guess my first day will be Wednesday if I don’t drop it before then.”

“Drop it? Girl, don’t be stupid. Astronomy is a cake class. I would’ve taken it if it hadn’t filled up in two seconds flat when all the damn upperclassman took the class.”

“Well, you didn’t nearly kill a guy in a hallway racing to class—a guy who happens to also be in said cake class.”

“What?” His dark eyes widened with interest and he started to kneel down. Someone caught his attention. “Hold on a sec, Avery.” Then he started waving his arm and jumping. “Yo! Brittany. Get your ass over here!”

A short blonde girl jerked to a stop in the middle of the hall and turned toward us, her cheeks flushing, but she smiled as she saw Jacob hopping around. She cut her way over, stopping in front of us.

“Brittany, this is Avery.” Jacob beamed. “Avery, this is Brittany. Say hi.”

“Hi,” Brittany said, giving me a little wave.

I waved back. “Hey.”

“Avery is about to tell us how she almost killed a guy in a hallway. Thought you’d like to hear the story too.”

I winced, but the spark of interest in Brittany’s brown eyes was kind of funny as she looked at me. “Do tell,” she said, smiling.

“Well, I really didn’t almost kill someone,” I said, sighing. “But it was close and it was so, so embarrassing.”

“Embarrassing stories are the best,” Jacob threw out, kneeling down.

Brittany laughed. “That is true.”

“Spill it, sister.”

I tucked my hair back and lowered my voice so the whole hall didn’t revel in my humiliation. “I was running late to astronomy and I sort of ran through the double doors on the second floor. I wasn’t watching where I was going and I plowed into this poor guy in the hallway.”

“Yikes.” A sympathetic looked crossed Brittany’s face.

“Yeah, and I mean, I almost knocked him over. I dropped my stuff. Books and pens flew everywhere. It was pretty epic.”

Jacob’s eyes gleamed with humor. “Was he hot?”

“What?”

“Was he hot?” he repeated as he smoothed a hand through his cropped hair. “‘Cuz if he was hot, you should’ve used it to your benefit. That could’ve become the best ice breaker in history. Like you two could fall madly in love and you get to tell everyone how you plowed him before he actually plowed you.”

“Oh, my God.” I felt a familiar heat cross my cheeks. “Yeah, he was really good-looking.”

“Oh no,” said Brittany, who seemed to be the only other person to recognize how a hot guy made the situation all the more embarrassing. I guess you needed a vagina to understand that, because Jacob looked even more thrilled by the news.