I can’t help but think of all of the other ways he never listened to me, never cared. All the times I didn’t say anything because more than anything I wanted him to want me. I wanted to belong—with him, with his family. I pull out my phone and I start typing. I’ve thought of a million different things I could say to Zander to tell him how shitty he made me feel sometimes, but at this moment I can’t stop myself. So I tell him about the cologne. I tell him that it’s in his closet, hidden behind the boxes of comic books he pulls out every summer when his mom has a garage sale and he debates selling them. I don’t know why I’m suddenly so mad about Zander. Maybe because it feels like I wasted so much time being that, when I could have been this.

I don’t care if you wear it now, I type.

As I’m about to hit send, Aiden’s voice distracts me. “Who are you texting?”

Duh, Olivia. Hot guy. On the beach. Put your phone away. I click send and slip my phone back into my shorts pocket. It feels good, like I’ve taken another step toward closure. It also feels like nothing. The feel of the cool air brushing across my hot face overshadows everything else. It’s all I can feel, all I want to feel. Except for maybe Aiden’s lips. So I lean over, and I do what I’m thinking about. Because I’ve waited long enough for this, and now I don’t have any time to waste.

Ellis decides if we won’t come to him, he’ll come to us. The number of bottles between me and Aiden has doubled, and so has the number of bodies in the sand.

“Stars are kind of underwhelming,” Ellis says from where he’s wedged in between me and Aiden. Jaz is on the other side of me. We have miles of deserted beach and all four of us are squished into this tiny square of sand, body-to-body. “Don’t you think? I mean … I don’t get the appeal. They’re just … so far away.”

I laugh. Only Ellis would be underwhelmed by a celestial wonder that took billions of years to form.

“Hell. No.” Jaz twists next to me, like she’s trying to see Ellis over me, and she sounds personally affronted. “Stars are crazy romantic. Like, show-me-a-sky-full-of-stars-and-I’m-taking-my-shirt-off levels of romantic.”

We all laugh, and I half expect Jaz to start stripping down, but she just lies back down and lets out an exasperated sigh.